"Anti-Search Engine" FindTheBest Adds Buying Guides, Top 10 Slideshows

There are a number of ways to describe FindTheBest, the site launched last year by DoubleClick founder Kevin O’Connor. One is “decision engine” another might be “comparison engine,” a third could be “anti-search engine.”

It might be called an “anti-search engine” because, like Blekko’s Rich Skrenta, FindTheBest’s O’Conner believes that search results have become cluttered and filled with spam. O’Conner wanted to provide structured, “apples-to-apples comparisons” of places, institutions and products with total transparency.

The site aggregates and then provides structured comparison data across a growing range of categories, including Arts and Entertainment, Education, Health, Science, Technology (and tech products), Sports, Recreation and others.

FindTheBest has been upgrading its UI and functionality and today is considerably more usable than when it launched. It’s getting better and better.

This morning it introduced “Top 10 slideshows” and “buyers guides.” There’s a “consumer reports”-like angle here except that the content are from a range of third party sources and it’s all free.

Here’s an example of a new buyer’s guide for AT&T smartphones:

FindTheBest makes the point that these buyers guides are not generic but highly specific (e.g., California Colleges, Ski Resorts in France). Here’s an example of one of the Top 10 slideshows for laptops (which can be embedded):

Find the Best Laptops and Netbooks

The ultimate ambition of the site is to become “a trusted source for consumers to find reliable information free from hidden marketing schemes.”

About The Author: Greg Sterling is a Contributing Editor at Search Engine Land. He writes a personal blog Screenwerk, about SoLoMo issues and connecting the dots between online and offline. He also posts at Internet2Go, which is focused on the mobile Internet. Follow him @gsterling. See more articles by Greg Sterling

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http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/mamun-rashid/6/110/b46 Mamun Rashid

While it is a good effort, the overall experience of the site is poor! Search for “earphones” the first result you get is “BIO-LOGIC INSERT EARPHONES” listed under Medical Devices, search for “lord of the rings” you get “lord of the rings” listed under “Food Recipes”. I find the site quite stodgy. There is no mobile version of the site either…
Dan Tobin

Mamun,

Thanks for the constructive criticism. I made a small change to the Headphones comparison app so now when you enter “earphones” into the search bar the appropriate app will show up first. I made the same change to the Highest Grossing Movies comparison app as well (which is where our information on Lord of the Rings is stored).

I’ll be the first to tell you our search feature needs work but I can assure you we are working as quickly as possible to refine and enhance it. That said, we are not a search engine so my recommendation would be to use the category drop down menus at the top of each page to browse through our topics.

Please let me know if you are having any other issues. We greatly value all of our users feedback.

Dan Tobin
Head of Product Development