Shivaun Raff
Foundem
Name: Shivaun Raff
Position: Co-Founder and CEO
Company: Foundem.co.uk, London
Company information:
Founded in 2005, Foundem.co.uk is a UK-based technology company specialising in vertical search. Vertical search engines like Foundem are becoming increasingly important because their detailed understanding of a vertical (or search category) allows them to delve much deeper than a conventional search engine. Foundem.co.uk’s aim is to significantly improve the way people search the Web for information, products, and services.
Interest in the Online Marketplace:
As all of us become increasingly dependent on the Internet, we need to be increasingly concerned about how it works and how it is regulated. Since Foundem is an online-based service, we are particularly interested in the future sustainability of the innovative online eco-system.
Current thoughts:
Regulators have a good understanding of the complex issues surrounding ‘network neutrality’, but the issues of ‘search neutrality’ do not seem to be so well understood. But search engines like Google, Yahoo!, and Bing have become the Internet’s undisputed gatekeepers, and the crucial role they play in directing users to websites means they are now arguably as essential a component of its infrastructure as the physical network itself. And the need for Search Neutrality is particularly pressing because so much market power lies in the hands of one overwhelmingly dominant search engine. So it is imperative that regulators look beyond network neutrality to include search neutrality—the principle that search engines should have no editorial policies other than that their results be comprehensive, impartial, and based solely on relevance.