Pikimal (pronounced as pick-em-all) is a website, designed as a

decision engine A decision support system (DSS) is an information system that supports business or organizational decision-making activities. DSSs serve the management, operations and planning levels of an organization (usually mid and higher management) and h ...

that uses consumer input to provide specialized search results for products and categories. Unlike typical

search engines A search engine is a software system designed to carry out web searches. They search the World Wide Web in a systematic way for particular information specified in a textual web search query. The search results are generally presented in a l ...

, Pikimal mines data to provide users with only the facts pertaining to their search, as a hopeful solution to SEO and marketing biased search results. As of April 2011, Pikimal had 13 full-time employees in Pittsburgh, PA, interns, and various contractors around the world.

History

Pikimal was founded in January 2010 by

Eric Silver The given name Eric, Erich, Erikk, Erik, Erick, or Eirik is derived from the Old Norse name ''Eiríkr'' (or ''Eríkr'' in Old East Norse due to monophthongization). The first element, ''ei-'' may be derived from the older Proto-Norse ''* ...

, previously the chief marketing officer at Modcloth. The Pikimal site was launched in

public beta A software release life cycle is the sum of the stages of development and maturity for a piece of computer software ranging from its initial development to its eventual release, and including updated versions of the released version to help impro ...

form in October 2010.

Functionality

Pikimal allows users to adjust sliders to express what facts of a product are particularly important to them. These percentages are combined with an algorithm to provide users with product recommendations that are rooted directly in facts, but only the facts they find most relevant.

Pivot and Shutdown

In 2012 Pikimal changed its name to Webkite and pivoted to provide faceted search solutions to other companies. As of September 2014 pikimal.com and all associated sites has been shut down.

References

External links

* {{official website, http://pikimal.com Defunct internet search engines Internet properties established in 2010 Knowledge markets Companies based in Pittsburgh