Ness Computing
Ness Computing’s mission is to make search personal. By combining its understanding of human nature with its expertise in search, recommendations and social networking, the company can deliver experiences that are more deeply personal than ever before.
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Ness Computing operated as a personal search and recommendation engine company, founded in October 2009 by Corey Reese, Paul Twohey, Nikhil Raghavan, and Steven Schlansker. Reese, the CEO, was previously a venture investor, while the co-founding team brought experience from companies like Yahoo, Palantir, and UC Berkeley. The firm was established in Los Altos, California, with the objective of making search a more individualized experience.
The company's core product was a mobile application, initially for iPhone, centered on providing personalized restaurant recommendations. This service was powered by a proprietary technology called the "Likeness Engine." This engine utilized machine learning, collaborative filtering, and natural language processing to analyze a user's tastes, social connections on platforms like Facebook and Foursquare, and general restaurant popularity. Instead of generic lists, the app computed a personalized "Likeness Score" from 0-100% for each restaurant, predicting how much a specific user would enjoy it. Users could also view menus, see Instagram photos from the location, and make reservations through an integration with OpenTable.
Ness Computing's business model focused on creating a deeply personalized user experience with the goal of expanding into other verticals beyond dining, such as nightlife, movies, and shopping. The company secured approximately $20 million in venture capital funding from notable investors including Khosla Ventures, Alsop Louie Partners, American Express Ventures, and Singtel Innov8. On February 6, 2014, OpenTable acquired Ness Computing for about $17.2 million in cash. Following the acquisition, the Ness app and its website were discontinued as the team and its technology were integrated into OpenTable's platform to enhance its own recommendation and discovery capabilities.
Keywords: personal search engine, restaurant recommendations, recommendation engine, Likeness Engine, machine learning, collaborative filtering, mobile app, OpenTable acquisition, Corey Reese, personalized search, dining guide, social recommendations, likeness score, data mining, natural language processing, venture capital, Khosla Ventures, food tech, discovery platform, user preferences