Accoona is partly

How about bringing in the President from the dot-com era? None other than Bill Clinton gave a speech at the lavish Dec. 6 launch party of Accoona, a search site that hopes to unseat category-killer Google (GOOG ) by using artificial intelligence travel industry statistics.As far as big names go, Accoona had more than Clinton to bring out that night. Its nonexecutive chairman and part-owner is Eckhard Pfeiffer, former CEO of Compaq Computer, now part of Hewlett-Packard (HPQ ). "We believe it will revolutionize how people find information on the Web," he said of Accoona. Another investor and sponsor is world chess champion Garry Kasparov.BOTTOMS UP WITH BILL. But all eyes were on Clinton, who looked very thin and gray but healthy as a peach, when he took the podium to give a 15-minute talk about the Internet's potential to bring people of the world together and disrupt the spread of terrorism. "I hope you all get rich, but remember you are doing something good for humanity as well," he told Accoona executives.The festivities took place at New York's famed Tavern on the Green, where a throng of journalists were treated to open bar, passed hors d'oeuvres, and a buffet replete with oysters on the half shell, leg of lamb, seared tuna, and other gourmet treats. What was the affair's budget? Accoona Executive Director Jonathan McCann wouldn't say. "It depends on how much you all drink," he joked with reporters university of tasmania.McCann says Accoona has raised $15 million from investors and expects to start making money right away, mainly by providing sponsored links through Yahoo!'s (YHOO ) Overture division.CHINESE CONNECTION. Despite Clinton's appearance (the former President agreed to speak in exchange for an undisclosed contribution to his charitable foundation) and the swank party, it will be a steep climb for the fledgling search engine. Accoona is named for the Swahili phrase "accoona matata" (or Hakuna Matata, as Lion King movie creator Disney (DIS ) correctly spells it), which means "no worries."But worries are already mounting. Early reviews of the site by search-engine buffs have found it lacking. Although most reporters didn't stick around after Clinton's speech to try out the new search engine, I did -- and what I found was that its results didn't quite measure up against Google on some searches that I had done that very same day. Accoona representatives promise that the search engine will "learn" as it goes on and become far more robust bioderma matricium.Accoona does have a strong buzz working in its favor, and that could help to keep it afloat until the technology is in gear.