New Search Engine Tries Smarter Tricks

ByABC News
December 10, 2004, 11:11 AM

Dec. 13, 2004 &#151 -- In this week's "Cybershake," we take a look at a new search engine that purports to offer a better way to find information online. Plus, we note a new survey that reports musicians have turned the other cheek when it comes to the Net.

Web search engine sites have some pretty unique and sometimes suggestive names. First there was "Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle," better known as Yahoo! Then came Google, a play on "googol," a mathematical expression for 1 followed by 100 zeros.

But the latest Web search engine to compete against these Net name brands is not worried. Literally.

Last Monday, Accoona Corp. in Jersey City, N.J., launched its eponymous Net search engine. The name is derived from a Swahili expression, "hakuna matata" -- the "no worries" phrase popularized by "The Lion King" animated film from Walt Disney, the parent company of ABC News.

Jonathan McCann, executive director of Accoona, claims the company's online search engine will provide results that rival powerhouses such as Google because Accoona uses "artificial intelligence."

"Our [software] technology understands the meaning of words or search terms entered in [an online] query," says McCann. "We don't only return results with the exact keywords. Our [search] technology also retrieves results on the meaning of words. We take it to a much further degree [than competitors]."

For example, McCann says that if Web users typed in "antique cars" on other search engines, the resulting list of Web sites would be those that contained only those words specifically.

But on the Accoona search engine site, "We'll also find sites that may not use the word 'antique,' " says McCann. "They may use 'vintage,' they may use 'old' or something along [those] lines."

Accoona users will also be able to refine their results with so-called "super-target" search capabilities. If a user is looking for Web sites that feature "blue suede shoes," they can select which word has more importance. Choose "shoes" and sites selling footware appear higher in the results than sites about Elvis songs, for example.