Google launches Searchwiki
Another day, another new product or feature from Google. Well, at least it seems that way sometimes. Usually, there isn’t much added to the search function of Google, the updates tend to be to Gmail, Maps, or new products. This time its different, Google has actually found a way to change, and possibly improve searching the web using its search engine. Its called Searchwiki, and it isn’t as intimidating as it might sound.
In a nutshell, Searchwiki allows you to customize your searching if you search for things often. It allows you to move results up to the top of the list where it might not appear normally. You can also remove sites you don’t think fit the category or you just don’t like. There is one thing to know, however: these results are only for you. Google will remember them for you, but the results won’t go to the top for everyone else. So even if you add Gadgetell to the top of your list when you search for “gadget” it unfortunately won’t happen to everyone else. Continued after the break.
Yahoo finally getting their act together
Earlier this week we heard the news of Jerry Yang resigning as CEO of Yahoo, the result of a painfully disappointing year for the company that saw failure after failure. They have watched their grip on Internet search slip through their fingers and they are in danger of slipping into the worlds of anonymity and the pages of history. However, things are looking good for Yahoo fans with two positive pieces of news.
One Search
They are both an attempt to fight back at Google’s search domination, both in the mobile phone and PC sectors. The first is a deal sealed with T-Mobile with the “One Search” button. Yahoo have been poor at closing deals recently; however, this catch is definitely one that should help them in the future. T-Mobile has agreed to put the One Search button on their phones, thus allowing users to quickly get to a search engine and helping Yahoo by making it theirs.
Find out what else is in Yahoo’s plans to fight the Google empire after the break.
Scanned documents now a part of Google’s index
Google has announced a new technology that allows its popular search engine to index scanned documents. It uses Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to convert a document saved as a PDF from an image to words. Previously the images of text were quite difficult to find via a search because the engine saw the document as an image and couldn’t recognize it properly.
“In the past, scanned documents were rarely included in search results as we couldn’t be sure of their content,“ Evin Levey, a Google product manager, said in a Google blog post. “We had occasional clues from references to the document—so you might get a search result with a title but no snippet highlighting your query. Today, that changes,“ Levey added. “We are now able to perform OCR on any scanned documents that we find stored in Adobe’s PDF format. This Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology lets us convert a picture (of a thousand words) into a thousand words—words that can be searched and indexed, so that these valuable documents are more easily found. This is a small but important step forward in our mission of making the entire world’s information accessible and useful.“
Continued after the break.
Google reaches agreement with publishers for Book Search
When Google started its Google Book Search Service a few years ago, it annoyed a number of people. Those people included “the Authors Guild, the Association of American Publishers and a handful of authors and publishers.“ On Tuesday the groups involved reached an agreement, and have submitted it to the court.
The agreement would see Google paying $125 million, but allow them to add millions of books both in- and out-of-print. Of course, most people won’t be able to read entire copyrighted texts before actually buying them, but they will be able to see a few pages of the book. Plenty more information after the break.
Gotuit and Pixsy team up to offer a higher level of video searching
Do you remember a couple of years ago when Gotuit came out with “SceneMaker?“ It was all new and amazing back then. It let people take videos from platforms like YouTube, and then cut scenes from it, and tag them with metadata and stick it on a Gotuit (and eventually any other) page. Although people could edit videos before this, it was never with quite the same precision and tagging ability that SceneMaker offered.
Now Gotuit is teaming up with Pixsy to bring you the ability to search through videos by scenes. How? Keep reading after the break.
Google says they’ll “anonymize” you with Chrome
Wow, imagine that…privacy issues once again being raised in regard to Google. Shocker. The latest is in reference to issues with the Chrome browser and is addressed in the company’s blog.
The latest word of the day is “anonymize”. That’s apparently what Google plans to do to get rid of user tracks. The Google blog referenced both their Suggest application as well as their sparkly new (cough cough) browser Chrome. Suggest is featured in Google Search, Toolbar, the iPhone…and obviously Chrome. It works like predictive texting. You start to type in a word…it suggests what you might mean to say. Like….you start to type in “stre”, and it might suggest “street view” or “utter lack of privacy” or “you only need to sign off 3,793 papers to get your face off our program”, or “made by the ultimate rulers of all”. I’m just suggesting anyway.
Microsoft tries to buy its way to better searching
Microsoft is still trying it’s hardest to compete with Google and Yahoo! for your internet searching. It’s still trying to buy companies to do so, though it succeeded in the acquisition this time. To help with search results, Microsoft has bought Greenfield Online, the company responsible for ciao.com. Ciao.com is a European price comparison search engine, that is apparently quite popular.
This combined with the Microsoft Live money giving program could make for a great combination for Microsoft if they can leverage it well enough. It should be able to actually provide links to buy products in search results now, rather than mainly links to the the manufacturers page for the product. Sounds like a decent idea, almost like Google Shopping, but in the same page as normal search results if they implement it that way. Now if only Microsoft can convince people to actually look at that page, that’d be quite a feat.
Read [Reuters]
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IE8 beta released to the public today
Bill Gates promised frequent updates way back when they were doing the final testing of IE7. Yet somehow, it’s been almost two years before they finally released the beta mode of Internet Explorer 8 just today. Some will hurrah, some will cringe, some won’t care one way or the other. But…it’s out…and along with actually seeming to be an improvement over the previous version…it’s pretty clear that the folks at Microsoft are also using their latest browser as a clever little way to try to take over some Google ground.
I admit, I’m a diehard Firefox user. And when I checked out IE8 beta, I immediately recognized the same thing others seem to be seeing. The Smart Address Bar is very similar to the Awesome Bar in Firefox 3. When you start to type in the address bar, it tries to guess where you want to go, based on where you’ve been before. Although I have to give it to Microsoft, their Smart Bar seems to do the job even a little better. It shows history items, autocomplete suggestions, and your saved Favorites all in lists that you can collapse or expand with just a click. Also, you can delete an address from the Smart Bar with just a click as well, which is really handy for any addresses you may have in there that were typed incorrectly or if you have bookmarks you just don’t use anymore.
Google and Verizon in talks for cell phone searches
With Android hitting later this year, you’d think Google would be content with it’s place in the cellular phone market. Apparently they aren’t satisfied with just an OS. A Reuters report shows that Google is in talks with Verizon to use Google as the default search engine for Verizon cell phones.
This probably seems like a small move at first. But, the plan as of now apparently means adding a Google search bar to the homepage of Verizon phones. It’s not clear what that could mean, but if it is the main screen on the phone, it could make for quite a few extra dollars for Verizon when people with data plans accidentally use it. The plan would also have Google and Verizon sharing revenue from search ads when it is used on a Verizon phone.
The only small thing that could be bad with the deal so far is Google want to save the information from cell phone charges. Google wouldn’t use that information against us, though. Will it?
Read [Reuters]
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IE just might be going private
Only ten days left of August. Microsoft claimed Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 would be out some time this month. Well, the countdown is on. And hmmmm…there are rumors flying around that it is going to be a special version. Private. Yeah, code name for “porn mode”.
Private browsing lets a user go anywhere they want without leaving any tracks. It’s like they were just magically never there. Firefox decided not to go with it, and currently Safari is the only browser sporting this feature. The Mozilla Foundation, however does argue that “although while viewing pornography may be a popular use case due to the nature of content on the Web, assuming that this is the only reason that users need private browsing trivializes the overall feature. For instance, users may wish to begin a private browsing session to research a medical condition, or plan a surprise vacation or birthday party for a loved one.”
If trademark filings are any indications…the rumors of IE taking on private browsing may indeed be based on fact. July 30th filings by Microsoft:
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