Is Microsoft ripping off Jason Calacanis's ailing startup?
Talk about adding insult to injury. As Jason Calacanis was sucking his thumb about the coming startup depression, Microsoft quietly launched a competitor to his intern-edited search engine, which has just gone through the layoffs Calacanis predicted for everyone else. Redmond's experimental entry into the market is called U Rank, an experiment in collaborative editing of search results. The sites aren't that similar in their approach to helping users find websites — but they are eerily similar in their flowery logos and pastel color schemes.