Most of the web surfers who are active on the Web in present time want a single search engine that delivers three key features i.e. relevant results, orderly and easy to read interface and helpful options to broaden a search. To ensure that the information seeker gets all the three elements along with his/her search, the new search engine blekko has been introduced into the web space. It works on the basic idea that many of the web’s billions of sites are not relevant to anyone. All the spam and content farms are not even worth searching and can be slashed out.

The new search engine implements a characterizing feature in its functioning known as slash tags. A slash tag is an easy to create custom search engine and is a tool used to filter search results and helps you to search only high quality sites, without spam or content farms.

There are basically three types of slash tags used by the search engine blekko to improve the quality of search made:

1. Topical : Topical slash tags are built to search only top sites for specific topics like tech, health, recipes etc.

2. User : User slash tags are created by the users or other members of the search engine community. You can personalize your own slash tags with the sites you trust.

3. Built-in : Built-in slash tags are programmed in the back-end by the search engine and perform specific search functions, such as /date or /blogs.

The new search engine is much more “visual” and also uses responsive design i.e. the results being generated by the new search engine are organized into visually labeled, multi-colored categories that make it easier to quickly find the type of information being sought.

The search engine’s new design breaks down the search results into categories that offer links to results from verified content sources around the web. In addition to this, the new category-oriented approach offer users more results on a single page than what it used to display previously.

                                                                                                     

The information being tracked by the search engine

When you use the search engine “without supplying a login id”, it collects the following information fields from the user: IP address, the browser user agent string, date and time of login, any third party websites that referred the user towards the search engine and social media websites.

When you use the search engine and “you are logged into your account” ,it collects all the information listed above as well as your e-mail address, the username you use to sign into the search engine, uploaded profile photos and the password you use to log in.

Privacy concerns

To enhance user privacy, within 48 hours of visit made by the user on the search engine, it erases the entire IP address and the browser user agent string from the visit logs. It also erases the association between the 4 hour search sessions made by the user and the username he/she uses to sign in.

The search engine blekko is not in the web space to give a competition to Google nor is the search engine positioning itself that way but the distinguishing features offered by the search engine are very helpful in spam reduction efforts.