Internet News

Google's search for new ad revenue By Stefanie Olsen CNET (Feb 27, 2003) "Aiming to expand its advertising network, Google is moving beyond selling sponsored links that appear alongside search results to selling similar links on partner sites, including on the pages of newly acquired Blogger."
posted by gwen | 3:33 PM

Singingfish: Looking for audio or video on the Net? Chris Sherman describes Singingfish's multimedia search engine and its decision to offer paid inclusion. "Singingfish has already cataloged and indexed over 30 million streams and downloadable MP3s, with 150,000 to 250,000 thousand added weekly. In addition to using its search in the Real and Windows players, you can search for multimedia files directly from Singingfish's web site, which offers the greatest degree of control over your search."

Altavista News Search: Gary Price has some user tips for AV News - namely that it has content past the standard 30 days and can be searched using the full suite of AV syntax. Altavista News: Searching Beyond Thirty Days

Search Engines Group Results: He also reminds us that search engines typically consolidate results to one line. The result you want may be hidden. Collapsing Results With Web Search Engines
posted by gwen | 10:43 AM

Librarian blogs: Peter Scott's weblog for librarians is now hosted by X-Refer at http://blog.xrefer.com . "The blog will cover the latest news on databases, conferences, services, software, and vendors, for information professionals." X-Refer has a short article on Librarian Blogs. [Source: TVC Alert]
posted by gwen | 10:18 AM

Google Patent: Google received a patent for the way it determines relevance of web pages -- "refines a document's relevance score based on interconnectivity of the document within a set of relevant documents". Article mentions that there are three other outstanding applications: "Two concern methods and technology for providing search results in response to an ambiguous search query. The third deals with methodology and technology for delivering search results that use analysis of Web page usage."

Online Surfing: This will have us all checking Googlezeist and other search voyeurs. Does Web monitoring give clues to broad economic trends? in Reuters Livewire via USA Today (Feb 1, 2003) -- "Can online surfing habits accurately predict real-world economic behavior? ... Proponents who see links between online and conventional economic activity say they have uncovered close correlations between certain types of behavior — online job searches, shopping for new home mortgages and autos — and broader economic trends."
posted by gwen | 1:02 PM

"Overture said it will use Fast's AlltheWeb.com to experiment with advanced approaches in search and will use the AltaVista.com site to refine implementations for new products and improve presentation to consumers." WHich means? They'll spend $ 13 to 15 million on the web search in 2003 (including acquisition costs). But -- "Overture also announced Tuesday that it will offer new features, such as local search and contextual advertising, which it had been researching for several months. Overture plans to spend $10 million to $12 million on those products during 2003 and expects them to approach break-even in 2004."

Overture bought Altavista for $ 140 million cash and stock, and Fast Web Search for $70 million plus a possible $30 million over 3 years. And Yahoo will spend $ 235 million for Inktomi. Deep pockets.

Overture to Buy FAST By Brian Morrissey atnewyork.com - reveals that Microsoft was thought to have its eye on Fast and Altavista. Suddenly its business partner for pay-for-performance listings snaps up both.

Other interesting points - Fast and Altavista are considered part of the "editorial search market". Naturally Overture's objective is to lock in the paid-inclusion business, a product/service Google has always said they won't do.

"Overture Services, Inc. (Nasdaq:OVER), the world's leading provider of Pay-For-Performance search to Web sites across the Internet, today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the Web search unit of Norway-based Fast Search & Transfer (OSE:FAST), a leading developer of search and real-time filtering technologies, for $70 million in cash, as well as a performance-based cash incentive payment of up to $30 million over three years. The deal is expected to close by April."

"The company said FAST's Web search unit adds technological capabilities that are complementary to both AltaVista's and Overture's core technologies. Accessing an index of more than 2.1 billion documents, FAST's search results are among the most relevant on the Web. FAST's flexible, extensible and highly scalable Web search architecture is complementary to AltaVista's capabilities, which include industry-leading text analysis, duplicate search listing removal, anti-spamming techniques, as well as advanced clustering approaches that improve search result relevance. This combination will allow Overture to create a next generation Web search platform to develop new products in a fast and efficient manner. "
posted by gwen | 7:43 PM

"As for myself, I'm guessing one chief reason Google has done this is for ad distribution reasons. The Blogger network features plenty of high-quality web sites where Google could place contextually-relevant paid listings."

