There is still an opportunity for a high performance, reputation savvy, domain specific social search engine that could make volume less of an issue.

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All that said, how many more domain-registration companies can you name without a Google search?

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And outside the open source search domain, companies like Rosslyn Analytics have developed a platform approach to complex data integration problems.

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As the volume of information in the public domain continues to grow, it may come to be seen as rude to do a web search about your neighbour or a casual acquaintance.

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He added that the robot's ability to follow a person made it "an interesting navigation machine which might end up useful in other domain, such as search and rescue".

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