Australian Mooter takes on Google Options

[sanity]

http://news.zdnet.co.uk/business/0,3902064...39117255,00.htm

Sounds interesting but unfortunately I've not been able to get onto it yet....

[Brad]

It does sound interesting. After a long wait I just got "Document contains no data." Maybe they don't like Mozilla or they are just overloaded.

I'd love to know who is providing the database and who will be providing the PPC advertising. Any word?

[sanity]

I've finally got on and it's certainly looks interesting. Keep trying Brad - I gather they weren't prepared for so much interest so soon.

I'd love to know who is providing the database and who will be providing the PPC advertising. Any word?

As yet no. Would love to know.

[Jean_Manco]

I'd love to know who is providing the database

According to http://www.mooter.com/corp/

Mooter was designed as a meta-search.

It looks like a cross between Vivísimo and Kartoo, both of which I like, but I confess I still use Google most of the time.

[bragadocchio]

I'm going to approach this with a little hesitation.

My expectation, after reading these two articles was for something a little more impressive looking:

The Herald Sun's: Search Engine Revs up

and

B and T's: New Search Engine Eyes Google

And, I was having difficulty guessing the address for Mooter, expecting it to end in "au". Thanks for posting the address, Jean.

I hate to say this, but the thing that sticks out the most on that page is that the simple logo there is 81K, and should probably be a gif rather than a jpg.

Can something that simple can be that telling?

[sanity]

Thanks for the info Jean.

Good points Bill. 81k is not acceptable. Heck neither is 20k. The results pages are very busy and I notice a number of the boxes overlap eachother.

From a content perspective how have you found the results?

[bragadocchio]

I don't know, Sophie.

I would have to get some results to be able to tell you that. I attempted a couple of searches and saw "server not found" messages after a bit of a wait. That may be a result of the service being beta.


I'll have to try again when most of Australia is asleep.

"Moot" is an odd word for a task or endeavor of any type. There's a button label "Moot Quicker" which reminds me of the "I feel lucky" button.

In the US, "moot" means that something has already been done, and that there is no need to go through the motions and attempt it again. I hope that's not true of the search engine, too.

[sanity]

Yes I must say I found Mooter odd - kinda imitating Yahoo and Google. Moot has similar connotations here Bill. Moot point etc.

I can get on ok but it's terribly slow to bring back results.

Personally I think it's always better to hold off a launch until something is spot on than introduce it early. Once you loose someone's attention it's pretty hard to get it back.

[DianeV]

I dunno, I found it fast (but I'm on cable -- but from the U.S.).

Not only that, but the search results returned a map of various terms -- related to my original search -- to allow me select what I really wanted. That's different.

The logo is a 150ppi jpeg. Easily handled.

[person]

Seems like Mooter registered mooter.com and mooter.org but they let someone hijack mooter.net?

(I could be wrong though, cause I just checked the whois casually and didnt investigate into it)

As for the results, it returned one result of my name which I have never ever seen in any other search engines before and never even knew that page existed.

lots of potential, but they really need to work on the aesthetics. (shouldn't be their piority at this beta point, so i guess its understandable.)

[Liesl]

Hi I'm the MOOTER CEO.
Thanks for noticing us so quickly. We didn't get everything perfect, but figured we had to go live to figure it out. We got taken up by the Australian press a bit harder than we imagined, and have had much more traffic than expected. so apologies for the bugs! We do a fair bit of conceptual processing behind the clusters, and also do some dynamic personalization which is virtually invisible. am open to (most!) Q's.

[Eddie]

On a 500k cable connection from the UK the site loaded as quickly as this one did. Tried 3 searches and they all came out with good results, but I would rather see the results come before the clusters.

[bragadocchio]

Hi Liesl,

Welcome to the forums and thanks for dropping in.

I'm really glad that you've joined us here and hope that you can share a little more with us about Mooter.

Good to have you aboard.

It sounds like there's lots of excitement over Mooter in Australia. Any idea on a timetable for when Mooter might come off beta status?

[Liesl]

Eddie to get a more usual SERP page go 'moot quicker' (cookie for repeat visitors only). Also, the 'all results' page give a more usual SERP.

when out of beta?? ha ha, depends what time of day (or night) you talk to us! I think I remeber reading that google kept it up for nearly a year, wisenut was a few months. we are listening hard and tring to iron out the clumsy kinks before we take the beta off.

[Liesl]

bad spelling last message. lack of sleep! nearly midnight here

[James]

Hmmm, it sounds like a great idea, but I'm frustrated with the page load times and the fact that the home page link simply doesn't work. Would love to do a search but am not sure how or whether I can!

Hopefully Lee will be back to explain what we need to do to use this revolutionary search engine.
Regards,
James

[Liesl]

we are making constant changes while in beta, now that we have the vigorous and interesting live feedback. Some require few secs downtime, usually try do it when aussies are sleeping! So my guess is you went on then??
I am travelling to London and USA next 2 weeks so may not be able to get online much

[nickc]

Both Mooter and Kartoo look interesting but I doubt they will impact much on Google which I use all the time now.

Nick

[sanity]

Both Mooter and Kartoo look interesting but I doubt they will impact much on Google which I use all the time now.

Agreed. When they're launched I have a bit of a dabble but then switch back. It's like the old politican story - you don't vote the opposition in you vote the incumbent out.

[bragadocchio]

I think I remeber reading that google kept it up for nearly a year, wisenut was a few months. we are listening hard and tring to iron out the clumsy kinks before we take the beta off.

Google did seem like a leap forward, even though it had that beta tag upon it. I guess that had to do with the search landscape at the time.

Kartoo has been around for a good while now. I perceive it more as a novelty than a search tool.

Could Mooter rival Google? I'd like to know more about the psychology behind the results. Hopefully we'll learn a little of it.