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Quintura's Semantic Search for Websites

Russian search engine Quintura has thrown its hat into the website search ring with a snazzy new search tool. Currently in private Beta, Quintura Site Search delivers the same search navigation principle to website search that Quintura.com brings to Web searches;searching content through a dynamic tag cloud that brings you deeper into the query with every click. The technology is built on semantic principles which focus on context and aim to deliver fewer false positives than Google’s ‘most-linked’ algorithm.

It works like this: you sign up with Quintura, pick out a few cosmetic options, and get some script to embed in your sidebar. When you’re done it will all look like this.

Users will then be able to start a search and start punching away at tags until they get exactly what they want, hopefully with increased contextual accuracy and less time spent faffing around.

Quintura is no Google-Beater

As Kristen Nicole of Mashable noted, “more control is given to the end users and readers in terms of their interaction with search, and the results they receive.”

But there are at least a couple of good reasons why Quintura Site Search is unlikely to become a Google-beater. Firstly, the widget takes up a lot of real-estate on the sidebar - relying as it does on tag-cloud navigation.

Secondly, it’s plenty slower than good old-fashioned regular text search. And thirdly, while we’re at it, the dynamic cloud, written in Javascript, again takes up time with all its moving and shaking between clicks. Apparently it will soon be rendered in Flash - make your own minds up as to whether this is a good thing or not.

Larry and Sergey will probably not lose much sleep over this technology. Anyone out there with any idea about how to take Google down on search? Put your hands down Bill and Steve - we heard yours already.

If you’re excited about the Quintura technology - or if you’re persona-non-grata at Google Towers - you can host Site Search on your website by signing up to become a Beta tester. Invites are available through ReadWriteWeb.