Scour
Encyclopedia
Scour Inc. was a multimedia
search engine on the internet, and provided Scour Exchange, an early peer-to-peer
file exchange service. Scour was founded by five students (Vince Busam, Michael Todd, Dan Rodriques, Jason Droege and Kevin Smilak) from the Computer Science Department of the University of California, Los Angeles
(UCLA) in 1997. It moved into the spotlight in 1999 when former Disney president Michael Ovitz
bought about a quarter of its shares.
The company's nice early products were an SMB
search engine and Scour Media Agent, a Windows
application to download files from SMB shares. The search engine would probe IP addresses for publicly shared files and then index them for download by other users.
In 1998, the company developed a web search engine
as well, crawling
the World Wide Web
for links to multimedia audio, video and images.
In 1999 Scour received an investment from Michael Ovitz
and the Yucaipa Company, an investment arm of the billionaire Ronald Burkle
. Together, the total investment represented a controlling share in the company. After the investment, Scour expanded in terms of product offerings and personnel. The company launched a software product named MyCaster which allowed users to stream audio over the network, optionally mixing microphone input with an MP3
audio file in real time.
Faced with the increasing popularity of Napster
, Scour developed a competing peer-to-peer service named Scour Exchange. Unlike Napster, the Scour software supported video and images in addition to just audio files, and integrated all users into one network. The company also tied its web site promotional materials to the Scour Exchange software and attempted to leverage its web and SMB indexes in providing additional search results inside the Scour Exchange application.
In the summer of 2000 the Motion Picture Association of America
, the Recording Industry Association of America
(RIAA) and the National Music Publishers Association
(NMPA) brought a lawsuit against Scour, alleging copyright infringement. Despite Scour's declarations of innocence, the company was not able to raise money to continue operations. They laid off most of its staff in September of that year and filed for bankruptcy protection, to protect itself from the lawsuit, shortly afterwards. The company's assets went up for auction and, following a bidding war, all assets were purchased by Centerspan Communications of Portland, Oregon
in late December of that year.
combining the three most used search engines–Google
, Yahoo and Live Search–into a single aggregated
search page with social concepts
. Scour rewards users with a point for each unique search conducted through the Scour Toolbar or at the website, as well as for commenting or rating a result (to a maximum of three points per search). Points can also be acquired through use of its affiliate program, with a matching 25% commission given to the host of the referral. Once users have accumulated a certain amount of points they can be redeemed for a Visa gift card
or PayPal
money transfer
at an implied exchange rate
of approximately USD$
0.004 (2/5¢) a point. The rate for those not in its target demographic, however, is significantly less–only USD$
0.0001 per point.
Scour doesn't give out rewards anymore.The program was cancelled in the summer of 2009.
Multimedia
Multimedia is media and content that uses a combination of different content forms. The term can be used as a noun or as an adjective describing a medium as having multiple content forms. The term is used in contrast to media which use only rudimentary computer display such as text-only, or...
search engine on the internet, and provided Scour Exchange, an early peer-to-peer
Peer-to-peer
Peer-to-peer computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads among peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the application...
file exchange service. Scour was founded by five students (Vince Busam, Michael Todd, Dan Rodriques, Jason Droege and Kevin Smilak) from the Computer Science Department of the University of California, Los Angeles
University of California, Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles is a public research university located in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, USA. It was founded in 1919 as the "Southern Branch" of the University of California and is the second oldest of the ten campuses...
(UCLA) in 1997. It moved into the spotlight in 1999 when former Disney president Michael Ovitz
Michael Ovitz
Michael S. Ovitz is an American talent agent who co-founded Creative Artists Agency in 1975 and served as its chairman until 1995. Ovitz later served as President of the Walt Disney Company from October 1995 to January 1997....
bought about a quarter of its shares.
The company's nice early products were an SMB
Server Message Block
In computer networking, Server Message Block , also known as Common Internet File System operates as an application-layer network protocol mainly used to provide shared access to files, printers, serial ports, and miscellaneous communications between nodes on a network. It also provides an...
search engine and Scour Media Agent, a Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
application to download files from SMB shares. The search engine would probe IP addresses for publicly shared files and then index them for download by other users.
In 1998, the company developed a web search engine
Web search engine
A web search engine is designed to search for information on the World Wide Web and FTP servers. The search results are generally presented in a list of results often referred to as SERPS, or "search engine results pages". The information may consist of web pages, images, information and other...
as well, crawling
Web crawler
A Web crawler is a computer program that browses the World Wide Web in a methodical, automated manner or in an orderly fashion. Other terms for Web crawlers are ants, automatic indexers, bots, Web spiders, Web robots, or—especially in the FOAF community—Web scutters.This process is called Web...
the World Wide Web
World Wide Web
The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...
for links to multimedia audio, video and images.
