Yet Again, another Search Engine on the Scene

Jan
13

However, this one is somewhat unique. It’s a brand new search engine designed to please every request from the perspective of someone who is at least 50 years old. This steadily growing demographic often feels overwhelmed when they use the “ad infested” Google and Yahoo because they spew out more results than older eyes care to see. Launched earlier this week, Cranky.com is trying to simplify the search results by showing just four websites in the non-advertising section of each page and making the sparser listings more relevant to its target audience. Just the other day, I told my 80 year old grandmother about it, who also uses Yahoo Messenger, and she absolutely loves it. So, if you are close to 50 and use the web allot, I would recommend checking it out.

Technorati Tags: search marketing, search engine marketing, sem, paid search, pay-per-click, search engine, cranky.com, cranky

Author: Michael Brito

Michael Brito is a Vice President of Social Media at Edelman Digital. All thoughts and opinions on this blog are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of his employer or clients; neither past or present. Feel free to follow him on Twitter or subscribe to this blog.

Yavor

This search engine sucks! I am 55 yrs old and can't stand it. I'll stick with Yahoo!

Michael Brito

lol. Brendon - great analysis.

From what I heard, they apparently spent some serious capital with focus groups trying to figure out what it is that this demographic wants in a search engine. So much dollars well spent!

Brendon Swanson

Okay, I have to get really nit-picky with this one. I've gone and checked out the engine and really, I'm terribly impressed with the lack of care they've put into the engine.

So you've got a group who cater to 50+ adults. Here are the problems I see with this particular model:

1. Only four search results are shown on one page. They're older, not ADHD.

2. If the users are truly as dense as they imply with their design, they'll be clicking on ads (as they've planned) all the damn time which leads the uneducated user (or they'd be using Google) to call their son, daughter, or other tech-savvy relative to help them out of the mess they've caught themselves in.

3. "Obits" is actually a section of the site they can visit. Let's really stick it to 'em and let them know how old they're getting. Come on!

I think this is really slimy attempt at reaping ad dollars from people who don't know what the hell they're doing. CAVEAT EMPTOR!

Maureen

lol. this is too funny. I'll be sure to tell my 80 yr old grandmother about cranky.com too. She also uses Yahoo Messenger and it just cracks me up!