Template:Short description Template:Infobox website Accoona was an internet company with offices in Jersey City, New Jersey, and Shanghai, China. Their main product was a search engine that claimed to use artificial intelligence to better understand searches. On June 23, 2005, in the ABC Times Square Studios, the AI Accoona Toolbar, driven by a Fritz 9 prototype, played against the chess grandmaster Rustam Kasimdzhanov. In addition to traditional searches, it allows business profile searches, and its signature "SuperTarget" feature. Their exclusive partnership with China Daily, a large Chinese internet portal, was seen as a highly strategic move.Template:Citation needed
The CEO of Accoona was Valentine J. Zammit, formerly of 24/7 Real Media and DoubleClick.Template:Citation needed
After IPO problems, Accoona shut down on October 5, 2008.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In October 2008 the web page said: "Dear Accoona search users, Due to an overwhelmingly competitive search market, Accoona.com and Accoona.cn will no longer be active. We thank you for your previous support. Sincerely, Accoona Management."Template:Citation needed
Accoona's domains and search facilities were acquired by Masterseek B2B (business-to-business) search engine on October 30, 2008.Template:Citation needed
PartnershipsEdit
Accoona provided the search technology to the Chinese portals Sina.com and Sohu. They also formed a 20-year exclusive partnership with China Daily. Through this partnership and its widespread Chinese affiliates, Accoona expected 10 million hits daily from the otherwise isolated Chinese user base.Template:Citation needed
Accoona signed a million dollar deal with FAST Search from Norway to help enhance their rankings.Template:Citation needed
PressEdit
- Accoona received attention after selecting former President Bill Clinton as a spokesperson on December 8, 2004.
- Accoona also received significant coverage from the webmaster community after many forum sites were spammed with promotional Accoona entries.Template:Citation needed
- Accoona was selected among the "50 Coolest Websites" of 2006 by Time magazine.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>