Search engine OneRiot launches

OneRiot, a social search engine that prioritizes results based on current real-time popularity among Web users, has launched. OneRiot previously operated under the "Me.dium" brand name.

“Traditional engines batch index [Web pages], and then people can search,” said Kimbal Musk, CEO of OneRiot. “Real-time indexing takes content in [continuously] and enables you to search at the same time, which is key if you want to deal with fresh content.”

OneRiot currently has a network of more than 2 million people who have downloaded an add-on or toolbar attached to their browser, which allows OneRiot to track their search activity. Currently, around 250 million pages are indexed in the engine.

The back-end searches are powered by Yahoo.

“If there's something that our network is not searching for today, Yahoo will still provide long tail results,” said Musk, adding that the most relevant verticals for OneRiot users are news, videos and products.

“The target is really people who appreciate the social aspects of the Web, people who want to know what others are finding interesting,” Musk said.

OneRiot hopes to have Yahoo-powered search ads within its search results in the first quarter of 2009. There are currently no advertisements on the site.

OneRiot, Musk said, was named after a retired band.
 
“We wanted a name that really encompassed the energy of the crowd,” Musk said.