Celebrity endorsed and/or developed products have been around for years. From countertop grills to fragrances to sneakers, the world has been introduced to a wide variety of products via celebrity endorsements and branding. At the Web 2.0 Summit this past week in San Francisco, former pop star MC Hammer announced his latest product, a new search engine called Wiredoo. That’s right – a search engine.
As Hammer described it, WireDoo is a “deep search” engine that focuses on relational topics. So for example, if a user were to type in “06512” (the zip code for our ad agency here in New Haven, CT), Wiredoo would return the standard content related to that area, as well as relational content categories such as “schools”, “homes” and “hospitals” – all tailored to the New Haven area. From that single results page, the user would have the ability to drill down into that relational content and learn more about the specifics, all based on that initial search.
Sounds handy, I guess, if the user is conducting broad-based, general searches like that. The pragmatist in me says that a user looking for a hospital in New Haven might be just as likely to type in “hospitals in New Haven, CT” and get right to the chase, though. (Industry statistics also tell us that users average 4+ words in their search queries across most search engines.)
Look, I’m the first to admit that I am a search purist. I prefer my search experience to be simple, straight-forward, no frills. I put in the keywords, you show me the results; don’t waste my time showing me things I might be interested in. Chances are, I’m probably not.
That being said, I won’t officially write off WireDoo just yet. First, no one has really seen the search engine or the quality of its results (it’s not scheduled to launch until December). Second, Hammer made his career in music by borrowing beats from the likes of Parliament and Rick James and then fashioning hits of his own from of them. Who’s to say he can’t work the same magic with search? Not this guy. I can’t touch that. Wouldn’t even think of it.
In case you were wondering, other titles I considered for this post included: “2 Legit 2 Quit While You’re Ahead, Hammer” and, of course, “Please Hammer, Don’t Search ‘Em”…