Scour

Scour

::"For the physical process, see ."

Scour Inc. was a search engine for multimedia on the Internet, and provided Scour Exchange, an early peer-to-peer file exchange service. Scour was founded by five students (Vince Busam, Michael Todd, Dan Rodriques, Jason Droege and Kevin Smilak) from the Computer Science Dept. of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in 1997. It moved into the spotlight in 1999 when former Disney president Michael Ovitz bought about a quarter of its shares.

Company history

The company's early products were an SMB search engine and Scour Media Agent, a Windows application to download files from SMB shares. The search engine would probe IP addresses for publicly shared files and then index them for download by other users.

In 1998, the company developed a web search engine as well, crawling the World Wide Web for links to multimedia — audio, video and images.

In 1999 Scour received an investment from Michael Ovitz and the Yucaipa Company, an investment arm of the billionaire Ronald Burkle. [cite news|url=http://online.wsj.com/article/SB928970934179363266.html|title=Ovitz, Yucaipa Buy Majority Stake In Entertainment Search Engine|last=Orwall|first=Bruce|date=June 10 1999|work=The Wall Street Journal|accessdate=2008-08-22] Together, the total investment represented a controlling share in the company. After the investment, Scour expanded in terms of product offerings and personnel. The company launched a software product named MyCaster which allowed users to stream audio over the network, optionally mixing microphone input with an MP3 audio file in real time.

Faced with the increasing popularity of Napster, Scour developed a competing peer-to-peer service named Scour Exchange. [cite news|url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9400E2D9113AF931A15756C0A9669C8B63|title=Agent's Role In Music Site May Be Shift In Rights War|last=Richtel|first=Matt|date=May 22 2000|work=The New York Times|accessdate=2008-08-22] Unlike Napster, the Scour software supported video and images in addition to just audio files, and integrated all users into one network. The company also tied its web site promotional materials to the Scour Exchange software and attempted to leverage its web and SMB indexes in providing additional search results inside the Scour Exchange application.

In the summer of 2000 the Motion Picture Association of America, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) brought a lawsuit against Scour, alleging copyright infringement. [cite news|url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9503E7DF173AF932A15754C0A9669C8B63|title=Movie and Record Companies Sue a Film Trading Site|last=Richtel|first=Matt|date=July 21 2000|work=The New York Times|accessdate=2008-08-22] Despite Scour's declarations of innocence, the company was not able to raise money to continue operations. They laid off most of its staff in September of that year and filed for bankruptcy protection, to protect itself from the lawsuit, shortly afterwards. [cite news|url=http://news.cnet.com/Well-scrubbed-business-plan-not-enough-for-Scour/2100-1023_3-245445.html|title=Well-scrubbed business plan not enough for Scour|last=Borland|first=John|date=September 7 2000|work=CNET|accessdate=2008-08-22] The company's assets went up for auction and, following a bidding war, all assets were purchased by Centerspan Communications of Portland, Oregon in late December of that year. [cite news|url=http://articles.latimes.com/2000/dec/13/business/fi-64827|title=Scour’s Assets Go to Rival for $9 Million|last=Huffstutter|first=P. J.|date=December 13 2000|work=The Los Angeles Times|accessdate=2008-08-22]

cour metasearch engine

Scour has since relaunched in early 2008, as a metasearch engine combining the three most used search engines: Google, Yahoo and Live Search. They plan to reward users with a certain point value for each search conducted through Scour Toolbar and at the website. Users have to be logged in to get credit for their searches. Once users have accumalated a certain amount of points they can be redeemed for cash. [http://www.scour.com/faq/]

References

External link

* [http://www.scour.com/ Scour]


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Synonyms:
(by friction), , , , , (by rubbing) / , , , , / , , , / (violently), , , , , / , / , , , / , ,


Look at other dictionaries:

  • Scour — (skour), v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Scoured}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Scouring}.] [Akin to LG. sch[ u]ren, D. schuren, schueren, G. scheuern, Dan. skure; Sw. skura; all possibly fr. LL. escurare, fr. L. ex + curare to take care. Cf. {Cure}.] 1. To rub hard… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • scour — [skauə US skaur] v [T] [Sense: 1; Date: 1400 1500; Origin: Probably from a Scandinavian language.] [Sense: 2 3; Date: 1100 1200; Origin: Probably from Middle Dutch schuren, from Old French escurer, from Late Latin excurare to clean off , from… …   Dictionary of contemporary English

  • Scour — Scour, v. i. 1. To clean anything by rubbing. Shak. [1913 Webster] 2. To cleanse anything. [1913 Webster] Warm water is softer than cold, for it scoureth better. Bacon. [1913 Webster] 3. To be purged freely; to have a diarrh[oe]a. [1913 Webster]… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Scour — Scour, n. 1. Diarrh[oe]a or dysentery among cattle. [1913 Webster] 2. The act of scouring. [Webster 1913 Suppl.] 3. A place scoured out by running water, as in the bed of a stream below a fall. If you catch the two sole denizens [trout] of a… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • scour — skau̇(ə)r vi of a domestic animal to suffer from diarrhea or dysentery <a diet causing cattle to scour> scour n diarrhea or dysentery occurring esp. in young domestic animals usu. used in pl. but sing. or pl. in constr …   Medical dictionary

  • scour — scour·ing; scour; scour·er; …   English syllables

  • scour — Ⅰ. scour [1] ► VERB 1) clean or brighten by vigorous rubbing with an abrasive or detergent. 2) (of running water) erode (a channel or pool). ► NOUN 1) the action of scouring or the state of being scoured. 2) (also scours) diarrh …   English terms dictionary

  • scour — [ skaur ] verb transitive 1. ) to search a place or document thoroughly for something: scour something for something: Jake scoured auction sales for the furniture they needed. 2. ) to clean something thoroughly by rubbing it hard with something… …   Usage of the words and phrases in modern English

  • scour — [v1] clean, polish thoroughly abrade, brush, buff, burnish, cleanse, flush, furbish, mop, pumice, purge, rub, sand, scrub, wash, whiten; concept 165 Ant. dirty, rust scour [v2] search thoroughly beat, comb, ferret out, find, forage, go over with… …   New thesaurus

  • scour — scour1 [skour] vt. [ME scouren < MDu scuren < ? OFr escurer < VL * excurare, to take great care of < L ex , intens. + curare, to take care of < cura, care] 1. to clean or polish by vigorous rubbing, as with abrasives, soap and… …   English World dictionary

  • scour — index decontaminate, frisk, perambulate, purge (purify), search Burton s Legal Thesaurus. William C. Burton. 2006 …   Law dictionary

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