IceRocket: Surpassing Google Search?

IceRocket competes with Technorati and Feedster amongst others. It's still very much under the radar screen but already hugely popular with the very early adopters.

Since finding the site, I am tempted to make it my main search engine of choice. It searches for the latest information not just on blogs but on all websites.

If I feel this way, maybe many others will too. I'm not dropping Google or Yahoo yet, but I am quite intrigued by this relatively new site, to say the least.

As soon as I chanced on it, I wondered what mastermind was behind this. The interface is clean and inviting (a close imitation of Google). The search results seem superior to the many other search engines I've tried. And IceRocket doesn't have the teenage feel of some of the other blog search sites.

The site is very silent as to the background and origins of the company. There is no 'About' section to speak of. I had to do a little digging to find out anything about the background of IceRocket. But it didn't take long with the tools at my disposal.

IceRocket was founded in April 2004. Their CEO is Blake Rhodes. Rhodes originally had two partners, but they had to drop out to pursue their full-time careers. IceRocket's offices are in Dallas, Texas. In fact, their offices are in the same building as the Dallas Mavericks basketball team headquarters. This is no coincidence. Mark Cuban, the owner of the Mavericks, is also the sole seed investor behind IceRocket.

Mark Cuban got his start by putting himself through college and then co-founding a computer retail outlet (which later morphed into a systems integration company) in 1983. This company was sold to CompuServe seven years later for $6 million when it had annual revenues of $30 million. After a brief hiatus, Cuban then went on to become a co-founder of Broadcast.com in 1995. He sold this company to Yahoo for $5.7 billion in 1999. His personal proceeds from this sale were over $2 billion.

One aspect that is so special about IceRocket is that it enables all web site owners, not just blogs, to list their sites within the RSS system. To see more about this, check out "Syndicating Your Website's Content in Five Minutes".

At this juncture, I'd like to throw out a philosophical question.

What is the one development in the 21st century that may bring us closer to the future ideal for humanity?

I will quote Jason Calacanis on the answer, although this was not his question. In his plea for Google, MSN and Yahoo to think about adding a blog search in their search bar he says:

"Adding blogs as the second tab on the search bar gives equal billing to citizens and the media."

This may be the most optimistically powerful view of where the 21st century is taking us. And IceRocket seems to be there for the slam dunk.

Look for one of the big three to buy them before the year is out.

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The above image of Blake Rhodes was borrowed from TCU Magazine.