Lately, portals are racing to come up with their own search engines. They all realize the search engine market is a high commodity. In the midst of all, nate.com (ranked 3rd in search engine) is creating buzz with its new search engine, which took them a whole year to develop.

'SearPle', which will be available in both Cyworld and Nate.com, stands for collaboration of two phrases 'Search Plus' (more information) and 'Search People' (common forum).

Most noticeable new feature for the new search engine is in incorporation of hot topic web 2.0; giving users power to make difference in search outcome. Unlike the conventional search engines where the user simply has no control over the search returns, with its new inquiry process the user can make the influence over the search returns.

SK Communications explained that the Searple is different from other search engines where the results are based from information that is sorted by tens of millions intellectuals rather than the results produced by multiple searches or by machine alone. The SK Comm. pointed out that it’s a new brand of service using web 2.0 concepts where vast participation and open communication is made possible.

The SK Comm.'s concept of using people based search is made possible by using Cyworld’s daily average updates of 12 million pictures and video database with linking 18 million member’s informative knowledge databases. This is how it’s counting on to win in search engine market.

No way to know when the portal rankings will change
The portals do not have a moment to spare because they have no control over when and how much their market ranking can change, Even with 1st place rank now, anyone could be in same situation with downfallen 'netian.com'. Therefore, Naver and Daum is no exception to having anxiety over that.

The early dominance of Yahoo where it introduced (1997) and led the search engine market is now a faded memory. Now the Yahoo has fallen to mere 4th place.

Following the footsteps of Yahoo is the Daum. It has enjoyed the 1st place by winning hearts of netizens with its hanmail and cafe services by offering social networks but now the Naver has pushed it out of the 1st place.

With all these in play, SK Communication's Nate.com has introduced its own developed ‘Searple’ to challenge the next generation of the search engine market.

Naver, working to keep its 1st place rank, Daum, retake the top
Naturally, the Naver appears to be keeping a close check on the SK Comm.’s new move. At any given time, the ranks could change. And that has put Naver in a position to come up with a counter punch which is said to be in the works already.

Daum too is ambitious about regaining the top position in the market. Looking to unleash by the end of this year, Daum’s next search engine will handle and digest up to 300 Billion data of gigantic size.

Daum Comm.'s search strategy team leader Sung-Jin Choi said, "incarnating user ranking isn’t all that difficult. What is more important is having a multi tasking search engine that can handle the continuously growing enormous databases."