Online pornography aficionados got a boost when a US entrepreneur launched a new search engine for raunchy Internet material dubbed "Booble.com".

An unnamed New York-based former Internet executive has pumped his own money into the new Website that has styled itself as a light-hearted parody of the world's largest and best-known search engine, Google.com.

The new service, which its founder said was intended to be "fun, but useful too," allows porn fiends to filter through more than 6,000 hand-selected listings of Internet adult content.

"I have a web development operation where there is a bit of a frat boy atmosphere, so we stumbled on Booble," said the founder, who requested anonymity to avoid being barred from his daughter's school softball games.

"What was a bit fun and a joke became a business. People like it. It makes people smile. It's funny and I think it'll grow" .

The adult sites to which Booble users will be directed have been filtered to exclude illegal or extremely hard-core material, using criteria including whether a site is worth the price it charges viewers and the quality of its images.