Google’s search engine is amazing, but it’s definitely starting to show its age. Ever since the company decided to favor linking to its own properties versus linking to competing services, it’s slowly been going downhill. You’ve probably resorted to simply asking your friends rudimentary questions and hoping that they’ll point you towards a right answer. That process of asking your friends a question and then waiting for a reply is exactly what Twitter co-founder Biz Stone is using with his new search engine, Jelly.
Install Jelly on your Android device or iPhone, connect it to all your social networks, and then ask a question. What if you don’t have a lot of friends? Your friend’s friends and their friends will still see your question, so make sure it isn’t something embarrassing or health related. Can this seriously take on Google? I have mixed feelings. A lot of what I ask of Google is serious concrete facts. I want to know the number of phones running Android sold in Western Europe during the first three months of 2013. That’s something people don’t usually remember, unless their an idiot savant. But when it comes to things like “What’s the best pair of headphones for under $99?”, then Jelly might actually prove to be useful. Look, I constantly make fun of startups and boldly claim that they’ll never go anymore. And most of them don’t, but some of them actually do. So I’m going to hold my tongue when it comes to Jelly, because I’m the least reliable barometer for popular culture.
