SPH Search vs Google?
I read with interest an article in The Straits Times. It was about SPH Search, the much publicised but yet-to-be launched search engine that “promises to provide high relevant answers and Singapore-focused information to anyone anywhere in the world”.
I think that’s a very ambitious statement! And I really hope SPH will succeed – but it won’t be able to “supplant the big names of Google and Yahoo as the prime tool for sourcing local information”
SPH is taking on Google and Yahoo
Yes, I found this article while researching “SPH Search” on Google. And as reported by The Straits Times (which is owned by Singapore Press Holdings Ltd aka SPH): Watch Out Google, here comes SPH Search
In case, the story is removed, here’s an excerpt of the news report.
You can read from the above news report that SPH wants to be the king of search in Singapore.
Background of SPH Internet Strategy
They could have been, but they screwed up with AsiaOne.com. Four years ago, AsiaOne.com was in a very good position to become the number one local search portal. For many Singaporeans, that was the browser’s Home Page.
To cut the story short, they got greedy and wanted people to pay money for the latest news stories online. On the other side, ChannelNewsAsia.com continued to improve on their contents and provide the latest news for free so all the disgruntled readers from AsiaOne.com moved to ChannelNewsAsia.com.
Here’s the traffic ranking statistics from Alexa.com over the past 5 years:
Since the AsiaOne.com, SPH has been building more new portals, e.g. ST701.com, xin.sg, omy.sg and maybe some others which I am not aware of.
Is SPHSearch.com the domain for SPH Search?
I did a quick check and found that SPH registered sphsearch.com, sphsearch.com.sg and sphsearch.sg. Maybe one of these will be used fro the new search engine. Here’s a shortcut to all three SPH Search sites. [http://www.sph-search.com]
Well, go visit these portals and decide for yourself if SPH has what it takes to “supplant the big names of Google and Yahoo as the prime tool for sourcing local information”.
I will appreciate it if you were to leave your thoughts in the comment box.
This is the first article of a series which focuses on SPH Search. In the next post, we will discuss the technology behind SPH Search.
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November 1st, 2007 at 3:51 pm
HAHAHAAHAHHA… Supplant Google? hmmmmm… We’ll see.
November 1st, 2007 at 4:16 pm
[...] I met up with my SEO mentor two days ago over lunch and coffee and we chatted about the things going on in Singapore, and he brought up this article he read in the Straits Times, about Singapore Press Holdings coming out with a search engine to “supplant Google”! [...]
November 1st, 2007 at 5:14 pm
Hi Kian Ann,
Thank you for stopping by.
Interesting erh? SPH Search against Google!
Seriously, is anyone out there willing to bet on SPH? If SPH Search wins, the stock price will soar!
GOOG last traded at US$707.
SPH was trading at S$4.58(US$3.15).
Imagine all those investors dumping Google shares and buy up SPH!
I am so thrilled, my toes laughing!
July 17th, 2008 at 9:47 am
[...] unfair to compare Rednano to Google. But, I cannot help and remember the talk about “supplant the big names of Google and Yahoo as the prime tool for sourcing local information“. So, I must track, monitor and compare the performance of Google vs Rednano when it’s [...]
November 19th, 2008 at 12:53 pm
[...] so much for the chicken rice search, pie search and the the talk about “supplant the big names of Google and Yahoo as the prime tool for sourcing local information” as reported in the SPH owned The Straits Times on 10 Aug [...]
August 6th, 2009 at 1:50 pm
[...] Anyway, inSing.com was not intended to be a search engine, unlike Rednano which original intention was to “supplant the big names of Google and Yahoo as the prime tool for sourcing local information”. [...]