Retrevo gives us a peak into the future of search. For day to day searches Google, Yahoo and Microsoft live are great. But what do you do when you are looking for something very specific like setting up that hi-tech printer or configuring the latest <drop in a name here> mobile gadget or any other cosumer device. We all know that setting up most of the hi-tech gadgets is a living hell.

Steps in Retrevo. Retrevo is the ultimate in consumer electronics virtical search. With Retrevo you get quick access to product documentation as well as search, and as per the demo I have seen, the results are very very relevant. The search provides a preview of the documents you are looking for. Results can be mailed to your family and friends with ease. Retrevo categorizes the results in different sections to help you get closer to solution faster, helping you narrow down to the product model and solution the problem you are facing faster.

The sucess of Retrevo would lie with adoption by the customer support sites of consumer electronic manufacturers and adoption by non-geeks. I can clearly see Retrevo reducing calls to tech support, reducing the support cost per customer and also helping improve the customer satisfaction. If Retrevo can help my Gradma and help her figure out that latest camera and dvd player, they can write their own check.

Retrevo was founded by Vipin Jain, Jiang Wu and Manish Rathi.

Knock knock Google…. Google Book Search is great, but Retrevo is serving a very different need.

Further Reading:
Retrevo’s Vipin Jain on Vertical Search
Interview with Retrevo Founder at Podtech
Retrevo at Wonderful Thoughts
Retrevo’s “Snapshot” Graphs Products By Price And Feature at TechCrunch