In the last few months a new search engine has been released, with a different way of providing results to Google.

Google provides results based on inbound links, called PageRank, and what it thinks is relevant content – based on locality, keywords and other page information such as the title of the page, headlines and images.

Blippex takes a different approach. It provides results ordered by the pages where users spend the most time, and assumes that the longer a user spends on a page, the page must contain high quality content. It also takes keywords and other factors into account.

Blippex uses a similar model to the Alexa website to get the page view times – it needs users to install browser plugins. This is a limiting factor at the moment – who installs plugins beyond IT professionals? Where this could become more interesting is if say, Firefox, were to buy Blippex or even licence the technology. This would give holistic user browsing stats to Blippex straight away.

Blippex will naturally bias video content sites, where users spend minutes on pages. Blippex will need to manage websites showing pirate video content – for example movies and sports coverage.

Another interesting point about the technology is that part of the source code is publicly available on Github, and there’s a banner on the search engine promoting developers to further improve the product.

I’m always fascinated by companies which take on established rivals who are deeply entrenched in an industry. It forces the big companies, in this case Google, to keep innovating and pushing their products.

Please try Blippex and let me know what you think.