VC backed search service Xalo.vn just made a change to it UI (now seems a front page) that would bring me back to the pre dot com bubble with many search engines mushroomed around the world in 90′.
We did not understand why Tinh Van Media decided to change to a portal like search service, that could make users think of many local portals such as Timnhanh, Zing …
We think focus is better, users come to search engine to find relevant information not to read news.

Technorati Tags: Timnhanh, Xalo, Zing

On September 30th 2008, Tinhvan Media, a company of Tinhvan Group officially launched its search service dubbed Xalo (meaning Highway). After more than six months of testing, users now can search Vietnamese with seven main search features: Web, Image, News, Blog, Forum, Music and Classified. This VC backed search service plans to surpass other Vietnamese search services with target of more than 30% of search market in 2010. This number could translate into a big competitor to the incumbent Google search and leave Yahoo in the dust. It sounds like a mission impossible but they hope a peer of Baidu, Naver, Yandex for Vietnam . A pay per click system similar to Google AdWords should be in action late this year. Congratulations to Xalo! We hope search advertising would be a dispensable tool for local marketers.

Technorati Tags: Baidu, Google, Naver, Xalo, Yandex