Rewards

They're betting they have a better approach to search — a site designed to highlight the most useful sites by seeking input from users who can earn Rewards by voting for, or against, Web sites. Even though 97 percent of Internet searches are done on Google, Yahoo, MSN, Ask and Time Warner, according to comScore, there are hundreds of smaller search engines. Newcomers keep trying because there is a lot of money to be made, said James Lamberti, senior vice president for comScore, which measures Web usage and ranks search engines by use. In the U. S. alone, companies are spending $17 billion a year in online advertising, and 40 percent of that is spent on search engine sites, he said. "There's still a ton of activity in this field," he said. "A lot of people think they can build a better mousetrap. " But it's very difficult to catch on. Hundreds of companies like iRazoo have started search engines.