"In conclusion, I'm dubious that the Blogger purchase will bring any great search improvements to Google. That doesn't mean that it won't be nice feature for Google to offer to its visitors, nor that that purchase will be a great boon to Blogger users and well as weblogs in general. And maybe there really will be some great hidden search benefits yet to come. Only Google knows for sure, and we'll all learn more, in the coming weeks."
posted by gwen | 2:16 PM

Travel: Chris Sherman recommends some Cybercafes. He should know - he travels a lot. Cybercafe Search Engines in SearchDay (Feb 24, 2003)
posted by gwen | 1:45 PM

Monday, February 24, 2003

Google and Blogger: Is there any other news? New York Times takes a detailed look -- Deal May Freshen Up Google's Links by David F Gallagher (Feb 24, 2003). Has some interesting bits about Google News --

"Google's attempt to automate news gathering on its news page (news.google.com) is still under development but has already earned some ridicule from journalists. Google News scans some 4,000 news sites and compiles a page of links, using clues like the content and placement of articles to arrange headlines. The page resembles other news sites, but there have been glitches. For example, Google News was more than an hour behind human-powered sites CNN.com and Yahoo News with word of the disintegration of the space shuttle Columbia."

Blogger might help Google pick up news more quickly. Chris Sherman still thinks it's partly about advertising. One good thing for bloggers may come of it - a good search engine.
posted by gwen | 1:28 PM

Sunday, February 23, 2003

Google and Blogger: Leander Kahney at Wired figures out Why Did Google Want Blogger? (Feb 22, 2003) Actually Chris Cleveland of Dieselpoint, a search software company, figured it out. It is to improve the Google search engine by having access to the content of the weblogs. "Cleveland said Google will likely use Blogger to develop sophisticated searches that utilize the rich metadata inherent in the RSS feeds from weblogs: who wrote what and when, what it linked to, what linked to it and its level of popularity with Web surfers."
posted by gwen | 10:37 AM

Saturday, February 22, 2003

Internet Stats: Internet population up by another 4%. Growth is in Spain (where they love instant messaging), and Central and Eastern Europe. Sweden, Hong Kong, the Netherlands and Australia are the most mature in Internet usage.

"According to findings from Nielsen//NetRatings, 580 million people now have Internet access with 168.6 million attributed to the U.S. "
posted by gwen | 3:25 PM

MSN and Inktomi: So much for speculation that MSN would not want to renew use of Inktomi because it is owned by its rival Yahoo. Inktomi extends deal with MSN by Jim Hu. CNet News (Feb 21, 2003) Extension is until 2005.
posted by gwen | 3:18 PM

Overture and Altavista: Danny Sullivan makes sense of it in Overture To Buy AltaVista at SearchDay. (Feb 19, 2003)
posted by gwen | 12:16 AM

Google: Is Google too powerful? "What will Google do with Blogger? Is it time to set up Ofsearch, a regulator of search engines asks technology consultant Bill Thompson" BBC News (Feb 21, 2003) People are worrying that Google collects too much information on people, is encroaching on portal territory - and generally is inviting trouble. Lots of discussion for and against.
posted by gwen | 12:14 AM

Friday, February 21, 2003

Desktop Software: Dave Chalk likes Enfish as a search tool for searching content on his computer. Enfish has a corporate version also. " It [Enfish] cross-references information located on desktops, corporate networks and the Internet and indexes it by content, as opposed to file name or type. At an enterprise level it also works with existing content and knowledge management systems and company intranets."

Web Searching: Jon Kleinberg, a professor of computer science at Cornell University, looks for the "burstiness" of words in documents over time and what that can tell us about the period. " The technique, he suggests, could have many "data mining" applications, including searching the Web or studying trends in society as reflected in Web pages." There are implications for web searching. Sniper today will mean something different because of the Washington DC sniper to other periods.

Kleinberg spoke at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He was an early proponent of analyzing links to identify authorities and hubs, and of the view that the Web is made up of self-organizing communities. ""Deeper analysis, exposing the structure of communities embedded in the Web, raises the prospect of bringing together individuals with common interests and lowering barriers to communication," Kleinberg concludes."

Looksmart: Web Rank interviewed Dakota Sullivan, VP of Looksmart and raised some interesting questions. With Yahoo purchasing Inktomi, how will this affect LookSmart's search results? Good question. Should Looksmart pay its competitor Yahoo for results? Have LookSmart received any take over offers? Everyone waits for MSN to buy Looksmart. It supplies the bulk of the search results to MSN (according to Sullivan). There are some interesting bits too - 40% of their searches are for 3 or more words. Really? Reading between the lines, we can expect changes in 2003

