Swamii, new personalised search service launched

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Swamii is a new service which scans the web, blogs, television, press, shops (and more) for your interests every day and sends the results by email or on your own personalised start page. Has Google Alerts found its first true rival?

The custom-built Swamii Indexing Machine is unique in its ability to search both the online and offline worlds; users select from a variety of categories to search including newspapers, the web, jobs, peer-to-peer networks and upcoming TV shows.

Link: Swamii.com

News source: Press release

Calling the new service "simple in design but powerful in impact", Kalem Fletcher, CEO of Swamii, says:

"The problem with search engines today is that they are so highly geared towards relevance searching. That means that if I search for a topic today, then search again tomorrow, chances are I will get exactly the same results.

Isn’t it better if we get the technology to work for us in a way that is more meaningful? To work in a way that combines all aspects of our lives and delivers information that is relevant to our interests or aims - whether those updates are online or in the real world. That is why we have launched Swamii.com."

The service is free and available now at www.swamii.com. Neowinians, let's hear your thoughts.

(2 replies) #1 JoeC on 30 Nov 2006 - 08:01

Not sure about anyone else, but if I search for "English Civil War" to help me with my coursework, I'd want it to come up again the next day if I searched for "English Civil War"

I wouldn't want it to show completely different results.

That's just based on what the article says - I haven't tried it, and it doesn't sound particularly appealing, so I'll wait and see what other people think of it.

#1.1 westonb_2005 on 30 Nov 2006 - 08:28

Its not for refrence searching but for current things that are ever changing.

#1.2 Toxicfume on 30 Nov 2006 - 14:54

Exactly JoeC...I dont understand what he's trying to say. Who would want a search technology that is NOT based on relevance? Not very smart, that would be, I say. While I realize this is a "personalized search engine" .. what kind of a search site requries users to register to search?

Last edited by Toxicfume on 30 Nov 2006 - 14:59

(4 replies) #2 Rob on 30 Nov 2006 - 08:04

I've used it myself and it's actually something quite unique... my advice is to sign up and have a play. It seems to dig up the most obscure yet helpful stuff.

#2.1 +mrbester on 30 Nov 2006 - 09:49

"quite" unique? Whereabouts on a scale of 1 to 10 of "uniqueness" is that? Unique is a boolean concept.

I don't really blame you, it's the inability of the media to use English correctly that has led to this mangling. Politicians are particularly prone to the misuse.

#2.2 HawkMan on 30 Nov 2006 - 10:29

While unique itself may be a boolean as you say, it's a bit of a stoneheaded aproach so say that there is only a black and white usage of the word.

When as they have done, take two different concept(actually I it's probably more liek 3) that allready exist, Search engine, News and customizeable user pages/portals and merge them into one.

Then you have 3 different non unique concepts, but together they are unique, but not entirely so... So it's unique, but it still isn't. He could probably have used Original and inventive or any number of words but they'd all have the same issue pretty much.

#2.3 Rob on 30 Nov 2006 - 10:33

If you take a look at Dictionary.com, you can see that quite can also be used to mean "of an unusually noticable extent" as in the phrase "we've had quite an afternoon", or to mean "of the greatest extent" as in "you're quite right".

#2.4 LTD on 30 Nov 2006 - 15:05

Guys, it's either unique or it isn't. There are no degrees of unique.

You can certainly use "quite" in the sense suggested by Rob, but not with unique.

Unique does not require a modifier, nor should one be used with it.

#3 +Berserk on 30 Nov 2006 - 08:26

this is very cool, i was expecting completly randomish things with this , thinking it woudl just find adds (ie. if you put in "free" as in intrested, all free ipod ads) <----havnt tried but its an example.

i found alot of intresting things, about computers stuff.

(1 reply) #4 Jexel on 30 Nov 2006 - 08:29

Wow I just tried it and I am loving it. It actually gave me all these links and info I wasn't aware of!

Though some of the results were rather useless and pointless the overall service is rather unique and has great potential. It needs to make the description summaries better and also allow you to browse by category.

#4.1 Swamii on 30 Nov 2006 - 09:07

Hello Jexel,

Thank you for your kind comments. I would very much like to contact you to discuss your feedback. Could you please log into Swamii and goto the contact page to send us an email? (the link is on the footer)

Look forward to hearing from you - Swamii

(3 replies) #5 So-Unreal on 30 Nov 2006 - 08:39

im so sick of registering for stuff.

#5.1 Jexel on 30 Nov 2006 - 08:59

it literally takes 5 seconds to register. You don't even need to activate!

