Twenty-somethings Jonathan Kilberg and Chris Seline have been friends since they were about 2 weeks old. Since they spent so much time together, people jokingly referred to them as the two wrongs. When they decided to found their own search engine Web site two decades later, naming the company was a no-brainer — 2wrongs.com Inc.

Kilberg and Seline found that conventional Internet search engines left something to be desired. There are two kinds of search engines, Kilberg says. Editor-based programs such as Yahoo are "determined by someone who sits in a room and decides if it’s for you — one size fits all," he says. Then there are algorithm-based engines such as Alta Vista, which spider out as much information as possible.

But as anyone who’s ever done an Internet search knows, both methods end up providing a lot of junk sites that you have to sift through before finding what you were looking for. At 2wrongs.com, however, Web users first give a little bit of information on themselves. They may, for instance, choose from interests from health to business. You don’t have to be a member of the site, but it’s encouraged, Kilberg says. Members give permission to have their personal bookmarked sites submitted. "If 50 users bookmark the same site, that tells you it’s a pretty successful site," he says.

Users looking for sites on, say, the term "python" would come up with different results based on what their interests are. For instance if your interests were science and nature, you’d end up with sites on snakes. If your interest was humor, you’d be directed to Monty Python sites.

Kilberg can’t say exactly how many members they have, but he knows it’s somewhere between 800 and 10,000. He’s not too worried though, because the site has more than 2 million pages or bookmarks in its index — not too shabby. As far as revenues, well there’s still time for the 16-month-old company. "We’re not making much," he confesses. "We’re burning money like it’s kindling."

— Leila Marija Ugincius