Cranking it up

I was reading about a new search engine that is available as an alternative to Google and Yahoo. This one is aimed at the 50+ crowd. It's called cranky.com (go ahead and click on it for a sample view.)

Cranky bills itself as the "first age relevent search engine" but it seem more like a devious facade for boomer friendly marketing.

Of the 10 "Most popular" searches, I checked out the piece labeled "working after retirement" and got an article from a 1999 issue of Business Week. (Gee! That was valuable.) The "Work At Home" search was filled with offers to sell you advice about how to avoid scams. How cynical can you get?

One of the most common work-at-home schemes/scams is Envelope Stuffing.
These scams usually incorporate a "registration fee" which must be paid before work begins. Once this fee has been paid, the "employee" is asked to post an ad -- often the exact same ad that the "employee" responded to -- using his or her own contact info. Once the "employee" receives a response to their ad, he or she will stuff an envelope with information/instructions on how to get started and mail it to the new applicant. The victim is "paid" based on the number of responses/registration fees received from the ad she placed. It's just a variation of a chain-letter concept.

Anyway, I was not terribly impressed by Crankydotcom. But it gives me an idea for other audience-relevent search engines:

1) Catpoop.net - "An online meeting place where cat owners can gather to discuss litter box habits of their furry friends."

2) Ifwedidit.com - "Accused murderers and rapists need a community to share the pains and joys of indictment and possible incarceration."

3) Coloradoblizzard.org - "a blackberry network where stranded homeowners can exchange anguished thoughts with stranded travelers who are stuck at the local airport.

4)Dontmakemeshootyou.net - "a search engine that gives the home address and photo of anyone who sends you a pop-up ad, so you can hunt them down and slay them."

These are just a few that come to mind. I'm sure you can think of others.