Neeva, once a potential challenger to Google Search, has announced the shutdown of its consumer search engine. The move indicates that a potential acquisition deal with Snowflake, a Montana-based cloud database provider, is likely to happen. - Neeva, co-founded by former Sridhar Ramaswamy, offered a paid, ad-free, and privacy-focused search engine that had recently incorporated AI-generated answers.
- In a new blog post, Ramaswamy and Vivek Raghunathan, another Neeva co-founder, acknowledged that the startup had faced challenges acquiring users for its search engine in the current economic climate.
- Building the product was easy, but convincing users to switch to a better choice proved challenging, according to Ramaswamy and Raghunathan.
- "There is no longer a path towards creating a sustainable business in consumer search," they wrote.
What's next: - Neeva is now deleting all user data and offering refunds to users with a paid subscription.
- The company will now pivot toward exploring generative AI and large language models in search, the co-founders said.
- Cloud data provider Snowflake has signed a letter of intent to acquire Neeva and enhance its search capabilities with AI technology.
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