Blekko
{{short description|Web search engine}}
{{lowercase}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=September 2013}}
{{Infobox website
| name = blekko.com
| logo = File:Blekko Logo.svg
| screenshot = Blekko Screenshot.png
| screenshot_size = 220px
| caption = Blekko home page
| url = {{URL|https://www.blekko.com }}
| commercial =
| type = Search engine
| language = English
| registration =
| owner = IBM (International Business Machines)
| launch_date = November 1, 2010
| current_status = Defunct (March 27, 2015)
| revenue =
}}
Blekko (trademarked as blekko) was a company that provided a web search engine with the stated goal of providing better search results than those offered by Google Search, with results gathered from a set of 3 billion trusted webpages and excluding such sites as content farms. The company's site, launched to the public on November 1, 2010, used slashtags to provide results for common searches. Blekko also offered a downloadable search bar. It was acquired by IBM in March 2015, and the service was discontinued.
Slashtags
Blekko used an initiative called slashtags,{{cite web |url=http://blekko.com/ws/+/about |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101111232251/http://blekko.com/ws/+/about |url-status=dead |archive-date=November 11, 2010 |title=About |publisher=blekko.com |access-date=December 18, 2011 }} consisting of a text tag preceded by a "/" slash character, to allow ease of searching and categorise searches. System and pre-defined slashtags allowed users to start searching right away. Users could create slashtags after signup, to perform custom-sorted searches and to reduce spam.Miller, Claire Cain. [https://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/01/technology/01search.html "A New Search Engine, Where Less Is More"]. The New York Times, October 31, 2010. Accessed October 31, 2010.
Features
The following features were available to all users:
{{div col}}
- Search engine optimization statistics. From 2012 subject to payment.{{cite web|title=Blekko Paywall Their /SEO Secrets|date=August 14, 2012|first=Roger|last=Keays|publisher=SunburntSEO.com|url=http://sunburntseo.com/blekko-paywall-their-seo-secrets|access-date=August 15, 2012}}
- Linking pages (in and out statistics)
- IP address lookup
- Cached pages
- Tagging of pages
- Finding duplicate content
- Comparing sites
- Crawl statistics
- Page count
- Location of robots.txt
- Cohosted sites
- Page latency
- Page length
{{div col end}}
Toolbar
Blekko offered a downloadable browser toolbar or search bar which changes default search and home page URLs of the user's web browsers.{{cite web |url=http://help.blekko.com/index.php/i-downloaded-the-toolbar-and-some-settings-changed-on-my-ie-browser-how-do-i-change-them-back/ |last=Watson |first=Cheralyn |title=How do I remove blekko as my homepage and default search engine in Internet Explorer (IE)? |date=January 12, 2012 |publisher=help.blekko.com |access-date=April 10, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120420214739/http://help.blekko.com/index.php/i-downloaded-the-toolbar-and-some-settings-changed-on-my-ie-browser-how-do-i-change-them-back/ |archive-date=April 20, 2012 |df=mdy-all }}
Reception
In 2010, John Dvorak described the site as adding "so much weird dimensionality" to search, and recommended it as "the best out-of-the-chute new engine I've seen in the last 10 years".Dvorak, John C. [https://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2371864,00.asp "Blekko: The Newest Search Engine"], PC Magazine, November 1, 2010. Accessed November 1, 2010. In Matthew Rogers' review of the site, he found it "slow and cumbersome", and stated that he did not understand the necessity or utility for slashtags.{{cite web|url=http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2010/11/01/blekko-the-slashtag-search-engine-is-slow-cumbersome-and-ju/ |title=Blekko, the "Slashtag" search engine is slow, cumbersome, and just plain broken|publisher=DownloadSquad.switched.com|date=November 1, 2010|author=Rogers, Matthew}} In his PCMag.com review, Jeffrey L. Wilson expressed approval of some search results, but criticized the site's social features which "bog down the search experience."{{cite web |url=https://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2372082,00.asp |title=Blekko|publisher=PCMag.com |date=November 3, 2010|author=Wilson, Jeffrey L.}}
References
{{Reflist|30em}}
External links
- {{official website|http://blekko.com}}
{{Web search engines navbox}}
Category:Internet technology companies of the United States
Category:Internet properties established in 2007