MC Hammer's new Wiredoo search engine offers a service Google doesn't - bringing up 'related' searches as you search your first word. Hammer said that it was time to move past 'the list of ten blue links'

It's a little less catchy than the chorus of the former rapper's famous single, 'Can't Touch This', but MC Hammer has launched his own internet search engine WireDoo, with the slogan, 'search once and see what's related.'

The rapper launched his search engine at this week's Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco.

Despite the fact that he's largely known for his catchy rhymes and extremely large trousers, the move isn't entirely unexpected - the rapper has been involved in several hi-tech ventures in the past few years.



'I thought it would be interesting to share one of the things I was working on,' said Hammer, 'It's not an attempt to reinvent search. You can always make things better.



'We were working on what we could do with data to make it better. I'll be careful when I say that - I just saw Sergei in the back.'



The rapper was referring to Google's co-founder Sergei Brin.

'The real question,' asked Hammer, 'Is should it be more than just keywords and those ten blue links?'

Wiredoo, Hammer explained, is built on 'relationship' searches - the idea that searching the web isn't simply about one keyword.

The example Hammer gave was searching for a car - which he said is not simply a keyword search, but a search for related models, mileage, insurance, price and even car dealerships near your home.

He describes Wiredoo as a 'relationship search'.

The search engine will reportedly bring up several 'vertical' searches at once, showing related topics and searches. Hammer showed off the search working to bring up 'related' boxes about an initial search.



A Google search, by contrast, is linear.

Google's 'linear' search was the launching point of Hammer's new Wiredoo service - which offers instant 'related' searches from one keyword

Hammer pointed out that Google searching '90210' - the post code of Beverly Hills in Los Angeles, brought up huge numbers of results related to the television show Beverly Hills 90210, and results relating to the place were 'buried' beneath these.



Whether Hammer's start-up can complete with hi-tech juggernauts such as Google remains to be seen.



Wiredoo is in early testing at present, and a release date has not been announced.









