Rollyo, a San Francisco based startup that launched in September 2005, released a bevy of new features on their site tonight. I won’t go into detail on all of them, but a complete list is available on their About page.
If you aren’t familiar with Rollyo, it allows users to “roll their own search engines” by telling Rollyo the sites they’d like to include in the search engine. Up to 25 sites can be included. Rollyo then leverges the Yahoo search API (and now Feedster as well) and limits search results to just those sites.
Rollyo also allows users to search pre-defined topical search engines.
The new features include a slight redesign, allowing users to clone and modify any other search engine (there are about 150,000 user-generated search engines available), and other changes. Also, you no longer need to register to use most features of the site (include search engine creation and use of the bookmarklet, discussed below).
They’ve also created a new search tool, called the Rollbar Bookmarklet, that can be added to the browser and allow users to do a search on whatever site is open in the browser currently. Many sites do not have a search function – the Rollbar is a very useful way of searching sites. This is a very cool and permanent addition to my browser.
Rollyo also has the right attitude about being a startup in the new web. The founder, Dave Pell, is a well known angel investor in Silicon Valley and could easily raise money for the company. But instead of looking for a large venture round of financing, he’s self funded Rollyo and has only one full time employee. By keeping the burn rate super-low, Rollyo can stay the course.