Hotbot - Inktomi: Exactly what is there to like about the new Hotbot connection to Inktomi? The Advanced Search page with the filters is a brute to figure out. Say you want to search digital library in title. One's inclination would be to use the search box further down the page - choose all the words and in page title. But Hotbot says - oops no terms. To make it work, you have to put digital library in the top search box as well. In two places - not just the top and not just in the filter. Let's add another word - reference in title. Open a second filter and make selections. Results are good. Now we'd like to jump to FAST or Google to run the search there. No can do. Hotbot only remembers the terms from the top box - digital library - and forgets the filters and extra term. Is it really worth the bother?
posted by gwen | 1:42 PM

"The utility can turn a few characters, a word, or a phrase into a shortcut for applications, files, and Web sites. It can also operate like Word's AutoText, except that you can invoke it in any text application. Announced Monday at Demo, each of the two versions can be downloaded now for a 60-day trial. The basic version, ActiveWords SE, costs $10; a deluxe version, ActiveWords Plus, costs $50."

ActiveWords Turns Words Into Actions Windows utility aims to save clicks, time with quick file and Web searches in context. by Ramon G. McLeod, PCWorld.com (Feb 18, 2003)
posted by gwen | 12:36 PM

Search Engine Business Model Search Engine Resurgence By Cynthia L. Webb. Washington Post (Feb 19, 2003) reviews the recent Overture-Altavista purchase and the Google-Blogger and comments on the efforts of search engines to make money through the ad-search model.
posted by gwen | 12:04 PM

Expedia: People who book their travel online will find snippets in this article about Expedia very interesting. Richard Barton was the young CEO who grew Expedia to a point where it dominates the consumer travel business. But he has quit - ostensibly to spend more time in Italy and France. There must be more to the story. Replacing him is the Canadian Erik Blatchford who will take Expedia into the corporate travel business.

"Expedia's big leap came just when it looked as if it was heading for deep trouble--after September 11. Sales had fallen by 65% just after the attacks. Yet rather than slice spending, as everybody else did, Barton boosted marketing by 56% and tech research and development by 35% for 2002. Now, just a year later, Expedia is doing 55% more business than Travelocity, and Expedia's share of the online travel market has risen to 19%, up from 12% two years ago."

Expedia: Changing Pilots in Mid-Climb "While the travel biz limps along, Expedia had record sales--and profits--in 2002. Then the CEO quit" Business Week (Feb 24, 2003)
posted by gwen | 10:54 AM

Overture and Altavista: Gary Price lists the ways Altavista is superior to Alltheweb and Google and hopes that new owner Overture will improve the database of crawled results. Overture Buys AltaVista (Feb 19, 2003)
posted by gwen | 10:09 AM

Wednesday, February 19, 2003

Creative Commons: Creative Commons is a non-profit organization to encourage sharing of copyrighted material. Scientific American describes the types of licenses available to people who want to add the copyright and also share. There's hope that the Internet won't just become a giant shopping concourse. Some Rights Reserved Cyber-law activists devise a set of licenses for sharing creative works By Gary Stix Scientific American (March 2003)
posted by gwen | 1:06 PM

Overture and Altavista: More on the significance of Overture's purchase of Altavista in Overture to buy AltaVista
By Stefanie Olsen CNET (Feb 18, 2003)

"Overture plans to license the technology to its customers, which include Yahoo, MSN and AOL Europe. Overture also will use AltaVista.com to test new search services and marketing products for its advertisers."

"Yahoo, Overture and major search providers have seized on Web search as a key area for growth in online advertising in the coming year. To drive consumer demand for their services--and clicks on paid listings--Yahoo and Overture are focused on providing the fastest, most relevant Web search results to rival those of Internet darling Google."

Of course Overture will discontinue using Inktomi to backfill results - and switch to Altavista, as well as exploit Altavista's paid inclusion.
posted by gwen | 9:51 AM

Tuesday, February 18, 2003

Bill Gates' Crystal Ball: PC Magazine did an exclusive with Mr. Microsoft Bill Gates. Bill Gates uses a tablet all the time and wears the Spot watch - has his calendar, traffic reports, basketball games, stocks. He talked about Office 11 - rent your software. In what's next - well speech recognition some day.

Exclusive: A Chat with Bill Gates By Michael J. Miller (Feb 14, 2003)
"The conversation ranged from Tablet PCs and Microsoft's effort—dubbed SPOT—to infuse watches and other everyday objects with online intelligence, to a slated Xbox Live showdown between Gates and NBA star Shaquille O'Neal. "I'm a little worried," Gates conceded, regarding the face-off with Shaq."
posted by gwen | 8:03 PM

