Scour review | The search engine that pays

I just found out about Scour today and I am excited about the possibility of it. Everyone who knows me knows that I am an avid Google nut and love a lot of the product they have put out. But, I think they need a little bit of competition in the search market. Yahoo and MSN are just not very good competitors anymore.

Scour looks like they may have a product that could compete with them. The challenge, of course, is that it is a huge uphill battle for them. Google has most of the internet’s users using it as their search engine, so in order to have a chance Scour is going to have to be a lot better.

My experience with Scour (so far)

Scour is a search engine that has two distinct advantages over Google…

1. The results are voted on by other users. So, in theory, only the best stuff should come up to the top of the list. Just like Digg.
2. They offer incentives for using it. You earn points for searching with it, commenting, voting, referring, etc. Those points can then be redeemed for gift cards. Looking at the points system, it will take quite a while before you ever get enough points for a gift card. That’s okay I am more interested in it’s search capabilities.

The Scour results page…

What I like about Scour

1. I love that Google is finally getting some competition. While realistically, I would be surprised to see Scour become the next Google, I am glad that they are in the game. Increased competition just means that everyone will produce better. Google has done a great job with it’s search engine, but there is a lot of room for growth. There are still a lot of spammy results coming up, I think that user generated feedback is going to be part of the solution.
2. It allows you to get search results from Google, Yahoo, or Live all on the same page. So, if you don’t like the Scour results that you are seeing, you can still see what Google lists as the top sites…
3. I like the points system. Even though you would have to use it for a while to actually get rewarded, you still do get rewarded. I have never gotten a gift card from Google

What I don’t like about Scour

1. It is brand new. It is going to be a while before Scour provides some actual benefit as a search engine. Initially, spammers are going to vote up their spam sites, so initially users will probably have to wade through some of that stuff. Only after there are a whole bunch of users who come and vote will the results become valuable.
2. The referral program. I know it seems to be what every new thing does now. They offer incentives for referring people. But, bottom line I agree with Seth Godin on this one. If it isn’t remarkable, there is no point in having the referral program. On the other hand if it is remarkable, it probably doesn’t need it because people will talk about it either way.

So, I think I will give it a try for a few weeks and see how I like it. If it is something you think is worth trying out, you can get there with my remarkable referral link .

Any Scour users out there? I would love to hear your opinions on it!!