Interview with the man behind Rednano.sg
In the last two weeks Singapore Press Holding’s latest local search venture, Rednano.sg, made quite a bit of buzz in the Singapore blogosphere. To no one’s surprise, the incumbent media giant received its fair share of criticisms mostly surrounding the question: “Why do we need Rednano.sg when there’s Google.com.sg?”
I couldn’t figure it out too. I gave the engine a couple of spins but wasn’t particularly impressed, so I decided the best way to find out was to talk to the man at the helm. Three emails and 5 days later, thanks to my good friend Edvarcl, I found myself on April Fool’s day having lunch with the man behind Rednano.sg: Paul Jansen, CEO, SPH Search.
According to Paul, Rednano.sg is the flagship product of SPH Search and can be thought of as SPH 3.0. If you consider 1.0 the days of print, 2.0 Straits Times Interactive, then local federated search as a means of content discovery and delivery is 3.0. And it involves aggregating content that’s beyond the gates of SPH!
Paul carries on to explain that the purpose of Rednano.sg is to “define” algorithmically what it means to be Singaporean. Can that really be done? He believes so citing examples such as the search terms “home run” to Google means baseball, to Rednano.sg it points to Jack Neo’s film.
So if giving Singaporeans content that means something to us is the goal, so why have federated search as the 3.0 delivery interface? Why not user votes like Digg and Ping.sg? Or aggregated news like Techmeme and Google News? Or even Korea’s famous OhMyNews? Paul argues that search is the most used mechanism today for finding information and goes on to stress that in Rednano.sg, the focus is to “find” (you already know what you’re looking for) as opposed to “search” (what you didn’t know you needed). He also says that models such as OhMyNews are fantastic, but will not work in an organization such as SPH because it is too high risk for a public listed company to defend citizen journalists in court when required.
I had to ask the obvious question too: Does Rednano.sg compete with Google.com.sg? The short answer is no. No because Rednano.sg has access to sources that Google doesn’t such as the Straits Times archives and other sources of photos and maps and people directory that is built in house. Google takes whatever’s on the public Internet, Rednano.sg does that too (apparently with more relevance to Singaporeans) plus much more. Maybe one way to think about it is you could get all of Singapore’s restaurant’s details through a search algorithm that picks up on all the hotel and restaurant’s websites, but maybe a better way is to organise that information in sites like HungryGoWhere and Yum.sg.
All that Paul was telling me was starting making sense, except one last question that didn’t seem to fit: Why do I need Rednano.sg outside of pure local content? When I’m interested in the latest Samsung mobile phone, do I want Singapore content from Cnet Asia or the latest from Engadget? When I need a movie review do I look at those in Straits Times Life! or Rotton Tomatoes? My personal preference is the content from the international sites because of their superior quality. But according to Paul there just might be some who prefer the local angle on things. Who am I to deny them that request?
So with that, I got a better understanding of Rednano.sg and a glimpse into the future of SPH. But however we look at Rednano.sg today, it is important IMHO that we give it time to “learn” to define Singaporean content and become a real search (find) engine. It is after all in beta and comparing that to 10 years of Google is a little unfair.
Recommendations and ideas:
- Create a Firefox search addon (although I hear a toolbar is on the way)
- Since SPH wants to be the king of all things local news, they should buy out Ping.sg. U-zyn, how much you want? =)
- Create a Singapore blog search engine
- Replicate this model to other neighbouring countries before someone else does
Filed under: Uncategorized
Looks as though you had to give this write-up a ‘feel good’ spin as part of the agreement to an interview. I see no compelling argument in this piece - just the creator saying “it’s good”.
At the end of the day, any creator will give this type of justification for his creation, no matter how silly or lame that creation is.
Nevertheless, thank you for having the initiative to ‘investigate’ further and I do understand if you have to remove this post, cheers!
Hi thought provoker, thanks for your comment. I’m not going to remove it, in fact I like your honest opinion.
I take it you’re not too fond of Rednano.sg?
My intention was not to give a “feel good” spin, but to give them a voice among the opinions. The ability of the system would call for another post altogether.