"The acquisition will enable Overture to offer a significantly enhanced Web search solution to portals, Internet service providers (ISPs) and other destination sites, as well as additional marketing opportunities to the company's large base of advertisers. AltaVista's advanced algorithmic search technology, which crawls the Web and returns relevant search results in response to users' queries, strategically complements Overture's market-leading technology in commercial search. Additionally, AltaVista's Web site will allow Overture to test and refine new products and services in a live setting, and its suite of search-related technology patents will help support Overture's entry into algorithmic search."
posted by gwen | 7:14 PM

Opencola: Opencola releases enterprise edition Globe and Mail. (Feb 18, 2003) Opencola is desktop search software with support for collaboration among researchers - and much else. Made in Markham, Ontario.
posted by gwen | 6:25 PM

Google and weblogs: Chris Sherman speculates on the reasons Google bought Blogger. There may be some synergies for Google News, there might be a space for Google Ad Words (I hope not). The commentary and links in weblogs might help in evaluating sites/pages. Perhaps there will be a personalization angle. Interesting reading.
Puzzling Out Google's Blogger Acquisition SearchDay (Feb 18, 2003)
posted by gwen | 6:18 PM

Monday, February 17, 2003

Google and weblogs. Google bought Blogger! Oh oh. Is providing a weblog service the business of a search engine? Indexing weblogs would be - but owning the mechanism? Yahoo went this way with Yahoo groups. I'm uneasy.

Google Buys Pyra: Fuel for The Blogging World! Google Village (Feb 16, 2003) - says Google indexes weblogs daily. On the whole Googlevillage thinks it's a good idea -- "With Google buying Pyra, we are about to see blogging not only go mainstream but perhaps be THE way information is delivered in the future. Weblogging coupled with news feeds, aggregators and the most interactive search engine, this is a formidable set of tools -- the information era is just about to begin!"

Google Deal Ties Company to Weblogs by Amy Harmon. New York Times (Feb 17) -- "hailed ... as a watershed moment for the fledgling communications medium"

Google Buys Blogger Executive Summary (a weblog) - Rick Bruner who uses Blogger is glad and hopes that Google's ownership will beef up the service.
posted by gwen | 9:39 AM

Sunday, February 16, 2003

Auction Fraud: A word to the wise - be wary of the dangers at online auctions. And the Online Fraud Goes On... By Beth Cox ECommerce (Feb 15, 2003)
posted by gwen | 12:23 PM

Saturday, February 15, 2003

US Government Resources: Library Journal has a guide to US government information on the Web. Web Watch: Government Information by Luke Griffin (Oct 1, 2002)
posted by gwen | 12:19 PM

AlltheWeb vs Google: GoogleVillage has picked up another good study from Verity Intellectual Properties Pty Ltd, an Australian Internet Publishing Company - this time Google vs Alltheweb on pages indexed, freshness, and success with multi-word queries.

Target site was GoogleVillage itself. Findings:
- Google was fresher, but missed 8 pages. Alltheweb was thorough but did not have the 18 most recent pages.
- On multi-word queries, Alltheweb put the target document into the first 35 results 100% of the time. Google listed it in the first 45 results 50% of the time. (Article doesn't show exactly comparable figures.)

Conclusions:
- "AllTheWeb/FAST has a sounder search engine in practice. It lists pages without fault, and it does not miss pages. In addition, AllTheWeb is far better at pinpointing a specific document close to a multi-word conceptual term."
- "AllTheWeb just needs to increase the frequency of their robot crawls and Google would have some formidable competition. AllTheWeb could, it seems, give searchers in practice a more efficient service than could Google."
posted by gwen | 12:14 PM

Search Engines: Search engines are becoming geographically sensitive. They will be able to find services in your local area by deducing where you are and knowing where the services are. Metamend is a company in Victoria, B.C. that will help tag sites with geographic information.

Web search finds local angle By Stefanie Olsen CNET (Feb 14, 2003) "One software company aims to make searching for local businesses on the Web more intuitive, especially on future Web-enabled mobile devices."

"Momentum is gathering for location-based navigation among search engines and mobile device makers. Web search technology companies including FAST Search & Transfer and Google are working with wireless phone companies to power mobile search that can benefit from locally targeted results. In addition, wireless Internet devices are more often equipped with GPS technology that can track the user's physical whereabouts. Both parties want to localize Web search to make it more relevant and draw more regional advertising dollars. " Alltheweb today can tailor results to the searcher's country.
posted by gwen | 11:57 AM

SurfSaver: If you save web pages to your computer (and you should - they may not be online next week) you'll want to search them. Robin Good Shareware Tidings (weblog) says SurfSaver is a musthave to Search the Web pages you have stored on your computer (Feb 14, 2003)
posted by gwen | 11:49 AM

Domain Ownership: Genie Tyburski of Virtual Chase has updated Discover Who Owns a Web Site. "Need to know who owns a Web site? Look up its domain name registration information in the Whois database maintained by its registrar." Article lists resources.
posted by gwen | 11:37 AM

