“Online pornography aficionados got a boost on Tuesday when a US entrepreneur launched a new search engine for raunchy internet material dubbed ‘Booble.com.’ An unnamed New York-based former internet executive has pumped his own money into the new Website that has styled itself as a light-hearted parody of the world’s largest and best-known search engine, Google.com. The new service, which its founder said was intended to be ‘fun, but useful too,’ allows porn fiends to filter through more than 6000 hand-selected listings of internet adult content… The adult sites to which Booble users will be directed have been filtered to exclude illegal or extremely hard-core material, using criteria including whether a site is worth the price it charges viewers and the quality of its images.” — Iafrica.com (Africa)

From a business vantage point, this is a pretty good idea. By creating a parody of Google, the founders of Booble are able to get free publicity that drives users to their search engine. What they don’t tell you, however, is that every “search result” only links to a porn site through an affiliate program. This means that Booble earns a nickel or a quarter or whatever any time a user makes a transaction after following a link from booble.com.

In principle there’s nothing wrong with this. Many web sites (including PervScan) use affiliate revenues as a modest way of defraying costs. For a search engine, however, this would seem to bias the results. Yes, if you do a search for “anal,” you get lists of sites for “Anal Town” and “Bum Bliss” and “Hot Moms Fucked in the Ass.” But are these really the best results for your query? PervScan clicked around a little and got mired in a porn-typical series of inescapable popup windows. It wasn’t pleasant.

And therein lies the rub. Google is successful because it’s genuinely useful. Booble will achieve a little success just because it’s a parody of Google — but unless it becomes a genuinely useful porn search engine, it won’t go far.

VideoBox

It's like the iTunes Music Store for Porn. Download unlimited high-quality video for only $9.95/month.