Brian Deagon at Investor’s Business Daily wrote a piece on search startups entitled, “Many Would-Be Google Killers Boast Big Weapon — VC Bucks.” Surf Canyon was one of the companies profiled and Mark Cramer, CEO, had the following to offer:

But no one has broken into the big leagues since 10-year-old Google. “You have to have something that’s not just a little better, it has to be hugely better,” said Mark Cramer, chief executive of SurfCanyon.com. “It’s extremely difficult getting people to keep coming back.”

So difficult that Cramer, after striving to develop a search engine, changed course and delivered a search application instead. The application, which is downloaded, sits on top of search engines, observes what a person is searching for, filters through it and aims to deliver more relevant results.

“We could have launched a search engine, but the challenge is enormous,” he said. “You can’t do it on the cheap.”

Update ( 10/10/2008) – Front and center, smack dab in the middle, here’s the front page of the August 7th edition of Investor’s Business Daily.