Not to worry, though – Krugle, Inc. “will supply search functionality” thanks to a new arrangement.

Krugle, which is based in Menlo Park, California, has defined itself as “the code search engine.”

On its “About Us” page, Krugle claims that it can save customers time, money, and headaches – which is a fairly standard set of assertions – but it may be the only company in the world that also includes a reference to Shakespeare.

All right, so dropping the name “Hamlet” doesn’t exactly reflect on Krugle’s business abilities. But less than a month ago, the company received a bit of a boost in profile when Robert Scoble advised Microsoft to “look to Krugle for your search woes.”

Now, although the boys in Redmond may not have heard the call, it appears as if Yahoo received the message and obeyed.

Laura Merling, Krugle’s Vice President of Marketing and Business Development, took a moment to say some nice things about her new pals.

“The YDN guys, Chad Dickerson and Matt McAlister, have really done an amazing job at reaching out to the developer community – hats off to them for being so excited about what developers could do with Krugle . . .” she wrote.

Merling’s boss, Krugle CEO Steve Larsen, also had an upbeat tone when he made an official statement.

“With this partnership,” he began, “Krugle will make it easier than ever to leverage the true potential of Yahoo!’s open APIs and Web Services.”

Hint: it ain’t gonna work, even if they flush another billion or two down the “copy Google” toilet.

So, what should their strategy be? Go for a little cut against Google. Don’t try to attack Google’s castle head on. That won’t work. Instead, flank them.

Start by surrounding Google with lots of niche engines. Technorati showed the way three years ago, even though Google has largely caught up now, by doing Blog Search, which was something that Google didn’t do well (still doesn’t really: if someone wants to find a blog on, say, Scrapbooking, what search engine really gives a nice set of blogs? Neither Technorati, nor Google’s blog search engines do.

But, there’s another engine that’s showing a way to start building a more successful search strategy: Krugle.

Buy it, and buy it now.

Why? Cause it’s a search engine for developers. Go talk to Steve Ballmer about that one. Remember him screaming “developers, developers, developers?” Well, Krugle delivers.

Krugle does something demonstratable that Google does not do: searches code and indexes it and helps developers in a real, demonstrable way.

Here’s an example. If you’re a Windows programmer you probably will need to look up some API name, like “DestroyWindow,” to learn more about it. Krugle’s search for DestroyWindow not only has links to the proper MSDN page, but shows off book mentions and code, and links to examples of its use in code.

I keep hearing about Krugle from developers. They tell me it rocks for looking up stuff. Need shopping cart code? Search for it on Krugle. Now compare that to Google/Yahoo/MSN.

Now, I can hear you now “developers don’t matter to search engines.”

Oh, yeah? When I visit Google there’s a huge plasma screen that shows every Google search done in real-time (it only shows that a search was done, not what the search was about). Everytime I look at that screen Redmond, WA does more Google searches than most other large cities in the world and does more Google searches than the entire continent of Africa.

Hint: there’s not much in Redmond except for Microsoft. So, what are all those Microsofties doing on Google?

I bet they are doing searches for technical information and looking for code samples, error names, algorithm tips, and API names.

I remember talking to tons of developers on the Windows team about why they love Google: it was the best engine three years ago, by far, to look up information on Microsoft’s own Web site!

That brand love for Google spread from geeks and developers to others in society. Don’t underestimate the influence that developers have here. YOUR OWN DEVELOPERS MICROSOFT!!!

So, start small. Don’t try to be Google. Why don’t you buy Krugle, get a position in search, then build on that?

It sure couldn’t hurt. What you’re doing now sure ain’t working.

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Robert Scoble is the founder of the Scobleizer blog. He works as PodTech.net’s Vice President of Media Development.

Go to Scobleizer …

“What, me worry?” has been the long-time motto of Mad Magazine’s iconic Alfred E. Neuman. Koders CEO and co-founder Darren Rush and his co-workers aren’t worrying much about Google Code Search.

