Background of Which Brand.com

The WhichBrand.com Directory Search Engine was born out of the frustration experienced by Robin Blackburne, the inventor of the Blackburne Double Strung Tennis Racquet, who, having built a spectacular Website for the Revolutionary Racquet, found it impossible to achieve a listing on page one of any of the search engines.

After undertaking extensive research, Blackburne discovered that not only could he not obtain a decent positioning for the Blackburne Racquet website, but virtually none of the major brand names in the world had been able to achieve page one listings for their websites. This was small comfort - but it did inspire him to conceive the idea of a brand-specific Directory Search Engine on which Brands would be listed by Category and linked to their websites. And EVERY BRAND OWNER was guaranteed a PAGE ONE listing for the brand under every product category.

Thus, in 1999, Steve Encarnacao, the President of Blackburne Racquets Inc and Robin Blackburne formed a new company - Brand Leaders International Ltd, for the specific purpose of building an engine to satisfy the now desperate needs of brand owners to have their Websites FOUND on the internet, in response to searches for the categories of their products.

During 1999 Blackburne had meetings with Inktomi and entered negotiations with the other majors who build the engines for the search engines. Not even Microsoft was able to come up with an engine whose functionality matched the demanding specs Blackburne and Encarnacao had envisaged and planned for their hierarchical-based engine.

So, reluctantly and against their better judgement, they set about having the engine custom-designed and built from the ground up - a task which only the most powerful internet players would have contemplated. It took three years and finally, in 2002, the structure of the engine was complete and the Portal substantially populated.

The task of marketing WhichBrand.com, without a partnership with one of the Major Search Engines or other giant of the telecommunications or software industry, was daunting and, by late 2000, it had become increasingly unlikely that Brand Leaders could raise the thirty million dollars needed to market the Portal effectively.

The Pink Pages

It was thus decided to build a sister "Yellow Pages type" Portal, which would be subordinate to, yet totally integrated with, the awesome power and massive content of WhichBrand.com. Build another Search engine from scratch ? Insane. But we went ahead. The project was started early in 2001 and was completed in the Summer of 2002. Extremely complicated and intricate programming was needed for the seamless integration and the Portal was launched as the Bermuda PINK PAGES in July 2002.

The response, measured by hundreds of thousands of hits from Bermuda residents and internet users around the world with an interest in Bermuda, has been exceptional.

The Problem for Brand Owners and Internet users

Any user of the Internet has discovered how difficult it is to find a range of products he is seeking, even by using the most sophisticated search engines.

The problem is that so many millions of web-sites are linked and cross-linked that it is ever more difficult to find the exact product sites, under the selected product categories, being sought. Since thousands of new web-sites are being added to the web daily, the situation is getting worse rather than better.

For example, if a surfer is looking to buy a car, and he wants to compare the features of cars, it is reasonable that he would start his search with "Car manufacturers", "Cars", "Automobile manufacturers" or "Auto makers".

He is not at this point looking specifically to buy a car off the Internet but rather go to the nearest dealer actually to make his purchase. But what he wants to do initially is undertake his own Internet research to compare the features of all the latest models. And this can only be done on the web-sites of the car manufacturers.

It is frightening to record that, when the closest match of product range to what he is looking for is searched in the existing search engines, i.e. "Automobile manufacturers", it is likely that only one or two Automobile Manufacturers will actually appear in the top ten or even the top twenty. There may be automobile associations, auto accessories, car magazines, local dealers, foreign car dealers (in Germany, for example - of no use to an American buyer) and other apparently unrelated or partially related web sites. This, as noted above, occurs with every search engine. Yellow Page searches do not help, since they invariably relate to localities, do not list brand names and include an abundance of hairdressers and other services.

The same applies to nearly every product category searched on every search engine. Bicycle manufactures, running shoe manufacturers, tennis racquet manufacturers, watch makers - all the same. The number of irrelevant sites that come up far exceed the sites describing the products in the category searched. This drives the Internet user crazy and wastes a huge amount of time. In the end, the user is seldom able to compare the full range of products, since they just do not appear. Then, if the user chooses the wrong path, he enters a maze from which he finds it difficult to exit and in the end gives up - frustrated.

The search problems occur with virtually all products and here is an example relating to a search for tennis racquets. Surely Wilson, Prince, Head, Yonex, Blackburne, Dunlop or Slazenger would come up in the top twenty. And on page one. Wrong. Tennis clubs, tennis magazines, tournaments, shops, wholesalers with deals etc top the list. This is the same story with every category of manufactured product in the market.

