Worio search engine: It's about your interests, not just the query

MONTREAL - It's tough to take on big search engines like Google, Yahoo, Microsoft's Live Search and Ask. As well, there are hundreds of niche search engines to help find information on the Internet.

Now there's Vancouver-based Worio.com, a new search engine that wants to make a name for itself by acting as a companion to other search engines so that users will also receive information based on their interests.

"We're targeting the searcher rather than the query," says CEO Ali Davar.

Let's say you've missed the latest episode of a favourite TV show and you're searching for an update. A Worio user will get that information from Google or another search engine, but on the right side of the computer screen there will be other information to complement the search - on topics that might include movies, film festivals, DVD reviews and plot summaries of other shows.

That information wasn't asked for, but Worio believes its users are interested in having it.

"We're trying to help users find things they typically miss when they're searching day-to-day simply because they don't know it's out there and they don't know to go looking for it," Davar said.

Hence Worio's tag line: "Discover what you're missing."

As Worio is used more, it will bring more articles, blogs, academic information and home pages to individual users based on their preferences, Davar said of the company's automated tagging technology.

Other search engines that provide similar "discovery" search experiences include StumbleUpon, Twine and Transparensee.

With this kind of search engine, a lot of information is being gathered about its users' interests, raising questions about privacy.

Davar said users can turn the privacy function on when they choose to do so, to prevent information from being collected.

"We understand your interests at a topical level. We don't really get into too much of the nitty gritty of what is every last word the user is searching."

Chief technology officer Mike Klaas said Worio does not share its information with any third-parties for purposes such as advertising, and uses what it gathers to provide better information for its users.

David Fewer of the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic said services like Worio need to have "concise, clear and accurate" privacy policies about what information is being collected, what is being done with it and to whom it's being disclosed that are easy to find.

"Too often they're treated like bits of marketing," said Fewer, acting director of the clinic at the University of Ottawa.

Fewer said consumers should approach the Internet with the mindset of "Buyer Beware" and educate themselves about privacy, its legal implications and any tools available to safeguard it.

"Protecting your privacy is a bit of work."

Up and running for just months, Worio stands for web of research 1.0 and also has incorporated social media, allowing its users to make friends online and to sign into Worio via Facebook Connect.

While the site is free of advertising now, Davar said it's expected to have ads and he hopes Worio also will have business customers in the future. It has five full-time and five part-time employees, operating with $2 million in angel financing as well as grants.

U.S.-based analyst Matthew Brown said there have been a number of niche search engines that have provided complementary search information and often they're purchased by larger companies.

"I would say that's a much more likely outcome for something like this than to see them build the next kind of blockbuster consumer brand," said Brown of Forrester Research in Cambridge, Mass.

Brown also noted that these kinds of search engines can learn a lot about their users.

"It often comes down to the question of how much privacy are people willing to trade in return for more accurate, useful tools."