Accoona was an internet company with offices in Jersey City, New Jersey, and Shanghai, China. Their main product was a search engine that claimed to use artificial intelligence to better understand searches. On June 23, 2005, in the ABC Times Square Studios, the AI Accoona Toolbar, driven by a Fritz 9 prototype, played against the chess grandmaster Rustam Kasimdzhanov. In addition to traditional searches, it allows business profile searches, and its signature "SuperTarget" feature. Their exclusive partnership with China Daily, a large Chinese internet portal, was seen as a highly strategic move.[citation needed]
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Type of site | B2B search engine |
|---|---|
The CEO of Accoona was Valentine J. Zammit, formerly of 24/7 Real Media and DoubleClick.[citation needed]
After IPO problems, Accoona shut down on October 5, 2008.[1]
In October 2008 the web page said: "Dear Accoona search users, Due to an overwhelmingly competitive search market, Accoona.com and Accoona.cn will no longer be active. We thank you for your previous support. Sincerely, Accoona Management."[citation needed]
Accoona's domains and search facilities were acquired by Masterseek B2B (business-to-business) search engine on October 30, 2008.[citation needed]
Partnerships
editAccoona provided the search technology to the Chinese portals Sina.com and Sohu. They also formed a 20-year exclusive partnership with China Daily. Through this partnership and its widespread Chinese affiliates, Accoona expected 10 million hits daily from the otherwise isolated Chinese user base.[citation needed]
Accoona signed a million dollar deal with FAST Search from Norway to help enhance their rankings.[citation needed]
Press
edit- Accoona received attention after selecting former President Bill Clinton as a spokesperson on December 8, 2004.
- Accoona also received significant coverage from the webmaster community after many forum sites were spammed with promotional Accoona entries.[citation needed]
- Accoona was selected among the "50 Coolest Websites" of 2006 by Time magazine.[2]
See also
edit
References
edit- ^ "Dead Search Engine Accoona Officially Dead". Archived from the original on 2008-10-26. Retrieved 2008-10-07.
- ^ Buechner, Maryanne Murray (August 3, 2006). "50 Coolest Websites 2006". Time. Archived from the original on August 19, 2006.