In 1999 Scour received an investment from Michael Ovitz
Michael Ovitz
Michael S. Ovitz is an American talent agent who co-founded Creative Artists Agency in 1975 and served as its chairman until 1995. Ovitz later served as President of the Walt Disney Company from October 1995 to January 1997....
and the Yucaipa Company, an investment arm of the billionaire Ronald Burkle
Ronald Burkle
Ronald Wayne Burkle is an American business magnate and investor. A major political fundraiser, he is listed on the Forbes 400, with an estimated net worth of $3.2 billion in 2011.-Life and career:...
. Together, the total investment represented a controlling share in the company. After the investment, Scour expanded in terms of product offerings and personnel. The company launched a software product named MyCaster which allowed users to stream audio over the network, optionally mixing microphone input with an MP3
MP3
MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
audio file in real time.
Faced with the increasing popularity of Napster
Napster
Napster is an online music store and a Best Buy company. It was originally founded as a pioneering peer-to-peer file sharing Internet service that emphasized sharing audio files that were typically digitally encoded music as MP3 format files...
, Scour developed a competing peer-to-peer service named Scour Exchange. Unlike Napster, the Scour software supported video and images in addition to just audio files, and integrated all users into one network. The company also tied its web site promotional materials to the Scour Exchange software and attempted to leverage its web and SMB indexes in providing additional search results inside the Scour Exchange application.
In the summer of 2000 the Motion Picture Association of America
Motion Picture Association of America
The Motion Picture Association of America, Inc. , originally the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America , was founded in 1922 and is designed to advance the business interests of its members...
, the Recording Industry Association of America
Recording Industry Association of America
The Recording Industry Association of America is a trade organization that represents the recording industry distributors in the United States...
(RIAA) and the National Music Publishers Association
National Music Publishers Association
The National Music Publishers Association is the trade association representing American music publishers and their songwriting partners. The NMPA’s mandate is to protect and advance the interests of music publishers and songwriters in matters relating to the domestic and global protection of...
(NMPA) brought a lawsuit against Scour, alleging copyright infringement. Despite Scour's declarations of innocence, the company was not able to raise money to continue operations. They laid off most of its staff in September of that year and filed for bankruptcy protection, to protect itself from the lawsuit, shortly afterwards. The company's assets went up for auction and, following a bidding war, all assets were purchased by Centerspan Communications of Portland, Oregon
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
in late December of that year.
Scour metasearch engine
Scour has since relaunched in early 2008 as a metasearch engineMetasearch engine
A metasearch engine is a search tool that sends user requests to several other search engines and/or databases and aggregates the results into a single list or displays them according to their source. Metasearch engines enable users to enter search criteria once and access several search engines...
combining the three most used search engines–Google
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
, Yahoo and Live Search–into a single aggregated
Aggregate data
In statistics, aggregate data describes data combined from several measurements.In economics, aggregate data or data aggregates describes high-level data that is composed of a multitude or combination of other more individual data....
search page with social concepts
Social software
Social software applications include communication tools and interactive tools. Communication tools typically handle the capturing, storing and presentation of communication, usually written but increasingly including audio and video as well. Interactive tools handle mediated interactions between a...
. Scour rewards users with a point for each unique search conducted through the Scour Toolbar or at the website, as well as for commenting or rating a result (to a maximum of three points per search). Points can also be acquired through use of its affiliate program, with a matching 25% commission given to the host of the referral. Once users have accumulated a certain amount of points they can be redeemed for a Visa gift card
Gift card
A gift card is a restricted monetary equivalent or scrip that is issued byretailers or banks to be used as an alternative to a non-monetary gift....
or PayPal
PayPal
PayPal is an American-based global e-commerce business allowing payments and money transfers to be made through the Internet. Online money transfers serve as electronic alternatives to paying with traditional paper methods, such as checks and money orders....
money transfer
Money transfer
Money transfer generally refers to one of the following cashless modes of payment or payment systems:*Wire transfer, an international expedited bank-to-bank funds transfer*Electronic funds transfer, an umbrella term mostly used for bank card-based payments...
at an implied exchange rate
Exchange rate
In finance, an exchange rate between two currencies is the rate at which one currency will be exchanged for another. It is also regarded as the value of one country’s currency in terms of another currency...
of approximately USD$
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
0.004 (2/5¢) a point. The rate for those not in its target demographic, however, is significantly less–only USD$
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
0.0001 per point.
Scour doesn't give out rewards anymore.The program was cancelled in the summer of 2009.