A Search Engine For Every Subject

BUSINESSWEEK.COM: Google and Yahoo rule, but a flock of upstarts is offering new ways to find info. Ron Conway hit paydirt as one of Google's earliest bankrollers. But don't try to convince him the search giant has a hammerlock on the sector. Sure, Google, by some estimates, handles nearly two-thirds of the world's Internet queries. It also shells out half a billion bucks each year on research and development and plucks the top engineers from powerhouse universities. Nevertheless, Conway believes that some of the most interesting search innovations will soon emanate from companies not named Google or, for that matter, Yahoo! or Microsoft. Over the past two years, he has bet heavily on this hunch, putting his money in nearly two dozen startups. "Search is in its infancy today," says the seasoned Silicon Valley investor. "It's at 10% of its potential, maybe."

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