Will Onyomo give Google the jitters?

In the beginning there was Google, it changed the way we search for information. And now a bunch of guys in Delhi want to take Internet searches a step further. Shailesh Mehta and his friend were in a coffee shop, when they thought of starting a city specific search engine for Indian cities. An engine they decided to call Onyomo, short for 'On your move'.

 

CEO, Onyomo, Shailesh Mehta told CNBC TV 18, "A friend and I were new in town, and faced the practical problem of which coffee shops to hang out in and various other things of that sort. That's why we said we could probably do something to bridge this gap."

 

So, they set up an office at IIT Delhi and hired a staff of 10 to work on the project. To get to the engine - type www.onyomo.com and select the city you want to search. You can search by keyword, location and category. And if you're new to the city, there are maps to help you out. The engine also boasts of a cool expanding image feature. Great for those car pictures!

 

Mehta says thousands of outlets have already agreed to have their information displayed and onyomo has big plans to add many more.

 

Onyomo is making it easier for retailers to add their information to the site. They just go online and add their outlet information, onyomo then verifies this information and adds it to the site.

 

And it's not only outlets they made it easier for. They even have a text service, where you can just message yourself the address of the place you want to visit. Or add onyomo buddy to your messenger friends' list and search for information while you chat.

 

But Onyomo does have some kinks to work out. The lack of a right click for instance. It also doesn't have an advanced search option either. Mehta says it's because they have a series of filters that narrow the search anyway.

 

Onyomo launched less than a year ago and already gets close to 5,000 hits a day, with no advertising. And according to them, the best is yet to come.

 

Sangeetha Sarma