Seek and ye shall find

New internet search engines created by Christian, Jewish or Muslim entities present a different web for their users.

WASHINGTON: A number of new internet search engines created by Christian, Jewish or Muslim entities aim to filter out queries from web users in a way that is more relevant to those users and keeps them from temptation, alcohol and pornography.

“We think that the other search engines are way too ‘main street’ oriented. We wanted to provide a solution to explore the Web in a safe environment, where you won’t bump into explicit content or immoral websites, like pornography,” said Reza Sardeha, the Amsterdam-based founder of the Muslim-oriented search engine ImHalal.

If one types the word alcohol into imhalal.com, the search engine produces results that explain the Muslim viewpoint on drinking. Type in “pornography” and the search engine doesn’t give any results.

However the question remains as to the effectiveness of such search engines. “Filtering the websites at large like these websites aim to do is near impossible because of the volume of data out there. Most explicit sites are down-moded unless you are searching for those terms in the first place. This is more of an issue of self-censorship than anything else. If users don’t want explicit content, they shouldn’t search for it,” said Aleem Bawany, General Manager of Online Strategy and Development at Express.

Sardeha says ImHalal attracts users from places like Pakistan, Indonesia, Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates as well as the United States. “Actually we know that our users are not only Muslims, and once a week we get an e-mail from non-Muslims as well saying that they like the content of our safe search engine and they allow their children to search knowing they won’t bump into offensive content.”

For Christians, SeekFind offers “a research tool for people who are looking for biblical and theological content from an evangelical Christian prospective,” says founder Shea Houdmann, who operates from Colorado Springs, Colorado.

According to the seekfind.org website, the search engine functions by “only indexing websites that are Biblically-based, theologically-sound, and in agreement with our statement of faith”. “That way, you can have confidence that you will find content which will be God-honouring and spiritually encouraging,” it says.

For the Jewish community, the niche is filled by another engine called Jewogle, which bears a passing resemblance to Google.

Danny Sullivan, editor-in-chief of SearchEngineLand.com, said none of these websites have “taken off and caught fire” but that “it doesn’t mean to say that they can’t be good, profitable businesses.” But it is important to keep up quality control as, “It would be useful if these websites can return the same quality of results that Google can, otherwise the lack of quality of results would be much worse than the benefit of censorship,” says Bawany.

Michael Gartenberg, partner at technology research firm Altimer Group, told National Public Radio that some of these niche groups are bringing more users to the internet. “You have an emerging generation and emerging culture that wants to take advantage of technology ... search engines and the things that they provide but at the same point (they remain) true to their heritage (and do) not stray from their belief system,” he says.

WITH ADDITIONAL information by the NEWS DESK

Published in The Express Tribune, September 21^st, 2010.