E-Mail on the Road: Four Ways To Keep Up With E-Mail While Traveling By David Haskin. Internet.com (Feb 14, 2003) They are: always-on wireless - a Blackberry or a Palm, web-based email - Hotmail, Yahoo - your ISP might have a service, Unified Messaging Voice E-Mail - ie get your email read to you (including the spam?), the laptop (if you don't mind the weight and the hassle in the airport). My view: if you have money do wireless, if you're on a tight budget stick with web-based - though you might still need that laptop.
posted by gwen | 11:34 AM

Opera vs IE: Opera says 'bork' to MSN standards By Matthew Broersma. CNET News.com (Feb 14, 2003) "Opera Software has released a new version of its Opera 7 Web browser with just one tweak--it turns Microsoft's MSN Web site into gibberish that was inspired by the Swedish Chef from "The Muppet Show." Bravo Opera.
posted by gwen | 11:27 AM

Friday, February 14, 2003

Education: We all know the value of finding and using the specialty resources. For educators that would be ASKERIC (www.askeric.org) - a gateway to 16 subject-specific ERIC Clearinghouses and more than 3,000 resources on a variety of educational issues. As well there are discussion groups and experts - real people.

ENUM Electronic Numbering System - one number for email, phone, cell phone, fax, instant messages. Maybe in our lifetime.
U.S. backs plan to merge Net, phone numbers CNet News via Globe and Mail (Feb 14, 2003)
"The Bush administration is lending its support to an international proposal to map telephone numbers to Internet addresses."
posted by gwen | 6:17 PM

Music Finder: "MusicBrainz is aiming to create a complete public database of tagged music files that allow for easy identification, searching, and sorting." I Know That Song by Sebastian Rupley. PC Magazine (Feb 12, 2003)
posted by gwen | 6:09 PM

Search Results: Slashdot answers the question Why Do Google Hit Numbers Vary (Feb 10, 2003). The answer was that Google has several datacenters which may not be identical. Might this kind of reason also apply to the huge swings at Altavista?
posted by gwen | 6:02 PM

Browser: Work with the font size you like in Internet Explorer by turning off the font size the web page author picked. Adjustable fonts in IE - tip from Dylan Tweney. Hint: Tools > Internet Options > Accessibility.
posted by gwen | 5:57 PM

Valentine's Day: Birds do it, bees do it - Surfing for Love - personals, chocolate, flowers, e-cards. Robyn Greenspan tells the tale in numbers.
posted by gwen | 5:52 PM

Thursday, February 13, 2003

Internet Stats: Canadian Internet growth stagnant: Report By Jack Kapica. Globe and Mail Update (Feb 13, 2003) - Ipsos-Reid in The Face of the Web 2002 found Canadians stuck at around 62% usage in the previous 30 days. In the US, usage is up to 72%. Canadians like online banking, everyone likes sending pictures and downloading music.
posted by gwen | 3:25 PM

Yahoo: Yahoo is extending its premium services with video broadcasting, add-ons to a for-fee email service, and something (unnamed) for broadband users. But what will they do to the Internet search? Yahoo Outlines Plans for Adding Premium Services By Saul Hansell. New York Times (Feb 13, 2003)
posted by gwen | 1:16 PM

More Ads: Some news and information sites are going to include paid-placement ads in search results at their sites. One can only imagine the consequences. Search for George Bush at CNN and get a paid-placement listing for a garden nursery (specials on rose bushes, anyone?), or due diligence at Forbes (hmmm) and get newly minted consultants? Soon information web sites will be like television programs - one third ads.

All the search that's fit to print? By Stefanie Olsen CNET News.com (Feb 12, 2003) "News and information sites are joining the commercial search craze, adding paid links to their query results and pushing the boundaries of the Web's hottest advertising format."
posted by gwen | 9:36 AM

Wednesday, February 12, 2003

Altavista: Altavista adds multimedia files - now up to 240 million, and enhances News 2.0 search so that it's possible to search for articles with photos. AltaVista Launches Its Largest Multimedia Index Ever, Adds New Features to Popular News Search Business Wire (Feb 12, 2003) "Delivers More and Higher-Quality Images and Expanded International Coverage, New Options Let Users Further Refine News Searches"
posted by gwen | 6:52 PM

Edu Domain: The dot edu domain, for years the "domain" of 4 year educational institutions and community colleges i the United States, has been expanded to include "specialty accreditation organizations recognized by the Department of Education". Among the newly approved .edu will be beauty, theological and distance-learning schools. Today about 6000 schools have 7500 domains. The new ones are expected to become active beginning mid-April. Educause describes the new edu eligibility requirements.

