blekko | spam free search

Last Minute Holiday Shopping? Slashtags to the Rescue.

Posted on December 8, 2011 by ann

If you didn’t finish your holiday shopping on Black Friday — opting to sleep, avoid rogue pepper spray attacks, and steer clear of looting instead — fret not for blekko makes searching for gifts easy and won’t raise your blood pressure.

Gift guides are useful but how does one sift through them when a new one pops up faster than an angel gets their bell-rung wings? Our search built-in slashtag /date helps you find the freshest content available, returning results from news articles and blogs. Enter your query, followed by /date. For instance, “2011 gift guides /date”. If you prefer to broaden your search results, enter “2011 gift guides /date /more” in the search box. Voilà, a trove of updated ideas for the hard-to-shop-for people in your life.

Being a last-minute shopper doesn’t mean you can’t be obsessive about researching products before you buy. Try out /reviews, one of many slashtags that are curated by our community of blekko users to ensure high quality results. Find reviews of this year’s coveted products like “kindle fire /reviews” or “innopad /reviews” without wasting your time wading through spam. Another handy slashtag is /gifts – whether you’re looking for fair trade or gourmet gift baskets.

Don’t have enough time to browse all these awesome websites in one sitting? You can curate your own slashtag of trusted sites and come back to it. Once you have collected your favorite urls, you can truly customize your experience by searching within your own slashtag. Check out blekko’s Help section to find out how. You can also include entire existing slashtags from blekko; for example, if you fancy /reviews as a particularly helpful tool, add “/blekko/reviews” to your slashtag. Rather than starting at square one when you come back to your task, you have a powerful and personal search engine at your service.

With holiday shopping simplified, you will have more time for ugly sweater parties, sparkling festivities, and reflecting on the year gone past.

Posted in Features | Tagged slashtags | Comments Off

Blekko Closes $30M Funding – Yandex Strategic Investor

Posted on September 29, 2011 by burns

Big day here at blekko! We are thrilled to announce that we closed our $30 million funding round and we’ve added a terrific new strategic investor to the company: Yandex.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with Yandex, it is the leading internet company in Russia, where it not only operate the country’s most popular search engine, but also the most visited website. According to TechCrunch, “in 2010 the company generated 64% of all search traffic in Russian, trumping Google.” A few months ago they completed a successful IPO. The Yandex team has been in the search business since the early 90′s and knows this industry (and what it takes to win) as much as anyone.

If their investment in this round isn’t one of the best endorsements of blekko and our mission, I don’t know what is. Our history with Yandex started at a conference in Moscow earlier this year, where our CTO Greg* was speaking. Several more meetings and two trips to Moscow later – these guys do their homework – we had a new investor.

Yandex is one of two new investors we added with this round. The other is MLC Private Equity, an Australian based investor. It’s hard to believe that after only 10 months of being live, we have enough international awareness to drive investments from Australia and Moscow. But that’s where we are – and with the completion of this round, we’re only getting started.

We have a lot more cool stuff planned for the coming months and years that we will be talking about later. But for now, we’re more than thrilled to celebrate the addition of these new partners.
___
* Greg is the one who almost accidentally pre-announced our deal at the TC Disrupt Hackathon. One of the roving reporters noticed he had these weird stickers on his keyboard and asked about them (fast forward to the 12:50 mark in the video). Greg successfully danced around the fact that they were Cyrillic stickers, as he is learning Russian.

News Coverage:
Russia’s Yandex Invests $15M in US Search Underdog – ABC News – AP

Russian Search Engine Yandex Leads $30 Million Investment In Blekko – SearchEngineLand‘

Search Engine Blekko Raises $30 Million From Russian Search Giant Yandex And Others – TechCrunch

From Russia with love: Yandex backs US search startup Blekko with $15 million, computing power – Washington Post

Posted in Funding | 1 Comment

Get Ready to Grep the Web!

Posted on September 13, 2011 by burns

One of the advantages of having your own search engine is that you have access to all sorts of data that no one else does. Really, really cool data. And when you tell your friends you have all this data, you get lots of people asking you for stuff. Interesting questions like: “Can you give me a list of every site that uses Facebook Connect? In rank order?” Or: “Can you send me a list of sites that have the Google +1 button on them?”

Or, the most popular one: “Can you give me a list of every site that is running [insert name] ad network?” Obviously this is the most popular as it generates what is essentially a list of leads for someone who works for a competing ad network.

Anyway, we’re all too happy to give this info out. After all, one of blekko’s founding tenents is that the web should be open and transparent. We believe in a transparent web so much so that we wanted to extend access to this valuable data to people outside our personal social circles. So today we’re excited to announce the launching of WebGrepper. WebGrepper is a simple way to mine the web for data, that frankly, you can’t get from any other search engine.

The way it works is simple. Everyday, we will run 2 map jobs against our crawl of 4 billion pages. These will be greps for strings, patterns, regex expressions that blekko users submit to us and decide are cool. Got a grep you want to run? Submit it here. If enough people agree with you that this grep is interesting (by voting it up), we’ll run it. And we’ll post the results here. We make the top 500 results for every grep available for free to anyone who wants it. Pretty cool, eh?