Should I do one?
Ben, even if you don’t do it, somebody else will, with or without an interview opportunity -)
I’m skeptical.
Seems like another executive pet project.
Of course when they come up with a new product they’ll have lots of justification - otherwise the project wouldn’t have been embarked on in the first place.
Look at mocca.com. Months after it’s been launched… and after lots and lots of TV advertising that would have made the company go broke if not because its parent company owns the TV network… how much revenue is it bringing in, and how popular is it really?
Even now it’s still dogged with huge issues with user interface design (something I’m studying), and the revenue model doesn’t seem clear or sustainable.
It seems more like a pet project, as is rednano.sg
Google spent years and years and employs the best minds in the industry to work on its constantly evolving and argubly improving algorithm - how far can SPH go?
Bearing in mind that most localized versions of Google have, to some extent, algorithms to display results that are more relevant to users in the locality.
And what if one day Google decides to further develop this feature? That would effectively kill off rednano.sg
Only time will tell if SPH can pull this one off… but for now, I am very, very skeptical
@Brian, that’s true… i guess then I’ll just have to trust them. I hope Paul and the team will take their feedback well too. Where else do you get free advise but from the blogosphere.
@rey, it definitely is another pet project, but don’t all large companies do that? Did we expect a search company (Google) to build an online office suite? They did anyway (not that its fantastic compared to MS Office). But I hear you and share similar skepticism. It isn’t their core competency to build technology which is probably why SPH Search is a 80/20 JV with Schibsted Group.
I’d love to watch the war between Rednano and Google. Competition is always a good thing.
Oh and why isn’t Mocca doing well? Do you have stats on it? I somehow don’t believe their #1 classifieds claim. But I don’t have evidence.
Edvarcl heng? from cnet to sph? he was my medi back in army days.. lolx..
May I know what you think of the chances of success for this particular foray into the online world for SPH?
Wasting time Ben. We’re you looking for a job?
@Zippy, hey buddy.. yes Edvarcl Heng from Cnet. I didn’t know you knew him too.
@Chuang Shyue Chou, if by success you mean make more money than Google, then no. But to successfully serve a local search need I say they stand a pretty good chance.
Doesn’t look like there are any banks or credit cards in Singapore. Lots of PIE though.
I guess I should have defined what I meant by success. Do you think they can re-coup the outlay on investment?
I assumed that the interviewee would not like the adverse comments and ‘request’ you to remove the offending posts (especially a first one), and it is heartening to see no such thing occurred.
My gripe is not particularly with the search entity per se, but the fact that the local entities (ie. SPH, in this case) cannot shake of their obsession with monopolisation.
As correctly identified, such ‘pet projects’ do not facilitate actual growth but corner market share instead. STOMP is a fine example, as is MOCCA (and their extremely idiotic advertisements).
Why are these ‘mainstream’ establishments greedy? They can still exist and allow for the natural ‘ecosystem’ to flourish. But NO; they just HAVE to clear the beautiful jungle and create a forest - THEIR forest…
I’m beginning to like these comments. But the last two are not for me to answer. Maybe Rednano.sg would like to respond, but it’s totally up to them. =)
As expected, no response…
@hey zippy! yeah i’m the same east timor medic you knew from ada days ;p
@everyone else, loved reading all your comments. it’s certainly insightful and yes, we still got a fair way to go in getting our SE up to speed.
But here’s a question for you, Thought Provoker. Rather then concentrating on the revenue viability of such “pet projects”, would you agree that the main concern is whether there is a real social need for a local search engine? ;p
[...] than using google.com.sg - there are other bloggers who feel the same. I also don’t buy into Ben Koe’s interview with SPH Search’s CEO, likening Rednano to a national treasure trove of [...]
Looks like Ben beat me to it - just got back from a 2 week break. I’ve written about it anyway.
Guys, I think you should look beyond the search engine. Instead, go look at the Advertisement page and you’ll get a clue on what SPH is trying to create.
If they succeed, we’ll have a Singapore-version of Google Adwords and Adsense.