Metasearch engine Scour has new features that provide more personalization to users. It has added a Friends Feed, which keeps track of friends and tells users what others are commenting on. Along with that, the site finally allows users to add an image to their profile, redeem points through the user administration pane, and edit the number of results returned from each engine to match searching preferences.
"There's clearly a trend toward personalization on the Web and we wholeheartedly support it," Daniel Yomtobian, CEO of Scour, said in a statement. "The ability to connect with friends more closely--whether following their comments or inviting them to Scour--is something we believe will resonate well with our growing community of users."
Scour, which launched this past summer, gathers search results from Google, Yahoo, and Live. Users are rewarded with Visa gift cards for searching, voting for good results, and commenting on results. One point is awarded for each search, vote, or comment, and 6,500 points yields a $25 reward.
Aside from the suspect use of rewards to lure users to the site, Scour's new features don't add much to an already bland search engine. It's nice to be able to search the top three search engines at the same time, but competitors like Dogpile and Clusty offer a more robust service, and the fact that Scour now allows me to add an image to my profile and keep track of friends is rather lame, considering many other services provide those features in beta.
Regardless, all of Scour's new features are available now to registered users.
Scour is a search tool that blends results from Google, Yahoo, and MSN together in one stream. You can hot-swap between the three, or break out any single result into another search. If you come across a bad result, or one you think should go above the others, you can also vote it up (or down) or leave a comment--something similar to what Wikia did with its hackable search engine.
On top of the basic layer of search interaction there's also a paying element to the site. Every query you make has a certain point value, with interactions like commenting and voting giving you more points. Once you reach a certain point limit you can then convert points you have into a cash gift card. There's also a referral program where you get a small percentage of the points from the searches your friends do.
I've embedded a demo video below. You can also give it spin here.
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