Singapore has launched a contest for developing a next-generation multi-media online search engine. The contest has allowed for eight months time to build the engine and the reward is a 100,000 US dollar cash prize, as has been reported at Physorg.

The competition has been organized by the Agency for Science, Technology and Research. The contestants are required to submit an engine that can, in addition to text, identify and search music and video files as well.

"This global competition is not just about running another digital or software competition,…Developing such search capabilities will radically change the way people interact with multi-media information, creating seamless and accessible platforms for people across different online communities. This is the aspiration of Fusionopolis - to bring diverse scientific capabilities together to push the boundaries of science and technology to shape future lifestyles and industries. The STAR Challenge is A*STAR's invitation to top talent from any part of the world to come to Fusionopolis to experience and participate in our multidisciplinary R&D environment," said Mr Lim Chuan Poh, Chairman of the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR).

"The coming together of different scientific disciplines at Fusionopolis offers enormous potential to create new knowledge to tackle global challenges that can no longer be approached from a single discipline", said Professor Charles Zukoski, the Chairman of A*STAR Science and Engineering Research Council and Vice-Chancellor for Research at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

While the thought behind the competition for building this sort of a search engine is certainly awe-inspiring, many find the time period of eight months, to build an engine sophisticated enough to outshines Google, quite risible.

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