Neeva Introduces First-of-its-Kind Feature, “FastTap Search” for a Faster Search Experience

Today, Neeva is introducing FastTap Search, a first-of-its-kind feature that builds upon our commitment to completely reimagine the search experience, putting the consumer at the center of everything we do. With FastTap Search, consumers type their query directly into the URL of the Neeva app, which then provides a drop-down menu with direct links they can select from to go straight to the information they are looking for bypassing the search page entirely.

Innovation that Could Not Exist with an Ad-Driven Business Model

One of the core tenets of an ad-driven business model is to keep individuals on the platform for as long as possible to increase the visibility of ads and the likelihood they will click on those ads. And for the companies that rely on these revenue models, the pressure to get individuals to stay on their site longer and longer -- to increase revenue -- has only increased year after year. This conflicts with the interests of individuals finding the best results for their queries. Yet, that is what the last 20 years of search has delivered.

“A feature like FastTap Search cannot co-exist with a search platform that relies on advertising revenue,” said Sridhar Ramaswamy, CEO, and co-founder of Neeva. “The core business model of ad-driven search is reliant on you visiting the search page, scrolling through a long list of ad-supported results, and then finding what you’re looking for ¾ of the way down. We see FastTap Search as a significant step, of many more to come, in our journey to completely reimagine the search experience built entirely with the customer in mind.”

Whether an individual finds their answers typing directly into their browser, or visits a Search page, whether they stay on that page for one minute or one hour, should be independent of the need to satisfy advertisers. Requiring this loses sight of (what should be) a search engine’s sole mission -- to best answer an individual’s query as quickly as possible. Because Neeva’s only customer is its subscribers, it is, therefore, able to innovate in ways that focus exclusively on improving the search experience.

FastTap Search shares similarities in simplicity as the “1-click” purchase feature seen on e-commerce sites. Just as that innovation helped speed up routine steps to purchasing, this is a similar approach to simplify the search experience. While FastTap Search saves time, users can still choose to go directly to the Neeva ad-free search page if they want to scroll through a much larger selection of answers, for more in-depth queries.

“FastTap Search is the type of capability that I always wanted to create, but until now, never had the freedom to do so,” said Darin Fisher, a software engineer who led the development of FastTap Search at Neeva, and was previously a Google engineer that helped create the Chrome browser and OS. “Neeva doesn’t have the traditional limitations that other search platforms have, of needing to please advertisers by keeping the user on the platform as long as possible. Because of this, our team has the freedom to focus all of our energy on innovating search in ways never before imaginable -- all focused on the customer experience. And this is just the start, we are excited to deliver more such innovations to Neeva users in the months to come.”

Download Neeva for iOS to try out FastTap Search today!