One of the problems of seeing lots of new innovations in the tech space is that once you see some new innovation, it’s hard not to notice how slow and boring that field actually is. It seems that every website search, ours included, is basically plugged into Google’s in-site search. But Google and other competitors have a fairly slow, old fashioned and ugly solution, and the owner has no control of what shows up. To update this field for the first time in years, Helsinki-based AddSearch announces its imminent launch, and that it’s raised €480,000 from Vision+, Tekes, and the company’s founders.
We recently covered Vision+’s recent €50 million fundraising, and specifically mentioned that their investments buy out a share of future revenue, however in this circumstance they’ve invested in AddSearch for an equity stake.
The concept behind AddSearch was started two years ago when founder and CTO Antti Ala-Ilkka was on Vero.fi, the Finnish Tax Administration website, and plugged in verokortti, or “tax card”, into the search box. A tax card is one of the main reasons you’ll go to the tax administration website, and it was pretty maddening to him that nothing useful showed up in the search results. As CEO Pasi Ilola tells it, he got so frustrated that he started coding his own solution.
Today they’ve produced an innovative new in-site search. When typing in the text field, the results pop up on the same page you’re on, which is an instant way to see the results. Hovering over a result lets you see a screenshot of the page, giving you a better visual idea of what you’re looking for. As a demo, head on over and plug some text into the search field at Me Naiset, a media company owned by Sanoma, where they’ve been testing the solution.
It’s also worth mentioning they’ve tailored their solution to work on mobile, and to also be easy for website owners where it’s just one line of code to add. Additionally website owners can take control which pages and keywords are most important in search results, allowing business-critical pages to actually pop up in the results.
In-site search doesn’t sound sexy, but there’s no clear leader, and according to Ilola it’s an area that provides value to media companies, governments, and corporations. The company plans to officially launch at Slush, next week in Helsinki.
