Thursday, January 18, 2007

Cranky.com Targets Older Searchers

by

A Pew Internet & American Life memo from last year predicted a “Silver Tsunami” in the next decade as aging Baby Boomers create a new wave of older Internet users. Cranky.com, which launched last week, aims to become their primary search tool.

Cranky.com’s creators call it the first age-relevant search engine. According to a press release, Cranky.com uses four features to simplify searches for users older than age 50:

• Only four search results are displayed per page, with the most “authoritative” sites listed first (opposed to 10 results per page on most search engines)
• Members review and rate the top sites
• Expert editorial reviews on the top 5,000 sites
• An “Eons Answers” feature that helps point out relevant content

The site was founded by former Monster.com executive Jeff Taylor, who now heads up a start-up that markets products to the Baby Boomer crowd. If this generation frequently uses your products or services, you’ll want to check it out – and it brings a new wrinkle to search engine optimization as well.