An Italian mathematician who contributed to the development of Google's search algorithm has developed volunia.com, a search engine coming online before the end of the year. Speaking to Italian website corriere.it, Massimo Marchiori, an associate professor at Padua University, described his project as "a new radical view of what a search engine of the future could be" and not a Google challenger.

Although Marchiori's team of software developers - former students at the university of Padua - could not compete with Google's power in terms of human resources, he believes that his idea is "something big, capable of competing with the giants of online search." He added that his "simple and different" idea from the current approach of the major search engines would enable volunia to emerge, because Volunia would be "really useful to people."

The Volunia.com web site allows visitors to sign up for a chance to become power users, who will test the beta version of the search engine, which is to be launched in twelve languages.

The new project is funded by Mariano Pireddu, the owner of Malloru, a business consultancy located in the western Sardinian town of Oristano.