Information Society Watch

July 5, 2007, Choe Sang Hun, New York Times

In South Korea, the paradigm of the Internet search is being transformed from the Google model to a real-time question-and-answer platform featuring local language content. South Korea's leading search portal, Naver.com, fosters a sense of community and human interaction by relying on volunteers to generate content. Naver.com and other South Korean search portals developed because there was simply not enough Korean text to warrant a Korean search engine. So South Korean Internet companies began to explore alternatives such as creating a new Korean language knowledge database, as in the case of Naver.com. Naver's major competitor, Daum.net, has also made inroads into the realm of Internet search by creating Internet cafes that are not physical structures but online user-groups built around shared interests and then opening those cafes to its search engine.

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