Meet Plonked: A New Business Search Engine You Need to Know About
Search engines like Google and Bing are great for finding general information about any topic under the sun. But could there be a better way to find specific information about businesses? A new company called Plonked says yes. On March 3, 2016, they officially launched their free search engine specifically for locating information about tech businesses.
A Better Business Search Engine
Plonked founder and CEO Ankur Varma makes the argument that their advanced search engine “improves users’ ability to discover, analyze and connect with tech companies.” This information is important for a variety of parties including:
- Sales and marketing teams that are looking to generate leads.
- Businesses that are considering M&A – either to buy other businesses or to sell their own.
- Job applicants who are looking to expand their pool of potential employers in certain tech-related fields.
The Plonked website allows users to search for tech companies using either the company name or related keywords. Once you’ve located a company, the search engine displays:
- Key information such as founding year, location, amount received in funding, the number of employees, and scope of operations.
- Similar companies, as well as partnership, customers and vendors.
- Names and information about key executives in the leadership team.
- Media traction.
- News and articles about the company.
The search engine is free, but to access some of the information about you must be signed in.
3.5 Degrees of Separation
One of the most interesting aspects of Plonked is its focus on connections among businesses. You may have heard about the concept of ‘six degrees of separation’ – the idea that you can connect any two people in the world through six or fewer connections. Varma says you can also connect businesses in a similar web.
According to Varma:
“The business network we have created is already yielding fascinating metrics, such as the average separation of 3.5 degrees from most tech companies. In other words, even the most obscure small businesses in the United States are in fact connected to the other 24 million businesses in the United States in just 3 to 4 hops.”
The Plonked website allows you to explore these connections. For each business featured in the search engine, you can see the intricate web of their partners, customers, vendors and similar businesses. When you are signed in you can also view connections to see how your business is connected to the company.
The Plonked website allows you to explore the complex ecosystem of businesses in America. It is currently only listing tech-related businesses, but the founders plan to broaden the search engine’s capabilities in the future in order to include all companies and all industries.