Q-go or not Q-go? That is the question
- Article 9 of 25
- Infoconomist, December 2001
While most search engines can pick up on keywords, few can fully parse sentences to glean their meanings. Dutch company Q-go (“Question-go”) claims that its engine is one of that select few that can.
While most search engines can pick up on keywords, few can fully parse sentences to glean their meanings: a search for 'account interest', for example, will usually return the same results as a search for 'interest in an account'. However, Dutch-based Q-go ('Question-go') claims that its search engine technology can differentiate between such queries.
Q-go's system is based on the combined efforts of its founders at KPM Research and a professor of linguistics. It was originally designed to offer natural language navigation of the web in a similar way to the popular 'Ask Jeeves' site, but the founders realised that there was greater business potential in actually selling the technology to organisations – at least compared to the dwindling revenues to be had from banner advertising on a single portal. “It's a classic software sale,” says UK managing director Rob Noble. “A large organisation's web site will either have a lots of customers or a wide range of people accessing it. It will also have lot of information about products and services. Any search engine needs to forgive spelling mistakes and grammatical errors, and differentiate [between] similar questions,” he says.
The company offers its open source-based software as a stand-alone product. However, Noble says that it is the manual indexing of a site by its consultants that gives the search engine its edge. “The engine is our proprietary gold mine, but by building the editorial base and model questions, we can change responses to bring humour or whatever.”
Q-go is based in Amsterdam, but has offices in Bonn, Barcelona, Berlin and London. The company has conservative expansion plans and will establish itself in a small number of European countries before spreading further afield. With €12 million secured from a second round of funding a year ago, the company has been able to build up a small roster of clients.
But it does face fierce competition from some well-established rivals, including Smart Logik, Inktomi and Verity, who can boast more mature, more scalable systems. However, with the promise of providing a better understanding of questions, Q-go should interest potential customers who are keen to see if the technology really can fulfil its lofty promises.