 |
Tueday,
April 13, 2004 |
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
Student
launches new Internet search engine
A
senior will start IceRocket.com, a new Internet search
engine that appeals to a Web-savvy crowd.
By
Ferrell
Fields
Staff Reporter
Internet users tired of looking on the same search engines
will have the opportunity to broaden their search options
when IceRocket.com launches Thursday.
Blake Rhodes, a senior communications major, teamed up
a year ago with friends, Andrew English and Donny Plunkett,
to design a new search engine that would be more appealing
to the eye.
“Over the summer, I came up with the idea that I
wanted to create a fun search engine that would be more
accessible for people our age,” Rhodes said. “In
a time where people are always in a hurry, a meta search
engine saves people time from searching several different
sites.”
The reason it will save people time is because it will
search from seven different engines in the same amount
of time, Rhodes said. The seven engines will include Google,
Yahoo, Altavista, AlltheWeb, Teoma, About and Looksmart.
Rhodes worked with a branding company that helped pick
the name, IceRocket, partly because it was much cheaper
than paying $25,000 to register its own name on the Internet,
he said.
“The word ice has several different meanings in my
eyes so we chose that name to make it the next big search
engine,” Rhodes said.
IceRocket’s design, which includes a blasting rocket
on a bright blue background, is meant to target a younger
market of Web users who is currently under served, Plunkett
said.
Rhodes said he thinks IceRocket is edgier than Yahoo or
Google because the page design caters to the demographics,
which will mostly be younger people.
The design and accessibility will make this search engine
different from others, Plunkett said.
Plunkett said his e-mail address and phone number will
be on the contact page so users and media outlets will
have direct access to him if they have a problem.
The Web site will also feature a “site of the day.”
“Every day I will choose a fun, cool site that our
generation will like, and maybe a site that is not easily
found on the Web,” Rhodes said. “This will entice
users to return after their initial search.”
Rhodes would not comment on any of the finances involved,
but said it’s very expensive.
The expensive part is buying servers, which can cost several
thousand dollars a month, to host the site, because users
will be requesting information rather than just reading
text, Rhodes said.
As far as educational purposes go, TCU students will benefit
from IceRocket because it will be the absolute best search
engine available to them, Rhodes said.
“We are taking the absolute best results from the
top search engines and comparing them to one another,
then ranking them again, and returning them to our users
all in under a second,” Rhodes said.
Kimberly Friesen, a senior communication studies major,
said she is looking forward to a new site targeted to
a younger audience.
“I always have to search different sites to get the
best results, but IceRocket will probably cut down on
how many sites I have to search,” Friesen said.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