Not only does this drive the net user crazy, but it infuriates the major Brand-owners since, for some reason which they cannot fathom, their brand sites just do not show up on the pages they want them to and where they should be - under the product category searched and on page one.

As the better-known search engines become bigger with ever more links, so the number of banner advertisements placed on every page increases. This is distracting and irritating, since many of the banner ads have no connection to the items in the product category being searched.

The WhichBrand.com Portal and how it works

WhichBrand.com is a powerful Global Brand Directory Search Engine in which the world's major branded products, and additionally less well known brands, are listed and indexed by product category.

Only brand names of products and services are listed in Which Brand.com. A search by product displays all the brand names on ONE PAGE, making web search exceptionally fast and simple.

All listed brand names are hyper-linked not only to the home page of the web-site but usually to the product sub-URLs, giving pin-point accurate search results.

It is a hierarchical directory enabling searches through the hierarchy to be undertaken in a matter of seconds. WhichBrand.com is used extensively by private consumers and trade buyers around the world and represents the instant link between brands and buyers.

As you become familiar with the WhichBrand.com Portal, you will notice, with pleasure we hope, that there are no Flashing Banner Ads or indeed any other Advertising. There is nothing more annoying for an internet user, just about to visit web-site that has taken him ages to find, than to get distracted by an advertising banner offering discount motor insurance in which he has no interest.

Bermuda Pink Pages.

Internet users experience the same problem with their search for products and brands in local markets throughout the USA. The Yellow Pages fail to help consumers or trade buyers find the specific products they are looking for online. The Bermuda Yellow Pages site is not much help either and the search functions are somewhat primitive.

Bermuda has been selected as the first market in which to launch the "local" Pink Pages online directory.

The Bermuda Pink Pages encompasses the awesome power and massive content of WhichBrand.com, in which tens of thousands of product categories, services and brand names are listed and indexed.

The Bermuda distributors are displayed and linked to the Brands they represent. Additionally wholesalers, resellers and retailers are listed alongside the brands they carry, displayed by products and product categories. Additionally services with brand affiliations are shown with their Bermuda representatives, such services including insurance, real estate, airlines, couriers, accountants, hotels etc. Jobbing plumbers and hairdressers are not included. But if hairdressers represent, for example, a brand of Shampoo, such as Vidal Sassoon, then they will be listed and linked. Likewise, if a plumbing firm represents a brand of toilet or shower enclosure, then the links will be in place

Hitherto it had been extremely difficult for a consumer to find who imports, distributes or carries products in Bermuda, short of making a dozen random telephone calls. For example, a relatively new resident recently wanted to buy an electric shaver. He didn't know where to look or even where to start, having failed to find any info from the Yellow Pages or the Communications Directory. It took him an entire morning to track down and visit the stores where electric shavers were carried. Indeed this would have been an equal challenge for Bermudians or long time residents. In the end, it turned out that shavers could be found at the more unexpected places that included Gibbons Company, Masters and Gorhams. The most likely places would have been Stuarts and the Phoenix, neither of which carried men's electric shavers.

Enter the Bermuda Pink Pages.

The new resident has only to search the Bermuda Pink Pages for "shavers" and, with a single click, the names of all brands of electric shavers appear on ONE PAGE, with cross-referenced links to the Bermuda distributors or stores that carry each brand, together with telephone numbers and email info. The consumer may do his homework first by clicking on the brand name to go instantly to the product's site. Thus, in a matter of minutes, the consumer has been able to study on the Pink Pages Portal all brands of shavers made, decide which brand and model would suit his needs best and then telephone or visit the store that carries the selected brand or brands.

A search for the name of a distributor will immediately display all the products represented or carried by that distributor, categorized by industry category, product category and brand name,

Furthermore, the user may search for any Brand Name, and all the products made by that manufacturer will be displayed, listed by product category and with the names and telephone numbers of the Bermuda Distributors shown alongside each product.

And at the same time, without ever leaving the Bermuda Pink Pages Portal, the consumer may research any other product and check to see where it may be obtained in Bermuda. All in a matter of seconds, since the search functions, comprising a refined fuzzy logic feature and extensive indexing, enable pinpoint accurate results from vague search criteria.

Indeed he can, within a second, access all airlines and make a booking on line, contact the local airline office, or contact a travel agent - all without leaving the Pink Pages Portal.

He can also obtain medical advice in any field by searching the extensive Health section of the WhichBrand Portal - again without ever leaving the Pink Pages Portal.