Google debuted its Code Search on Thursday, reportedly with the largest repository of source code available to be queried. Engineering intern Russ Cox posted about the genesis of the new tool on the Google Code blog:

And build it they did, competing with existing efforts from sites like Koders and Krugle. But Koders had some thoughts on Google Code Search and their own work, indicating that Koders is ready to move beyond where Google has arrived now (emphasis added):

Back in July we noted how Google’s full-text search and version control for Project Hosting would draw upon Google’s existing technologies for search and storage. Code Search will be a logical extension of their services to developers.

Koders thinks its forthcoming features like an OpenSearch API for open source code and support for ActionScript will make it a logical choice for developers too. They plan to double their index to more than 425 million lines of code, and employ new filters to help people find classes, methods, and interfaces more quickly.

Bring it on Google. Rush and Koders are smiling.

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David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.

Useful is probably the operative word in the article by Miss Coding Answers, Esther Schindler. Her report on resources for locating source code online could point a programmer toward just what one needs to spur a solution to a problem.

The new source code search engine Krugle received a mention in Schindler’s group of online references. Krugle still operates in a limited beta, but promises that it will make programmers more productive with its approach to source code search.

Krugle’s interface for code search allows the visitor to select from several languages, with C, C++, and C# among them. The query can look for code in any area, or be restricted to sifting through source code only, or functions or classes.

Koders provides a couple of ways to find source code. Its publicly available search engine can be implemented via plugins with the Eclipse 3.0 and above or Visual Studio.NET 2003 or 2005 IDEs.

C Source Search offers a utilitarian front end that makes Google’s look like Yahoo in comparison. But the search engine works fast, and allows users to define their queries through a dropdown box of options like functions called, function arguments, and more.

On the Code Project web site, a variety of content including code snippets and articles related to C++, C#, and .NET may be accessed after completing a free membership.

Those joining may also select from a variety of email newsletters and participate in code-related forums hosted by the Code Project, which was organized as a community of Visual Studio .NET developers and is part of Microsoft’s Code Wise Community too.

Tools and resources like the ones listed demonstrate a significant change from the old days of programming, where email and bulletin boards served as the only methods of collaboration.

Code search engines may have to prove themselves with a new generation of coders, but those engines may become to programming what web search has become to the utility of the broader Internet to users.

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Officially announced a couple of weeks ago at the DEMO conference, Krugle Inc. is preparing to launch a new search engine for coders… think of Google for Programmers.

The Krugle search solution promises to deliver easy access to code and other highly relevant technical information in a single, convenient, easy-to-use interface. From the company… “Krugle also improves communication between programmers by allowing them to add their commentary in a layer that floats above the source code. In addition, Krugle allows programmers to permanently tag code, and sets of search results, and easily share them with their colleagues.”

The company’s vision – Krugle answers the need for a single place to find relevant code and critical technical information. – See http://www.krugle.com for more

Anything Geospatial: Tracking developments affecting GIS, geospatial technologies, location-based services, mapping, google earth and google maps. Published by the creator and editor of GISuser.com & LBSzone.com

Real Programmers don't comment their code. If it was hard to write, it should be hard to understand.
-- coding wisdom from the "Golden Era of Computers "

Krugle will help Java coders and other developers to delve into their repositories of source code and find a particular bit of programming they need. The search engine has been scheduled to launch as a public beta on March 8th, during the O’Reilly Emerging Technology Conference.

The search engine works by “crawling, parsing and indexing code found in all open source repositories, as well as code that exists in archives, mailing lists, blogs, and web pages,” the company said.

It also automatically generates API reports, which show how code components integrate with other components based on the API calls those components make. Krugle detailed further capabilities of the engine regarding how it can help with queries about code issues:

Ken Krugler, the company’s CTO and co-founder (and we’re guessing the source of the search engine’s name), described the difficulties of finding code and code-related information using existing search technology in a statement:

Also, Krugle embraces some of the “social media” concepts that have become popular in modern web applications. Coders can save their searches in a “content bundle” they can share with other coders. Krugle lets coders tag lines or sections of code with comments as they do queries.

At a funeral, the Real Programmer is the one saying "Poor George. And he almost had the sort routine working before the coronary."
-- another anecdote from the "Golden Era of Computers"

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David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.