Google is a brand and a verb and possibly a miracle cure. Everyone is picking up this story - so I will too. Google Named Brand of the Year By Brian Morrissey Cyberatlas (Feb 11, 2003) BrandChannel.com asked people to rate brands, and 15% of the 1315 respondents said Google - ahead of Apple, Coca Cola, and Starbucks.
posted by gwen | 10:20 AM

MSN Search: MSN is working on a faster search service - one without banner ads (but will they kill the popups?). MSN gets on search bandwagon By Stefanie Olsen CNET News.com (Feb 11, 2003)

"The Microsoft-owned division launched a test site for MSN Search on Tuesday that omits banner advertisements and a large navigation column for the MSN network, freeing up more room on the page to display query results. The new site also says that it can display results 65 percent faster than before. "

MSN is probably third in search engine rankings. Nielsen/NetRatings found that Google in December reached 37.3 million people in the United States, Yahoo Search - 36.5 million visitors, and MSN Search it third place - 34.3 million.

New search is at beta.search.msn.com. It does seem faster. Advanced Search gives options for searching all words, any, phrase, words in title, and boolean phrase - but there's only one search box. It does not allow for combinations such as words in title and words anywhere. There is a check box to enable stemming which seems to work for simple singular / plural. MSN has added an option to restrict the search to file types pdf, word document, powerpoint, excel, or html. Fielded search for title: and domain: still work in Advanced but not in Simple. Also, MSN won't remember the query - you have to reenter. The Help page says nothing about fielded search commands but it does still say that * can be used - and while it may work on MSN's example eur* it doesn't work for octogenar* or oct*genarian or technolog*. All in all, there isn't anything here that would make MSN Search a first choice.
posted by gwen | 10:12 AM

Tuesday, February 11, 2003

"Chris Sherman, associate editor of Search Engine Watch, said, "There's a perception that Google is the best magic box for anything in the universe. Google is good for simple words and short terms. Teoma is better for more specialized types of information and looks at the whole community" of links around a certain topic."

Yes - but Teoma is also best for short general queries. For really precise searches Alltheweb and Altavista are better.
posted by gwen | 2:36 PM

Online News: People want it -- Breaking News Drives Traffic to Net By CyberAtlas staff (Feb 10, 2003) In the week of Feb 2, 46% of Internet users said news was a "top online activity". Top sites: MSNBC, CNN, and Washington Post.

posted by gwen | 2:11 PM

Monday, February 10, 2003

Browser Tips: PC World can help you get a "homey" home page, dump ads, do browser tricks, handle PC (Microsoft Windows) problems. Home Office: Make Your Browser's Home Page Really Homey by Steve Bass (Feb 5, 2003)
posted by gwen | 10:06 PM

Electronic Newspapers: Doesn't look like electronic editions of newspapers are quite there yet but with tablets it's getting closer. Olive Sofrware is working on it. NewsStand, Olive Are Talking Tablets Magazines Lead Way With Portable Editions by Jim Rosenberg (Feb 5, 2003)
posted by gwen | 3:28 PM

Web Monitoring: Barbara Quint reviews Nexcerpt -- Nexcerpt Web Monitoring/Redistribution Service Launched Newsbreaks (Feb 10, 2003)

"Monitoring good Web content sources, extracting relevant information, and re-distributing it to the people who need it has become a basic service offered by many information professionals, and one that absorbs a great deal of time. The automated features in the newly launched Nexcerpt service can simplify and speed up the process."
posted by gwen | 1:39 PM

Weblogs: There are social aspects to weblogging not the least of which is seen in power-law distributions. The top 12% of blogs in a sample of 433 accounted for 50% of the inbound links reports this study by Clay SHirky -- Power Laws, Weblogs, and Inequality (Feb 8 and 10, 2003). Makes many interesting points about evolution of blogs.

"In between blogs-as-mainstream-media and blogs-as-dinner-conversation will be Blogging Classic, blogs published by one or a few people, for a moderately-sized audience, with whom the authors have a relatively engaged relationship. Because of the continuing growth of the weblog world, more blogs in the future will follow this pattern than today. However, these blogs will be in the minority for both traffic (dwarfed by the mainstream media blogs) and overall number of blogs (outnumbered by the conversational blogs.) "
posted by gwen | 1:33 PM

Saturday, February 08, 2003

Weblogs: Personal publishing is flourishing online through weblogs. Blogger, one popular tool for doing it, just passed its one millionth customer. Terra Lycos is offering subscribers blog space and tools at $5 month. Most blogs are personal, but some have professional content and are written for professionals. Even newspapers are doing it. New Kids On the Blog by Leslie Walker. Washington Post (Feb 6, 2002) Article lists some resources for starting blogs and finding them.
posted by gwen | 10:41 AM

