Edtech Startup Sooth Launches Curated Web Search Engine Optimized to Meet Students' Needs

Sooth, an education technology (edtech) startup based in Kansas, has created a search engine that is optimized for students and knowledge professionals, presenting a wide array of exclusively high quality informative search results, without ads, sponsored content, and commercial websites.

The semantic search engine was built utilizing a proprietary search index containing thousands of the most reliable and diverse news, research, and informational sources on the internet. These include global news, think tanks, academia, governmental bodies, and many others. The results are organized for the user by source type, allowing users to quickly discover the wide variety of informational sources relevant to their search.

According to Jeff Walsh, Founder of Sooth, this idea was born out of frustration over the difficulty of accessing high-quality information using conventional search engines. He says that, despite the internet hosting an abundance of excellent information across a diverse range of topics and sources, most people struggle accessing it through a general search engine that is optimized for the nonexistent "average user".

"No one has tried to curate the internet, because it's a really big task. However, taking a vertical approach to the 'knowledge search' problem allows us to identify the sources that matter most to our users, and in many cases introduce them to unfamiliar ones. We wanted to explore the idea of creating a platform to provide direct access to all the high-quality knowledge on the internet while excluding all the dubious and marketing-driven content. For example, if you want to learn about clean energy using a general search engine, you will discover a vast amount of ads and commercial content selling products or services. But on Sooth, all our search results contain high quality insights so the user can immediately start learning about clean energy." Walsh says.

The first Sooth prototype received positive feedback but was too simplistic; users wanted more features, functionality, and content. Walsh and his team built the second version using the curated search concept, launching it in August 2022 to a limited pool of users. Sooth resonated the most with high school students and teachers. In April 2023, it opened to the general public, allowing anyone to sign up for an account and begin using the search engine.

To enhance the transparency of the sources in its curated index, Sooth has partnered with two organizations. NewsGuard rates the credibility and transparency of thousands of online news and information sources, while AllSides' Media Bias Rating indicates where a source lies on the political spectrum. The combination of these two indicators enhances users' understanding of the type of content they are consuming on Sooth. To tackle the reality of paywall-blocked content, Sooth is seeking partnerships with various publishers to allow users, especially students, the ability to access paywalled content, as long as it appears as a search result on Sooth. The company has already secured one major publication with expectations for more in the near future.

"Students and educators are looking for an efficient solution that allows them to leverage the best of the internet without all the noise. Navigating major search engines can be very time consuming. Some students now even resort to using generative AI to write the content for them, but those are prone to providing inaccurate information. There are so many landmines out there. Sooth delivers only the high quality content they seek, thereby enhancing their productivity while forming good research habits," Walsh says.