Building a Self-Learning Search Engine: From Research to Business

Manos Tsagkias, Wouter Weerkamp

Abstract: 904Labs B.V. was founded in 2014 by Wouter Weerkamp, Manos Tsagkias, and Maarten de Rijke to commercialize state-of-the-art search engine technology. 904Labs' strategic product is a self-learning search engine for online retailers, which uses some of the most recent scientific developments in machine learning and search engine evaluation. 904Labs has raised about 200K in funding and has signed pilots with large international and national companies. Since its start, 904Labs has grown with two developers and two experienced business people. In this presentation we tell how to go from research to business and the challenges it brings along?