Problem
Different people are probably interested in different things when they search depending on who they are and their interests
Hunch
Adjusting your search results based on what people in your social network click on should help improve search results
Crunch
Social networking search and user-curated Swicki (search wikis) focused around topics
Munch
Eurekster partnered with largest social network at the time, Friendster, to create a search engine that could change based on social network. Then noticed that group behaviour was more important so created Swickis. Business model was a platform to allow others to create and promote their vertical search engines
The story so far
We were playing with social networking ideas at RealContacts and search ideas at SLI-Systems, so this hunch was naturally born from those two. The company raised millions in VC and had a US CEO and board. It had an offer to be acquired by Google but the directors turned it down to try to take them on - not a wise move - oh well...... Classic case of being a bit ahead of its time and believing our own hype a bit (see some of the stories below).
"Finally, personalized search results seem to have arrived for the masses. Personalized search has long been promised as an important next step for increasing relevancy. Now it comes not from Google or Yahoo but instead from tiny Eurekster" Danny Sullivan - Search Engine Watch
Story about Microsoft buying Eurekster
Mark Cuban calls Eurekster the best sales idea he has seen in a long time