Future Now
The IFTF Blog
Get organized, get $$
OrganizedWisdom is a human-powered search engine that launched in 2006. A couple of weeks ago, it raised $2.3 million in a Series A round led by ETF Venture Fund, Esther Dyson, and a number of other investors. As Tech Crunch puts it, OrganizedWisdom is a "member of the very-crowded health advice space, and sees competition from the likes of WebMD and HealthLine."
So what sets OrganizedWisdom apart? The site maintains a database of more than 10,000 "Wisdom Cards," which list the most relevant and useful information related to health searches. (Click here for a sample card). Much of this content is user-generated: Guides are people like you or me who have undergone a screening process to demonstrate their ability to "discriminate between good and bad information" as they "comb the internet to find the best online health resources." OrganizedWisdom pays these "online health advocates" for every Wisdom Card submitted and published on the site. The site also relies on a team of "certified physicians" who serve on its Physician Review Board.
What I find interesting about OrganizedWisdom is the metamorphasis it has undergone since its inception. Early on, it felt much more like other health-related social networking sites (such as DailyStrength). Wisdom Cards allowed people to share their personal wisdom--the emphasis was on practical advise based on one's own health-related experiences. Now, OrganizedWisdom serves as a filter for the morass of health content available on the Web; its "hand-crafted search results" tend to focus on more professional content.
OrganizedWisdom relies on an advertising-driven revenue model. But if this recent round of funding is any indication, the site's shift in focus demonstrates a certain degree of wisdom (groan, I know) in finding an audience for those ads.