For the past week, one of the hottest topics was Mark Zuckerberg’s announcement of Facebook’s own “Search” in direct competition with Google. The result would certainly fill a need and could actually be a change that would be welcomed by its users – for once. The news has received with hope and criticism, and the hype certainly helped Facebook’s stock. However, at the end of the day, I do not see a tremendous change in people’s lives other than the fact that they might spend 7 hours on Fb then instead of 6.
But another Search engine caught my eye: Solaris. Powered by Kosmix, a small tech firm that has recently been acquired by Walmart. The new and improved search has already increased the #1 retail giant’s online sales by 10-15% since its launch a few months ago.
Of all the innovative and tech-savy companies, Walmart would have never came in my head as even a consideration. However, @WalmartLabs is their new creation, a sort of small venture within a big company. They have also ventured into social media and mobile quite successfully now.
The result has been great for them. I think given time, this could really hurt Amazon. And once it gets into Canada, purely online retailers such as well.ca will be an unavoidable vistim.