You are in > manchester.com  > News > University announces Google rival

General Manchester news

University announces Google rival

22/01/2008

The University of Manchester is preparing to relaunch an internet search engine intended to rival Google and Wikipedia.

In conjunction with six other universities and partners, data specialists have been scouring the internet to search for pages to add to the existing search facility known as Intute.

From the end of the month, Intute will comprise thousands of research papers and other documents, thereby helping students, academics and researchers in their search for reliable information.

Caroline Williams, executive director of Intute, said: "Google isn't discriminating about the material it chooses. It is very difficult for people to explore and discover trusted information.

"But automation combined with human value judgements, can be more responsive and dynamic in meeting the needs of higher and further education."

Intute, which has been described by Williams as the "envy of the international academic community", uses robots to automatically index web pages.

The main organising body behind the website is MIMAS, a national data centre that provides Britain's higher education, further education and research community with information resources.

MIMAS is owned and run by the University of Manchester.