Tired of Google and Yahoo? Try Cranky.com

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- A media firm catering to people over the age of 50 has launched a new search engine on Tuesday geared to Baby Boomers and seniors. And the name says it all: Cranky.com.

Eons, the media company behind Cranky.com, said that the new search engine will yield fewer search results and rank them based on their relevancy to older Web users.

Eons was started by Jeff Taylor, the founder and former chairman of online job site Monster.com, which is owned by Monster Worldwide (Charts).

Taylor said in a written statement that the company teamed up with online consumer research firm Compete to find the 5000 most popular Web sites among a group of 500,000 Web users aged 45 and older and rated each site in order to create Cranky.com.

According to the Cranky.com Web site, the top requested searches for Web users over the age of 50 last year show some similarities to the most popular searches on sites like Google and Yahoo - searches about blogs and making new friends were among the top ten searches on Cranky.com-rated sites, for example.

But there were also several key differences between what's interesting to younger Web users and the older ones that Cranky.com is targeting. While Paris Hilton and Britney Spears were top celebrity searches on Yahoo and Google, author Stephen King was the most searched celebrity according to Cranky.com. Other popular searches on Cranky.com were for information about brain builder mental exercises and jobs after retirement.

The new search engine, like many popular online sites geared at younger viewers, also features social networking tools and an answers function that lets users get responses to direct questions.

In a telephone interview, Taylor said that he felt that many other online media firms have not focused as much as they should on Baby Boomers and that this is a mistake.

"A lot of people in the Baby Boomer market have kids who are using search engines and social networking sites so it's not like there isn't awareness of the Web," adding that there are approximately 44 million people over the age of 50 who use the Internet frequently.

But why did Taylor choose Cranky.com? Doesn't the name Cranky feed into a bit of a stereotype about older people?

"Why the name Cranky? Because I get 'cranky' when I get lost in the search quagmire, too," said Taylor, who is 46, in the statement. "I know it's tongue-in-cheek, but you'll never forget the name. And, when I discovered the word 'rank' nestled in the middle of 'cranky', I knew it was the right name."

Will Cranky.com be able to gain significant market share in the crowded field of Web search? It will be tough considering that search is dominated by large public companies with plenty of cash at their disposal, most notably Google (Charts), Yahoo! (Charts) and Microsoft's (Charts) MSN.

But Cranky's parent company, Eons, which was founded by Taylor in July 2006 does have some impressive backing. Investors include notable venture capital firms Sequoia Capital (which was an investor in Google, Yahoo and Google-owned YouTube) and General Catalyst Partners.

Eons also has several notable strategic partners, such as hotel chain Hyatt, health insurer Humana (Charts) and casino owner Harrah's Entertainment (Charts).

In addition to Cranky.com, Eons also operates other Internet properties for Baby Boomers and seniors, including a social networking site, a health information site and an online obituary database.

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