Search Engine claiming use of AI to improve results

http://www.accoona.com

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accoona

launched in 2004. [McCann] says Accoona has raised $15 million from investors and expects to start making money right away, mainly by providing sponsored links through YaHoo!'s ([YHOO] ) [Over Ture] division.

• early involvement: Bill Clinton, [Eckhard Pfeiffer], [Garry Kasparov]

• Unlike traditional search engines that seek specific "keyword" matches, Accoona will access Web pages that may have no exact keyword matches but are still relevant to the query, he explained.

• [Motley Fool] was dubious

• reviews at that time were rather luke-warm at best

"Officially" introduced in 2006?

On TimeMag's 50-coolest-websites in Aug'2006

Positive write-up (by [Luis Suarez] of IBM) in Jul'2007.

Aimed for IPO in 2007

• Underwriter [Maxim Group] pulled out

  • Founder [Marc Armand Rousoo] pleaded guilty to stock fraud charges in the United States in 1998 and was convicted of stock fraud in France in 1999. He has settled several suits brought by investors who claimed stock losses... He (CEO [Val Zammit]) said that Mr. Rousso was not part of the company's management, though he was paid more than $3 million during the last three years as a consultant to Accoona and he owns 14 percent of the company's stock. Moreover, Alessandra Coderoni, whom Mr. Rousso married in August 2006, was paid $1.4 million to serve as Accoona's chief operating officer in the 15 months before the marriage. That was far more than any other Accoona executive had been paid... Earlier this year, both Mr. Pfeiffer and Mr. [Stuart Kauder] (formerly of Double Click), resigned from Accoona for what the company said were personal reasons. Neither man would comment on their reasons for leaving... In 2005 and 2006, Accoona bought three companies based in Brooklyn that operate discount electronics retailers... [Butterfly Photo], the largest of these sites, has an unsatisfactory rating from the New York [Better Business Bureau].

  • Danny Sullivan said It's been two years they have been saying they have a great search engine, and they are just not delivering.

  • more back-story

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