I’m always on the looking for start ups that have a different take on search, and so I was pretty excited to see Scour.com, a social searching site.  Blending the best of algorithmic and human powered search, Scour launched today as a meta social search engine which encourages voting and commentary on search engine query results called from Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft’s Live Search. Scour fosters community- building and enables discovery through user feedback, friends and groups while giving users control of the search parameters needed for accurate results based on their preferences.

“Scour gives people a different way to search by infusing the best search results available on the web, with a way to benefit from the previous work and feedback of millions of searchers,” said Daniel Yomtobian, president and CEO of Scour. “The concept is not new, but we believe we can bring the elements together better than some of the other engines have to date.”  Here is a video of it being demonstrated:

Scour differentiates itself from other social search, ratings and community sites in that it:

• lets users vote and comment on search results
• provides superior privacy control
• gives weight to preferred engines
• lets people redeem search points for VISA gift cards.

Scour pulls search results from the top three search engines. From there it thrives on feedback to make the results ever more relevant. After enough votes on results, a search result can rise or fall in ranking which will make listings across all the engines more relevant on Scour.

Scour Rewards—How It Works

People can earn up to 4 points per search through a combination of actions:

• Search – 1 point
• Vote – 2 points
• Comment – 3 points
• Friend Referral – 25% of each friend’s points

In one scenario, an average of 4.5 searches per day translates into $25 a year. Then adding in referrals with an average of three searches per day for each user, 25 friends who sign up and use Scour could earn the user an additional $100+ a year.  I personally don’t think that these type of “incentive” programs ever translate into long-term user engagement.  A good product attracts users, there is no secret formula.

Already trying to keep the main focus away from the incentive program, Yomtobian adds, “We’re not trying to provide users with an alternative income, the Scour points program is a way for Scour to reward the user for helping build the community to refine search results beyond what the algorithms say.”