Jonga.co.za
Thankfully not brandishing the Proudly South African logo, Jonga.co.za is a newly launched South African Search Engine. I haven’t used it much yet but there’s a couple of cool features first off that i’ve noticed.
Naturally, because of its being a South African focussed search engine, most of its results will be targetted for SA based websites. I think they’re using a script which checks the location of your hosting and if its overseas, it’ll count against you. I know thats how the various Google sites work for the various countries. For example with the default setting on Jonga, I searched for ‘web design port elizabeth’ (a phrase that has me in the top 5 for Google, MSN & Yahoo) and I’m no where on the first page. However by changing the search focus to ‘International Web’, I’m #5. So if you’re looking for targetted results for SA sites, Jonga will work.
It also has a nice feature for previewing a site before launching it. Probably using Java or Ajax, clicking on ‘preview’ will create a scrollable box under the search result that has a preview of the site. ADSL and broadband hardly makes this like a third nipple, not vital, but cool to have.
I gotta wonder though how well a new search engine will do when you look at competition like Google and Yahoo. Perhaps thats also what those giants are hoping newbies will think so that they can retain the market. But how much of a chance do new guys like this really have?
They’ve got a promotional competition at the moment whereby if you forward a mail about Jonga to your friends, and they forward it to their friends, you can win a PSP & R5k worth of games & accessories. I found out about Jonga via one of these emails so I guess this kind of marketing does work, but to what extent.
In my opinion it’ll create a wicked initial vibe as news spreads, but what kind of hold will it have? I mean how much better can you be than the god of SE, Google? Is it worth it?
I guess they’ll never know until they try. And try they are, so here’s 10 points awarded to Jonga.co.za and a well wishing for the future.
(ps… Jonga means look in Xhosa)
