Become.com beta launched---closest Google challenger IMHO

By Tom Foremski - February 24, 2005

by Tom Foremski for SiliconValleyWatcher
I’m still fighting a cold and trying to recover from a meltdown in my Outlook (switching to Thunderbird to recover files…) but I wanted to quickly mention that Become.com is a company that has risen quite highly on my personal “watch” list.

Become.com launched its beta search engine site yesterday. This is probably the first search company I’ve come across that could very well give Google a run for its money. I met with the founders, Michael Yang and Yeogirl Yun a couple of weeks ago and came away very impressed with them and their team.


Mr. Yang and Mr. Yun founded mySimon, the shopping comparison site sold to Cnet in early 2000 for about $700m. It’s a nice round number; but it was not a sale that was in their control. This time around they want to fulfill a number of key objectives that they were not able to complete at mySimon.

Mr. Yun is a contemporary of the Google boys at Stanford U, and has built a reputation as one of the top search engine experts. He has lead the development of a way of creating a page rank that Become.com says is spam proof: it is impervious to all attempts at search engine optimization. "Don’t say that," I said, "you’ll have everyone trying to challenge your claims!"

"That’s fine," they said, confident that their Affinity Index Ranking (AIR) technology consistently produces higher quality search results than from any other search engine. Become.com’s focus is on shopping and related content such as product reviews; but that is probably just a bit of cloaking, since it can clearly be used as a very effective general purpose search engine.

I’ll have more to report on Become.com very soon; in the meantime register for the beta and test it out. Let me know what you think.
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By Tom Foremski - February 24, 2005 | Permalink | Comment | Category:
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Comments (3)

Bernice O'Slivers:

I can't believe the hype this site is getting, and I'm starting to wonder if the journalists are doing their homework.

  1. In its currrent form, the site will definitely NOT give Google a run for its money. Their search results are a slim subset of Google's Web Search results, and their listings don't seem to be more relevant to shopping than Google's. I just don't get it. This link seems very relevant.

  2. Where are the revenues in aggregating product reviews? Many companies spent a lot of time and resources assembling product review sites. Epinions, for example, made a big splash and quickly built a name for themselves in product reviews. When they realized there was no business model here, they tried to change themselves into a comparison-shopping site before their fire-sale to Dealtime (now Shopping.com). Deja tried to do something similar, but they were forced to sell their only valuable asset (the USENET archive) to Google and completely close down their cash-draining product review site. They're not with us anymore. The only real success in the space is Internet giant Productopia. Oh wait...

    3. Posted: March 20, 2005 7:23 PM

    tom foremski [TypeKey Profile Page]:

    I agree, in its current form it is not better than Google, but, it is early days and the product is in beta with plans to add a lot more to it. I am interested in Become's approach and how this will play out in the market. How does a small 24 person company take on Google? That's an interesting story to watch.

    Froogle has been improved with extra ways to search, etc, but, I still find it hard work finding what I want. Become.com is not trying to be a better Google, but better than Froogle, a much lower bar I think and an attainable goal.

    Posted: March 21, 2005 7:52 AM

    Bernice O'Slivers:

    Thanks for the response, Tom.

    I don't think that Become.com is targeting Froogle with their product. While they are both in the realm of shopping, Become's primary focus is not enabling a Froogle-like comparison of products and prices across online stores. Their Beta site and the repurposed press releases that I've read all describe this startup as aggregating editorial product reviews, hence my comparisons to Epinions and others. For example, is it possible to buy a product from one of Become.com's content providers? This has huge impact on their business model. Comparison shopping is lucrative precisely because it's directly between the consumer and a store. By comparison, product reviews are not lucrative.

    Sure, the "David vs. Goliath" story is compelling, but it least make sure your David doesn't smell like poo before you declare him promising or even interesting. I still can't believe the hype this site is getting, but I'm going to take a shower-- I feel dirty.

    Posted: March 21, 2005 10:15 PM