We look at the web as one big, massive data set. Keyword matches (with a relevance filter) are certainly one way to pull data from that set. But its not the only way. There’s a ton of interesting data that lives within the source HTML that keywords just can’t get to. That’s where WebGrepper comes in – and now you have access to it.

So do us all a favor: think of some cool things to grep for and submit them to the community. Get out there and ~~slash~~ Grep the Web!

___
If you’re one of those guys who wears a t-shirt that says “Grep Me“, “Get a Grep”, “I Grep Therefore I am” or “who | grep -i blonde | date; cd“, chances are you can guess what blekko’s new Web Grepper does. For all the other folks out there who don’t speak UNIX or Klingon, Web Grepper “greps” or searches lines of code within Web files to identify relevant or matching domains based on specific topic and search terms.

Posted in Features, Technology | 2 Comments

14 Facts & more about blekko – Infographic

Posted on July 25, 2011 by burns

Razvan Gavrilas over at Cognitive SEO posted this awesome 14 facts and more infographic about blekko. We really like it!

Original Infographic @ 14 Facts (& more) about Blekko / Provided by cognitiveSEO

Posted in Features | 1 Comment

Flipboard RSS Search Powered by blekko

Posted on May 17, 2011 by burns

It’s hotter than two cats fighting in a wool sock! That’s right, one of the 25 hottest free iPad apps just got hotter with blekko powering its feed search. Flipboard users can now search for RSS feeds using blekko’s spam free technology, providing them with the best sources for RSS content. Flipboard is the world’s first social magazine. Inspired by the beauty and ease of print media, Flipboard’s mission is to fundamentally improve how people discover, view and share content across their social networks.

So, if you haven’t already, go to the app store on your iPad and download Flipboard and enjoy the comfort of trusted, spam free RSS sources.

More Coverage…

SF Gate: Blekko Powers RSS Search in Flipboard’s iPad Social Magazine

Read Write Web: Alt Search Engine blekko Partners with Flipboard for RSS Search

The Blekko Boom: Hottest Search Engine You’ve Never Heard of Inks Flipboard Deal

Posted in Partnerships | Comments Off

Blekko in the New York Times – The Story Behind the Photo

Posted on May 9, 2011 by burns

Jim Wilson the New York Times photographer dropped by our office a week ago to shoot some photos for the article about us. He was in our office for an hour shooting Rich and others a hundred different ways. He packed up his gear and was leaving. On the way out the door, he turned around and noticed the puppet, with Rich looking at Keith’s monitor. Jim pulled the camera out again to get one more shot and that’s the one that ran.

Photo by Jim Wilson, New York Times

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Blekko Powers Topix Search

Posted on May 4, 2011 by burns

Topix, the Web’s largest platform for local news and commentary just got better. We’re pleased to announce that starting today blekko is powering search on Topix. Topix is a great partner for blekko. With almost 9 million ComScore uniques and an audience that is predominantly middle America, the Topix platform gives blekko an opportunity to show this large audience the power of the slashtag! Also, Topix users conduct 1 million searches every month, so adding these searches will be a nice addition to the continually growing blekko search volume.

Blekko partnerships have been on a steady rise this spring with alliances with the programing Q and A site, Stack Overflow and Merchant Circle, the largest online network of local business owners. If you’re interested in partnering with blekko don’t hesitate to contact our Business Development Director, Clark Stephens at clark (at) blekko.com.

More coverage…

TechCrunch: Would You Like A Slashtag With That? Blekko Begins Powering Topix Search
Web Pro News: Blekko Already Powers Search on Topix After Just Six Months of Existence
Adotas: Blekko Powers Topix Search After Integrating Facebook Likes

Posted in Partnerships | 1 Comment

Feed Your Coders Hassle-Free with ZeroCater

Posted on May 3, 2011 by burns

Most companies in Silicon Valley know if you provide food for your employees their productivity goes up. It’s a nice perk that keeps them happy and in the office coding away, rather than getting in their cars to go downtown to grab a one hour burrito lunch.

In 2004 at Topix we started with Maldonado’s Pizza on Fridays. The navy blue shag carpeted office above a trophy shop strewn with old couches reminded me of my fraternity days in Delta Upsilon. Soon enough we had names for the pizzas, notably the ‘Hot Bob’ with hot sausage, pineapple and jalapeno. My creation the ‘Burnszilla’ oozed with hot sausage, mushrooms and caramelized onions. New offices a few years later and pizza turned to catered food from local restaurants.

And then there was AmberGate; our administrative assistant ordered Amber Indian food a la carte for lunch and the bill came to $639! Later on we bought an outdoor propane grill and I would make bourbon-apple juice baby back ribs. We would have a picnic outside in the parking lot with nothing left but pork bones. Good times indeed.

