Search Engine Idol: and the winner is...

Update Dec. 2, 2010: Milo acquired by eBay for $75 million. Hope no-one forgets where Milo got its big break!

Congrats to Milo on winning the first season of Search Engine Idol at the MediaPost Search Insider Summit today.

It was a hard fought contest with Milo scoring the max 100 on the crowd-o-meter (using this awesome PPT template from SAP). Second place went to Goby with a 97. Search3 was appropriately 3rd with 96 (skewed by David Fireman's self-clapping close to the microphone) and 4th was Info.com (disclosure: Connectual partner) with a respectable 76. Unfortunately, Factery Labs had to bail last minute and couldn't participate.

Another cool PPT integration from SAP that I used was a streaming tweet bar at the bottom of the slide. Here's an abridged recap of the chatter...

MikeMoran: Watching demo of Milo search engine that locates products in physical stores near you--even clothing. #mpsis

telerob: #mpsis - milo.com uses a dog? Hello Lycos rip off.

Eric_Hoffman: "Future of search is about context" per Mark Watkins of Goby, very true. #mpsis

jefffig: Goby is pretty cool. Just tried Arts & Culture in Salt Lake for tomorrow and got relevant results. #mpsis

telerob: Goby contextual search engine is unique but no reason bing or google couldn't replicate this and crush them. #mpsis

mattkdecide: Can I make the big screen? Wow I'm famous. Hi mom! #MPSIS

outofmygord: #mpsis Search3 interface just doesn't work for users..too complicated..asks too much from user. Doesn't scan well

MikeMoran: Now we are seeing Search3 at #mpsis, which does comparisons of search results across engines

janellandis: dont future search engines that want to compete with google need to simplify the process? methinks search3.com complicates it. #mpsis

telerob: the Search3 is meh. Nothing of interest. #mpsis

HeidiJack: Milo.com v. Goby v. Search3 v. Info.com competition #MPSIS Milo would rock on the phone! Goby great categories with pics, Search3 compiler

chiefmartec: what if Aaron Goldman's desktop background wins best UI in search engine idol #mpsis

MikeMoran: Now looking at info.com at #mpsis which is a meta search engine with deeper vertical provider relationships (e.g., become.com for shopping)

telerob: Some one wake me when info.com is done. #mpsis

cknoch: #MPSIS tweets in preso has me reading the Tweets instead of paying attention to the preso :)

cdanuloff: Moby and Milo are well executed & useful vertical engines - lots of value add. Info.com and Search3 are good ideas but not there yet. #mpsis

aarongoldman: First season of Search Engine Idol was a hit! Congrats to Milo.com (@wherecanibuy) on winning and thx to all contestants & judges. #mpsis

Looking forward to season two of Search Engine Idol at the next SIS in April. Thinking of mixing things up and having Rob Griffin (@telerob) sit on the judge's panel. We'll see if he's as Simon Cowell-esque when he has to actually say it to the faces of the contestants.

Another change I'm considering for next time is making all the contestants do the same query in their demo (and not telling them in advance what that keyword will be). Methinks that'll level the playing field pretty well.

Thanks again to all the contestants and judges (Charles Knight of AltSearchEngines.com, Robert Pettee of Lending Tree, and Mark Scholz of HP) as well as the audience for keeping things lively.

And congrats again to Milo for fetching the top spot!









Update 12/8: MediaPost just posted the video of Search Engine Idol to the gallery. I've embedded it here so, if you missed the event, you can see all the action. Enjoy!