- Category: November 2011
The Internet has had a good run. More than two billion people are connected around the world, and there's no shortage of fascinating and valuable information flowing our way.
An Israeli start-up has developed a "fix" for the mobile internet: Do@ (pronounced "do at") aims to "app-ify" the web. The do@ platform changes the traditional search paradigm of web links by merging search and apps in real-time, delivering the top web apps that specifically answer any query a user posts.
The late Apple CEO Steve Jobs declared that on a mobile device, "search hasn't happened, what is happening is that [people] are spending all of their time in apps." The beautiful simplicity of these single-use apps is also their major pitfall: you have to open the apps one at a time to search in them.
Do@, by contrast, allows users to search across apps - currently more than 1,000 of them. If a user likes the results that Do@ delivers, they never have to open the individual apps. Users don't even have to have a specific app on their phone to view a neatly organized result. If Do@ decides that Flixster has the best reviews or trailers of a new movie, users don't need to install Flixster before the content displays within Do@.
If a website doesn't have its own app, Do@ will work with the site administrators to app-ify their content, often for free because Do@ makes money from apps that sell products. If a user buys a movie ticket online, Do@ takes a cut. Buy a new hard drive on the Web and Do@ makes a few dollars. In this way, Do@ hopes to always be available free of charge to users.
Even for established search engines like Google, the search of app-content has been a blank spot. Everybody can imagine that it would be helpful for smartphone owners not only to browse mobile websites but also their hundreds of thousands of apps.
Do@ is an open platform, connecting directly to mobile optimized web apps developed by publishers and app developers. Instead of delivering links for each query, do@ returns a series of HTML5 based "web-apps" from top publishers who specialize in the topic of the query. Results from do@ are unique for every user and prioritized based on a user's preference and the preferences of their social networks.
Time will tell if do@ will keep up the momentum and live up to its promise, but it is definitely worth watching!
By Daniela La Marca