A new search site calls Google “old news”, but can CometQuery live up to the hype?

Daniel Jenkins — owner of the new search site CometQ — calls Google “old news”. Let’s quote his press release:

“Most experts agree that the reason Google has become so popular for the sheer mass of word of mouth advertisement it recieves, even in schools it is promoted as the ‘main search engine’. Google is lucky because this diverts attention from some of the features their search engine lacks. Daniel Jenkins and his CometQ team are devoted to filling these holes in search engine efficiency.”

Using that kind of language, you’d better deliver!

First impressions count

Actually, CometQ AKA CometQuery isn’t half bad. The home page is clean and uncluttered in a Google kind of way, and the search engine result pages are clean and open with a lot of space. We like that.

Moreover, the search results are relevant, and enriched with large and clear thumbnails –small pictures — of the pages listed.

This is not an innovation, thumbnails in search results have been around for a long time (see for instance here, here, here and here). Still, it is amazing to see how those small pictures helps the mind sort out the best sites.

So far, so good. This is a decent search site.

But is it the heir to Google?

Is this the next Google? Google 2.0?

Far from it. Apart from the thumbnails there is nothing here that adds to the Google experience (and there are plugins for Firefox that will add thumbnails to Google).

There are no links to vertical search results (news, blog search, pictures etc).

Jenkins argues that CometQ is a fast search engine: “CometQ uses a type of technology which delivers not only great results, but fast ones too”.

But the inclusion of thumbnails and Google Adwords text ads actually leads to slower download times than Google’s. Not that it matter that much, it is fast enough for our use.

Moreover, the search results are suspiciously similar to Google’s. Could this be a metasearch engine predominantly based on Google results?

Daniel Jenkins is a very young British entrepreneur with a knack for technology and a good sense for search site design. If he adds a truly new and “why-didn’t-we-think-of-that” kind of feature, he may prove us wrong. This may actually be the next Google.