#5.2 Mike Frett on 30 Nov 2006 - 17:44

Me too. Especially when you already got two pages of crap written down you've already registered for.

#5.3 RawGutts on 01 Dec 2006 - 13:07

Yeah it's crazy, I hate registering for shi!#!, why GOD why register!!? Why can't I use the service to try out with out giving you a account to track?

(4 replies) #6 phantasmorph on 30 Nov 2006 - 09:25

Why am I getting the impression that this is less a news item and more a ~~paid~~ advertisement..?

Last edited by phantasmorph on 30 Nov 2006 - 12:14

#6.1 HawkMan on 30 Nov 2006 - 10:31

Is it new?
is it tech/computer/itnernet related ?

then yes, it's a news item.

#6.2 Rob on 30 Nov 2006 - 10:39

Heh if only Neowin DID get paid for stuff like this

I just came across the press release and thought it'd be good to share with the community, that's all.

#6.3 phantasmorph on 30 Nov 2006 - 12:13

Quote - Rob said @ #6.2

Eh, I call it like I see it. Probably shouldn't have put 'paid' in there. Just seems rather convenient to have a self-proclaimed affiliate of the site in question to be posting in this thread within an hour or so of it being posted...

I could really care less either way tbh. I'm not registering for something I know nothing about, and Google works fine enough for my needs.

#6.4 em_te on 30 Nov 2006 - 15:04

Quote - HawkMan said @ #6.1

He never said it "wasn't" a news item. He said it was "less" of a news item and "more" of an advertisement. They are not mutually exclusive. You may be more productive asking quantitative questions here.

#7 loz06 on 30 Nov 2006 - 10:06

Do i sense sour grapes?! I think its great (and have nothing 2 do with it). Isn't the point of neowin that no one gets paid??

#8 Hegs on 30 Nov 2006 - 10:16

i like it too. The design is cool - makes it wasy to see your results; and i found a tv programme thats on that i've been wanting to watch for ages in my first go; and some cool audio links for eminem (no comments on my music taste pls!

. I've tried google alerts and didn't find any of the stuff relevant - anyone know if they're using their normal search tool for it? Cause its not working for me...

#9 LOC on 30 Nov 2006 - 10:46

Wait, I get paid to do this?

Where's Neobond....

#10 Lasker on 30 Nov 2006 - 10:50

piece of **** of search... none works like google

#11 notnoisy on 30 Nov 2006 - 11:28

I tried entering "Halo 2", "Halo 3" and "Halo Wars". Swami found nothing on the first two (amazing), but 15 on Halo Wars. Problem was none of the "Halo Wars" links was about halo wars

I probably need to refine my interests

(1 reply) #12 soumyasch on 30 Nov 2006 - 11:57

Wouldn't searching for something and then subsribing to the RSS feed of the search do the same thing?

#12.1 RealFduch on 01 Dec 2006 - 10:41

Active search vs. passive search.

(1 reply) #13 loz06 on 30 Nov 2006 - 12:32

No - it wouldn't give you all the p2p stuff, TV and vid things with RSS feeds; or neccessarily the most recent stuff... Also doesn't alert u by email at times when you want. RSS is also seriously fugly

#13.1 postoasted on 30 Nov 2006 - 15:38

Quote - loz06 said @ #13

I'm sorry. I beg to differ. Google Reader kicks some serious booty as an RSS reader.

#14 rev3nant on 30 Nov 2006 - 13:05

с вами?

#15 patjan on 30 Nov 2006 - 15:26

Don't need to register to use search engine. Quite dumb for all i care. no sensible will do that.When making a seach there is no time for anyhting else th an to type the url and type ya search. WHO DARES compete with google? certainly no swamii

#16 loz06 on 30 Nov 2006 - 15:43

tis not a search engine patjan... and nor is google alerts

#17 sagy on 30 Nov 2006 - 16:33

None can compare caz I can't keep my eyes off Google

#18 QwertyManiac on 30 Nov 2006 - 17:23

What's with the 2 i's everywhere I look at?

/exits to try.

#19 SniperX on 30 Nov 2006 - 21:25

Quote -

Has Google Alerts found its first true rival

I'm never sure whether comments like these, which seem to appear almost daily in one format or another, are borne from just plain ignorance, or a banal effort to try and drum up interest.

I've lost count of the number of things that have touted as, or quizzed to be, "killers", or rivals for other products and/or services. They never are, so why bother trying to intimate it in the first place? Unless of course, you're still reciting the brick-like Zune as an iPod killer?

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