It seems like the Internet still wants more search engines? Even a lot of them could be just duplicates. And of course, nowadays many just build them as a wrapper of the giants such as Google and Yahoo. As the giants’ API is now easily available for you to grab and use. The Ecocho is an Australian search engine that is built as a wrapper to both Google and Yahoo.
The Ecocho allows text search only, other searches like images, videos, music etc are not yet available. Besides, it’s got a toolbar for you to download and install, that allows you to have an easy shortcut to the Ecocho on Firefox. They carry the slogan saying that they’ll use the revenue generated by searches through them to buy carbon offsets. They say “only up to two trees” will be sponsored for every 1,000 searches on the site. They claim themselves as the “green search engine”, which is just another of those web 2.0 companies carrying the word “green” to get public attention, so many would use them for their searches.
Overall, it isn’t anything impressive, the kind of wrapper seems like fairly easy to build since the two giants are giving with full detailed information how to use their API to build your own. Of course, the revenue of this Ecocho is mainly from Adsense for Search. I don’t think there is any YPN for search? Anyway, if you like to try out, here you go, the URL www.ecocho.com.au
via [TechCrunch]
[...] Internet still needs more search engines. As I’ve mentioned before. Yes, the big three have come out with various search APIs, [...]