By Kim Tae-gyu
Staff Reporter
Google is accused of imitating Korean services after the world's top Internet search engine came up with a pair of applications similar to those of local Web portals this month.
Two recent Google introductions suspected of this are a ``universal search'' unveiled last week and a ``daily list of 100 fastest-gaining queries'' disclosed this week.
Up until now Google's content sources have been separated so users could not see results all at once.
However, the universal search offers Web surfers an integrated way to search for and view information online by summarizing videos, images, news, maps, books and Web sites in a single set of results.
That is what Korea's so-called integrated search, which was launched by the country's primary Internet portal Naver midway through 2000, is all about.
Naver and other portals contend Google's new universal search, which is the only example of an overseas player demonstrating such comprehensive search results, is a carbon copy of the integrated search.
Google's 100 fastest-gaining U.S. Internet queries is a part of efforts to give a snapshot of what Web surfers are looking for.
Once again, Korean portals have long provided such services.
``Google boasts of technical edge but in fact the company appears to be adopting the me-too strategy of copycatting Korean services,'' said an official at a local portal, who declined to be named.
``Maybe, the firm's subsidiary here is designed to carry the wealth of our unique applications to its head office in the United States. Look at Google's disputes with Chinese portal Sohu. That tells much,'' he said.
Early last month, Sohu argued Google's new software helping type Chinese letters with romanization tools had stolen its database in violation of intellectual property rights.
After Sohu threatened to file a lawsuit against Google, the latter admitted it had indeed done what it was accused of and apologized.
In response to the Korean portals' accusations Google Korea flatly denied such suspicions.
``Google's universal search is completely different from Korean portal's integrated search since the former doesn't categorize query results into sections,'' Google Korea spokeswoman Lois Kim said.
``The universal search is about the future of search engines, not about the imitation of other services. Criticism against the new solution is groundless,'' she said.