Fast-forward to blekko seven years later and the palates of software engineers have evolved, or perhaps devolved. It’s just more complicated because they expect more and you have to deal with lacto-ovo, ovo, vegetarians, vegans, fishetarians and chickentarians. A huge innovation in pizza lunches occurred by having Amici’s Pizza on Mondays instead of Fridays because the pizza leftovers would last all week instead of drying up in the fridge over the weekend. Soon after pizza was supplemented with Waiter.com on Wednesdays; Thai food, sushi and falafels were the main staples.

Ron Conway recommended ZeroCater.com for us to use. You just have to tell them how many employees, how many people are vegetarian, the date and time and lunch magically appears. No hassles, no preordering. The average meal costs about $12.50 per person, which is not too bad.

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Blekko Results Now Include Facebook Comments!

Posted on April 21, 2011 by burns

You know what’s more important than President Obama speaking at Facebook headquarters yesterday? The fact that you can now discuss President Obama speaking at Facebook straight from your search results!

Today on blekko we’ve launched a great new feature that integrates Facebook comments into search. Now you not only get our trusted web search results, but also the breaking news, opinions, insight and updates of your friends. Search results and social results literally living side by side. Pretty cool, eh?

Check this out. The other day we felt an earthquake at our office, so I searched for ‘california earthquake‘. Low and behold, three of my friends had posted about this in their news feed. I know this because now those posts show up directly in my search results! And with the comment widget, I can talk to them directly about their posts, my search or anything else.

I can click on ‘view all /facebook results’ or just use the ‘/facebook’ slashtag to get results of all your friends’ Facebook comments.

For the first time your friends have an active presence in your search results. Search for ‘sushi‘ – straight from the search results page you can discuss with your friends – anybody been to any of these places? which of these are the best? any good ones missing?

Depending if I’m feeling social or not, this feature can be turned off or on in the blekko preferences. So, login to blekko and connect with Facebook and give /facebook a try!

More coverage…

TechCrunch: Human-Curated Search Engine Blekko Adds Facebook Comments To Its Search Results

Search Engine Land: Blekko Adds Facebook Comments To Search Results (But Why?)

WebProNews: Blekko Deepens Facebook Integration as Google Continues to Ignore It

Posted in Features | 1 Comment

Road Show or Road Kill: 8 Ways to Come Out Alive

Posted on April 7, 2011 by burns

We just spent four grueling weeks on the road in four cities in March. SMX West, SXSW, SES and Web 2.0. Before we left I felt like Flounder in Animal House exuberantly exclaiming, “Oh boy, is this greeeeaaaat!” and by the end of the month I felt like Chris Tolles’ alligator jacket after a four night bender in Miami Beach.

With a full tank of gas we started off with a local gig down the road in San Jose at Search Marketing Expo West where Rich was on two panels ‘The Spam Police’ and ‘Ask the Search Engines.’ Mike also presented to a packed crowd of search engine experts explaining the benefits of blekko’s free SEO data.

A few days later we landed at SXSW in Austin, Texas co-hosting the ‘Search Party‘ with Chomp, Hipmunk, PopChips, SV Angel and aplusk. The party was successful with over 500 guests hanging out on the roof top patio of the Hangar Lounge. SXSW was gigantic this year as the film, interactive and music components were all combined in the expo hall. The blekko booth was swarmed the first morning and we gave out over 600 shirts in the first three hours of the show. Downtown Austin turned into Mardi Gras meets Fort Lauderdale spring break as soon as the music segment of the festival started. At this point I was content hiding under the covers of my hotel room bed.

Tips for the Road Warrior at SXSW:

Register and book your hotels nine months in advance if you want to stay downtown instead of in San Antonio.
Wear comfortable shoes that you can wear for 24 hours straight.
Stay hydrated, try to eat healthy and take your vitamins.
Try to hit every BBQ joint in the area to find your favorite for next year.
Go see some live music. You’re in the ‘Live Music Capital of the World.’
Get sleep and take naps whenever you can.
If you drink, stick with one drink; don’t mix. Lone Star beer surprisingly agreed with me.
Experience some real Austin culture and visit places away from downtown like Artz Rib House, The Broken Spoke and the Horseshoe Lounge.

After spending a short weekend at home doing laundry, we headed to New York City for the Search Engine Strategies Expo for two days of expo hall excitement. The last show of the month was Web 2.0 in San Francisco and at this point the extrovert in me had become an introvert and my brain was turning to mush. The blekko elevator pitch robotically rolled off my tongue like Twinkies off the Hostess assembly line. Fueled on Starbucks, banana walnut bread and warm Pepsi we gave demonstration after demonstration to an unrelenting crowd.

As I look back it was all good. We gave away 4000 trading cards and 2500 t-shirts and 4 iPads. Large amounts of pork were consumed. Everything arrived on time thanks to GES Logistics. Folks in the crowd constantly yelled out, “I love blekko!” and others were convinced to give us a try. It’s all part of spreading the word and you can’t do that without hitting the road.