Friday, February 07, 2003

Search Engine Performance: This report on a study done by Verity Intellectuals Property Pty Ltd in Australia finds general search engines woefully poor in satisfying searchers, only finding the desired information 25% of the time. People have a much higher success rate at finding what they want at specific tools like Froogle and Google News are much better than in Google itself. Study identified five types of searchers: discoverers, viewers (looking for entertainment), writiers, readers, and technodoers. Only the technodoers are the very keen googlers. Conclusion: "Services like Froogle, Google News and Google Webquotes are the future of search for 70% of the population. Technodoers will always like the freedom of more general search facilities and they will make up 90% of Google's traffic in the future. The new generation of searchers will not even begin to use general search facilities when Froogle, Google News and similar services are common. " Keep in mind though, Verity sells search technology to companies and is a competitor to Google.

The Future of ONline Search. Kaironews - weblog for discussing rhetoric, technology and pedagogy (Feb 6, 2003)
posted by gwen | 5:08 PM

Beware Xupiter: This browser toolbar - Xupiter - can take over Internet Explorer, your browsing, and your computer. Sneaky Toolbar Hijacks Browsers By Michelle Delio. Wired News (Jan 30, 2003)
posted by gwen | 10:14 AM

Google: GoogleVillage says the Google database is far from static. There is the Google Dance around th 19th and 20th when Google may make changes to relevancy ranking algorithms and refresh listings. But it is more than that - "Google Database is more like a 'lava cauldron', plopping away, steam hissing, and the bed of lava seething up and down with never a moment of stillness. This is the Google Database. New pages are added hour by hour, and older ones are subtracted. " Google Everflux Misses Slammer Terror!! GoogleVillage (Feb 7, 2003)
posted by gwen | 9:54 AM

Thursday, February 06, 2003

Current Awareness: Nexcerpt - a new service for monitoring content and publishing - will watch web sites, newsgroups, press releases, news etc. Can be used to publish a newsletter. Site has a guided tour.
http://www.nexcerpt.com/

Gary Price at ResourceShelf commented on it. Nexcerpt, A New Web Based Monitoring Service Launches.
posted by gwen | 11:04 AM

Amazon: Gale and Amazon.com Continue ONline Sales Program PR Newswire. (Feb 3, 2003)-- Gale sells articles and guides through Amazon's Digital Library. "The e-documents, which are currently available exclusively through Amazon.com, are a series of student study guides to literature and a series of business planning guides for entrepreneurs and small-business owners and managers. The Gale e-documents are based on print titles produced and published by Gale for distribution through the company's core markets of public libraries and educational institutions."
posted by gwen | 10:51 AM

Creative Commons: The GoogleVillage weblog suggests a Creative Commons License for Google Search Results!!!! (Feb 6, 2003). Entry describes the Creative Commons initiative ("creative reuse of intellectual works") and suggests that we may need explicit statements of the right to use search engine results. His suggestions should apply to any search service.

Weblog is also interesting for its long list of weblogs about Google and its list of google words.
posted by gwen | 10:36 AM

Yahoo: Yahoo will be showing more paid listings on its search results pages. Yahoo tests new search layout By Stefanie Olsen CNET News.com (Feb 4, 2003) "Yahoo is testing a new layout for search results that packs more paid listings onto a page, a move that could increase its revenue and provide a big boost for its paid search partner, Overture Services."
posted by gwen | 10:24 AM

Wednesday, February 05, 2003

MyWay: Everyone want to be the one-stop search centre. MyWay copied Hotbot by lining up 5 search services: Google, Altavista, Ask Jeeves, AlltheWeb and Looksmart. Search one then search the next. Comes with sponsored listings of course.
posted by gwen | 11:40 AM

Search Engines: Andrew Goodman looks at product differentiation for several search engines. How well do they live up to what they claim? Differentiation Can Be Brutal in the Web Search Business Traffick (Jan 9, 2003)
posted by gwen | 11:24 AM

Semantic Web: Chris Sherman writes about semanticweb.org - A Portal for the Semantic Web in SearchDay (Feb 4, 2003) - basically all you'd ever want to know (and more).
posted by gwen | 11:06 AM

Google and Privacy: Excellent article in the Boston Globe about a Nation of Voyeurs by Neil Swidey (Feb 2, 2003) -- "How the Internet search engine Google is changing what we can find out about one another - and raising questions about whether we should." There's a lot of information online about individuals today - much of it we wish weren't there. Some is wrong, some personal and private, some regrettable. Some may be eyeopening. The article has some chilling stories of what can be found on the Internet as well as a detailed account of Google and the Googleplex in California.
posted by gwen | 10:44 AM

