Editor’s note: This blog is not anti-Google.

All we’re asking is that for One Day you try one of the Top 100 Alternative Search Engines to be posted here tomorrow for One Day – April 1, 2008. And no, it’s not a joke, we’re very serious. Choose one, choose several, but for One Day give the Alternative search engines a fighting chance and see what life would be like without Google. It will be alright. Really.

EveryZing, a universal search and video search engine (“Video SEO”), announced today that Raymond Lau, Ph.D. has joined the company as vice president of technology. Lau will be responsible for the technology research and application development of EveryZing’s core speech-to-text, text analytics, and audio and video retrieval technologies.

“EveryZing has the most robust technology in the industry, and with Ray’s experience and vision, he was a natural choice to head our technology department,“ said Tom Wilde, EveryZing CEO. “Just last month, we launched ezSEARCH, the Web’s first integrated universal site search solution, and ezSEO, the first integrated audio and video search engine optimization solution. Ray is a pioneer in the truest sense, and we look forward to working with him on advancing and building these solutions even further.”

Lau is a well-known serial entrepreneur in the tech industry. Prior to joining EveryZing, he was the senior technical staff member for IBM’s Content Discovery Services group, which acquired iPhrase Technologies, Inc., a company Lau co-founded in 1999 and led as its chief technology officer. During his time there, Lau was issued six U.S. patents for his breakthrough iPhrase software, which used natural language phrases to help users search online databases for the most relevant results.

“EveryZing is on the forefront of addressing several key challenges with respect to online multimedia, and I’m very excited to help advance their pedigreed technology even further,” said Lau. “The company is well known for being under the umbrella of BBN Technologies, one of the oldest and most respected companies in the history of the Internet. It’s only fitting that with the burgeoning online video economy, EveryZing is taking the lead in making those videos discoverable in a way they never were, helping our customers tap the $4 billion video advertising opportunity. I’m happy to be a part of it.“

StyleFeeder, the personal shopping engine, today announced open access to its API. The new open API initiative allows social media developers to create third-party applications and widgets.

“We looked around at the current industry and saw the need for open access to push e-commerce and shopping discovery to the forefront of online consumer activity,” said Philip Jacob, StyleFeeder’s founder and CTO. “Essentially, we’re offering a potent set of personal and social online shopping tools to developers — the possibilities are endless.”

StyleFeeder is exposing its unique and powerful shopping discovery technology through its open access platform, which has been in use internally for more than a year. StyleFeeder’s open API offers developers a robust package of flexibility with its customizable image sizes, fast response rate and read/write capabilities. Available methods include all of StyleFeeder’s key functionality, such as the personalized search engine, bookmarking tools, item recommendations, watchlist (connecting users with similar styles), StyleFeed (bookmark gallery of your added items), StyleTwins (people with similar taste) and more.

StyleFeeder recently secured $2 million in series A financing from Highland Capital Partners and Schooner Ventures. After receiving angel financing last year, StyleFeeder has grown with more than four million page views each month and more than 800,000 unique visitors per month. StyleFeeder is the largest shopping application on Facebook with more than one million installs.

*Note to editors and developers: For more details on the open API initiative, visit StyleFeeder’s Developer’s Page at http://developers.stylefeeder.com.

Alternative Job Search engine itzbig, an industry leader in job-matching technology, has taken another step toward becoming the preferred destination for employers seeking qualified IT workers by introducing today a new, more results-oriented business model for employers at the ERE Expo in San Diego today.

The new approach means that employers will only pay for Interested, Qualified and Available (IQA) candidates, a monumental shift from the way companies are used to recruiting candidates.

“Traditionally, employers have had to pay up front to list their job opportunities on a network,” said itzbig CEO Jim McGovern. “This model has become even more prevalent with the social networks entering the scene. Services like LinkedIn and others will typically charge you for access to their users.

“We are revolutionizing the way online recruiting works by aligning the value you receive with the value we provide you. With itzbig’s new Pay per IQA model, you can access our users and post as many jobs as you like for free, but you will only pay when you get results – when you find candidates who are Interested, Qualified and Available.”

itzbig can execute on this model and deliver qualified candidates because of the unique value proposition it offers to quiet working professionals.

“We give passive job candidates the ability to create anonymous profiles based upon their skills and specifications, and then see in real-time how they score against various job opportunities in the network,” said McGovern. “At all times, we protect the identity of the applicant, which is a very important differentiator to the quiet working professional.”

itzbig then provides employers with access to IQA candidates that have the following qualities:

Interested -Because itzbig protects each individual’s privacy, candidates are able to anonymously express interest in employer’s jobs. The employer can also initiate interest by requesting updated profile information from candidates to understand their interest level in its positions.

Qualified - itzbig’s profile matching system scores every candidate based on the specific requirements the employer sets for each of the jobs. Creating a job profile with skills, education and experience requirements will screen out any unqualified candidates.

Available – While the employer can express interest in any candidate, itzbig will not charge the employer until the candidate has reciprocated their interest and availability for the position by sending their contact information or resume.

“This is the future,” said McGovern. “New technologies are allowing us to accurately match candidates with jobs, which makes this business model very feasible for itzbig. I would challenge any employer to ask Monster, CareerBuilder or LinkedIn to bill you only for those candidates that are interested, qualified and available and see what they say.”