April 11, 2005

Interview With Michael Yang of Become.com

A couple weeks ago, I published a small Q&A with Michael Yang of Become.com. Later that week, we found time to talk in more depth about several topics.

Starting To "Click"

People have asked me, "what do you see in Become.com?" That, plus reactions ranging from "huh?" to "hmm..." from friends, reminded me to guard against any irrational exuberance here. I asked Michael Yang, Co-Founder and CEO of Become.com, how they plan to convert people who are unconvinced by the beta site. "Time will take care of that," Michael responded, "when people use it for their own shopping."

He proceeded to illustrate this point with a recent Become.com success story. A frustrated shopper was trying to find product information and online retailers for a boat part. She spent over an hour searching Google and visiting their top results without success. Enter Become and their shopping-flavored search results. Within five minutes, her search was satisfied.

That is all well and good, but what about people who do not look deeper than design? What if these people equate no new interface with no new functionality, and they do not dig in and discover the differences? To address these questions, Michael said they will roll out a "seamless integration of search and shopping" in the middle of this year.

Favorite Searches

In an interview at ZDNet.com, Michael mentioned the keyword "television" as a example of how Become.com was different than other search engines. For me, this example hit home better than any technical explanation, so I asked for more of his favorite search keywords, and he rattled off refrigerator, lcd projectors, hdtv, and laptop/notebook computers.

I have linked these searches below for ease of comparison:

refrigerator	Become	Google
lcd projectors	Become	Google
hdtv	Become	Google
laptop computers	Become	Google
notebook computers	Become	Google

International Expansion

Non-U.S. comparison shopping has been a hot topic this year. All of the established U.S. players have sites in the U.K., and many of them are launching or planning a pan-European expansion. However, at the recent Search Engine Strategies conference, none of the companies in attendance said they had plans to expand into Asia.

I found this topic interesting considering how soon Yeogirl Yun's WiseNut expanded from English to Korean and Japanese. Would this company be on the same fast track to international expansion? And could they take a different path than the other shopping engines that originated in the U.S.?

Although he said it was too early to talk about specific countries, Michael was able to supply the following information: (1) they would like to expand internationally as soon as they are firmly established in the U.S. (2) this expansion would include both the research side and the comparison shopping side (3) they are evaluating both Europe and Asia.

Sean's Thoughts

I think Become.com could be one of the most interesting combinations of opportunity, technology and philosophy since Google at Stanford... this coming from one of the biggest cheerleaders of early Google. But don't take my word for it. Try some searches. Research the shopping landscape. You might come to a different conclusion. If so, let me hear about it. For my part, I'll try to overhaul my opinions and start fresh when Become.com introduces comparison shopping.

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see also:
Become.com | Overview of Services | Press Center | Jobs | Contact

Interview With Michael Yang of Become.com (1)
Posted by Sean O'Rourke on April 11, 2005 at 5:50 AM
Archived at Become.com | Interviews

Comments

Posted by Greg Hoffman at April 11, 2005 8:53 PM