Net Stats: Usage figures for December 2002 from Nielsen/NetRatings show traffic is highest to AOL, MSN, and Yahoo at 54% (Yahoo) to 63% (AOL) of Internet users and Amazon, Google and eBay in the second rank at 22% - 23 % of users. Traffic Patterns of December 2002 Cyberatlas (Feb 4, 2003)
posted by gwen | 10:20 AM

The Web: Networks and the Web are changing how we work and live. Michael Rogers at Newsweek reviews three new titles:

1. “Linked: The New Science of Networks,” by Albert-Laszlo Barabasi - the most scientific."“Linked” makes it clear that there is significant mathematical theory to help explain how the Web is evolving, particularly in terms of anomalies such as “hubs.” "
2. "Smart Mobs" by Howard Rheingold - behaviour of people in communication networks formed mainly by cell phones and mobile devices.
3. “Small Pieces Loosely Joined” by David Weinberger - more philosophic. "The truly transforming impact of the Internet will occur when the linking and virtual existence that we experience on the Web starts to alter how we understand and manage society itself."

The Theory and Practice of the Internet Three books ask: Is there a comprehensive theory of the Web? And if so, does it do us any good? by Michael Rogers. MSNBC (Feb 4, 2003)
posted by gwen | 10:13 AM

Tuesday, February 04, 2003

Environment: Barbie Keiser completes her 3-part guide to resources about the environment in the February 2003 issue of Searcher Magazine. Our Environment: Part 3, The Science and Technology . "It will cover the collection and analysis of data, as well as the final reports that influence national and international environmental policies."

The first two parts are also online. In total they constitute a monumental work in laying out the resource options and search techniques - directories, search engine strategies, government portals, other specialty sites - available for researching environmental concerns and programs.
posted by gwen | 11:58 AM

Search Engines Relevancy: Dana Todd, Guest Writer at SearchDay, reports on a session from a Search Engine Watch conference on Search Engine Relevancy . Panel included Inktomi, Altavista, Yahoo and Danny Sullivan as chair. Relevancy is really in the eye of the user, and regrettably no one has taken on measuring user satisfaction with search since NPD New Media Service's last survey in 2000.
posted by gwen | 11:26 AM

Ask Jeeves: Ask Jeeves has turned a corner and started to make money. Forbes reports that the Teoma search technology which AJ owns has 25% market share in North American (according to NetRatings). Other interesting bits:
- dropped from 850 people to 347 with fewer people to answer questions. Thinks this means they don't have the editors to build the question-answer knowledge base.
- has fixed its star on the capability of Teoma to search sites "within informed Web communities".
Ask Jeeves Still Answering Questions Kerry A. Dolan (Feb 3, 2003) Forbes
posted by gwen | 11:18 AM

Monday, February 03, 2003

Water cooler for searchers: Chris Sherman featured a new water-cooler site / group blog where keen searchers can talk about search engines, software, and strategies - and anything else search related. David Mattison in Victoria BC is the chief SWIKI. + Help Build a Searchers' Swiki SearchDay (Feb 3, 2003)
posted by gwen | 12:23 PM

divine and Rowecom: RoweCom Files for Bankruptcy, then Sues divine for Fraud by Paula J. Hane. Information Today. (Feb 3, 2003)
posted by gwen | 12:13 PM

Invisible Web: InMagic has put on the web a free e-seminar about Using the Invisible Web for Competitive Intelligence. Chris Sherman speaks for about 20 minutes about the Invisible Web is about and why it is useful for competitive intelligence - and suggests some tools and strategies. Susan Stearns, VP of Marketing at InMagic, describes how IntelliMagic can be used to create a corporate self-serve competitive intelligence service. Seminar is excellent. It runs on Brainshark. To register, go to http://www.inmagic.com/Sherman/380
posted by gwen | 12:11 PM

Sunday, February 02, 2003

Information Visualization: "Antarctica Systems has released Visual Net 3.0, which is said to give users more control over how they view and navigate large information repositories, enabling them to ask better questions of their data." Very cool visuals KMWorld (Jan 29, 2003)
posted by gwen | 2:51 PM

Saturday, February 01, 2003

FaganFinder: Favourable review of the interface to Google features at FaganFinder. Says it is a "must have". Access Google's tools, services and search options through an integrative Interface The Google Ultimate Interface - Fagan Finder Robin Good weblog. (Jan 31, 2003)
posted by gwen | 5:09 PM