Cape Town Internet development company IncuBeta has built a portal powered by Google, which is optimised to improve search results for local listings and to benefit local charities.
IncuBeta chief strategy officer Vinny Lingham says a need for a new South African search engine site was identified because existing portals were either using old technology, or their results were biased and pointed searches to specific commercial entities.
"This site uses Goggle as its search engine, with whom we have a revenue sharing agreement, and it allows us to dig deeper into South African sites to gain the best results," he says.
Although Google has its own SA search site, Lingham says this does not prioritise results deeply enough for the local market, hence the need for a specific South African search engine.
Lingham says Google's plans to set up its own sales office in the country in the near future would not impact this site, as ad sales by the American Internet giant would benefit the local site.
"The idea is to develop a body of knowledge around South African sites using the input from 'volunteers' who will assist us in creating this," Lingham says.
He says about 10% of the revenue will be donated to charities that will be selected by the volunteers.
Lingham says Sekamo, meaning "comb" in Sesotho, was chosen as the site's name "as we intend to comb out all the irrelevant information about South African Internet sites".
Lingham says he is considering other offerings, such as an e-mail service, for sometime in the future.
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