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The papers reported that SPH (Singapore Press Holdings) launched their and the local “first” local search engine. Going by the name Rednano. It can be found at Rednano.com and Rednano.sg.

Rednano, Singapore First Localised Search Engine

I do like the idea of having a localised search engine. That will be really useful should we be searching for local history, local business or anything local.

First of all, I be nice and cover the marketing. Surely there is a lot of marketing to be expected from a media company. Great writeup can be found in their overview(about us) page. To selectively quote:

Red is the colour of blood cells, which carry life-giving oxygen round the body. And Rednano aims to rejuvenate people and companies fatigued by disappointment with other search and directory services. Users looking for things to do with the republic, and businesses eager to reach out to them, will find “red” carpet treatment from Rednano.

Fatigued by disappointment with other search and directory services? Surely Google have yet to really disappoint me.

And:

Their joint venture, SPH Search, aims to provide the premier online tool for anyone seeking information about Singapore; its people and its businesses. It intends to respond to queries speedily. Most importantly, it plans to make relevance the hallmark of its answers.

Make relevance the hallmark of its answers. Relevance. A bold claim and I be happy to give it a test.

I coded for Ablewise Free Classifieds and hence I am more than happy to run a query for “Classifieds” into Rednano. Incidently, the online classifieds arena is where SPH have a direct competition with another local media giant. SPH runs ST701 while the other local media giant runs a “muscle powered” classifieds site.

The results in a screen shot: Taken 21st March 2008. Click for full size.

Classifieds query into rednano

ST701 appear in number one spot while the other competitor is nowhere on page one, or top 50 search results for that matter. Not too relevance I will say. And I will place a huge question mark over the search results that Rednano returns in keywords or industries that SPH have a interest in.

Also taking a closer look, classifieds.singnet.com and classifieds.singnet.com.sg appears besides each other and both are exactly the same content, or rather same page. This points to rather unsophisticated search data handling. Also, it is in my impressions that great empahasis had been placed for sites with a .sg domain and have the word “singapore” in their domain.

It is still in beta but that should not be a excuse that I am disappointed with the checks I had done so far. And to finsh off, 2 more pointers:

Under their Terms and Condition:

you have read and agree to these User Conditions and our privacy policy and you are at least 21 years old and have the necessary legal capacity, right, power and authority to agree to these User Conditions;

You have to be 21 to use their service? Goodness, tell that to the schools now and everyone should be using Google to be safe. I think this terms and condition applies to users who submit to their data services. And the “catch all terms” style of writing freaks me out. Kids, stick to Google.

Under their updating of information page

Update your information with us and be connected at no cost.

If you are updating information about a registered company, click here to download the update form.
If you are updating information about yourself, click here to download the update form.

For goodness sake, you are running a search engine. Use a web form or something. Or even provide a email address so that business and individual can email back the form. Save some trees, save the mailing and fax.

I am not anti-corporate. Just pro usability.

First Impression: Not too good, but not disappointing as I had not expected much.

Other reports on the launch of Rednano: Here, here(NSFW) and here.