Internet News

ResourceShelf now ResourceBlog

A New Look for ResourceShelf, Gary Price, ResourceShelf (Sept 1)

ResourceShelf has has made some changes. Blog is now ResourceBlog - and there is a separate Resource Shelf newsletter with highlights. The blog has a new look and may lead to better things. At present it shows only a portion of the blog posting - that means a lot of clicking to get to full articles.

ResourceShelf is now a password protected community.

Google Places vs Facebook Places

Google Places vs Facebook Places: It’s Search vs. Social, Lawrence Coburn, The Next Web (Aug 31)

Google Places and Facebook Places give a whole new meaning to local search. Both offer a landing page for business. This article shows how the two differ in distribution strategies.

Google is through the search box and the display of a map with local businesses marked with balloons.

Facebook shows individuals checking into a local business and employs personal recommendations.

Concludes that - "Any way you measure it, Google is pretty far ahead at the moment. "

Swingly for facts

Meet Swingly, a Q&A tool powered by robots, Josh Lowensohn, Web Crawler (Aug 16)

Another approach to Q and A - have robots collect the answers from websites.

"Swingly is a machine-generated answer engine that contains somewhere around 100 billion to 150 billion question and answer pairs."

"But machines aren't perfect, which is why Swingly takes a hybrid approach to improve its answers. If someone is searching for an answer, and they know more than the system, or discover a better answer from one of its links, there are ways to suggest changes to the results."

Ranking algorithms work on "trust" and timeliness of results.

Also -Swingly: New Search Engine Reveals Just The Facts, Matt McGee, Search Engine Land (Aug 17)

"Swingly performs best when you search for facts — like Who, What, and When. It seems to do okay with some Where questions, but not with others. "

Swingly is in private beta - must login and request an invite code.

Lycos sold (again)

Lycos is alive, acquired for $36 million, The Digital Home (Aug 16)

Lycos, one of the early search engine and originally developed at Carnegie Mellon University in the United States, has a new owner.

"Daum Communications, a Korean-based search company, announced that it has sold off Lycos for $36 million to Ybrant Digital, an India-based digital marketing company."

Search Market Share July 2010

Search Engine Market Share Steady In July: Hitwise, Matt McGee, Search Engine Land (Aug 18)

Hitwise figures for search engine market share in July 2010 shows very little change. Google still holds 71% in the US

Tools for real time search

Top 25 Social Media Keyword Search Tools, Kristi Heines, Stay on Search (Aug 18)

Recommends several search engines for real time search results rom blogs, twitter, forums, facebook, and video

Yahoo loses link and linkdomain operators

6 Ways to Replace Yahoo's Link & Linkdomain Search Commands, SEOMoz (Aug 24)

Now that Yahoo is using the Bing database, it must use the search syntax that Bing supports. Yahoo had a rich syntax, and Bing does not. For example, link: and linkdomain: operators will no longer return results. Nor will inurl: People who must have these can turn to specialty tools described on this page. SEOMoz has Linkscape at Open Site Explorer.

We can still use Yahoo Site Explorer but it now requires that you enter through your Yahoo login.

Internet Search Changing

The Future of Internet Search, Esther Dyson, Project Syndicate (Aug 19)

There has been a shift in web search - there is more attention to "structure" says Esther Dyson. We might also say more understanding of context.

"Now, however, something is happening to fix this, and it’s not just a prettier background. It’s structure – the same sort of context the old Yahoo! catalogue supplied, but this time automatically generated and deeper – and across more than just a few categories such as sports and travel."

Comparing search engines

Are all Results on Search Engines Equal? A Surprising Journey Within the SERPs, Dominik Johnson, Search Engine Watch (Aug 31)

Search scene now includes web (Google, Bing, Yahoo), real time search (Twitter, OneRiot), large foreign language search (Baidu in China) - to name the big areas. This study examined the effectiveness of the search interface and search results.

Questions were from the point of view of online marketing.

* Are all results equal?

* Most engines have the same basic layout; however does a pixel change here and there make a difference?

* Are universal search type results on Bing and other engines as attractive as Google?

* Are trending topics a natural way to navigate the new breed of search engines?

* Do Baidu and Yandex have a design edge?

* Are moving/scrolling elements on the page effective?

It's unclear if they were successful at answering all of these - and I'm not sure of the value of evaluating placement of search engine logo, though placement of the AdBox is clear given the interest in advertising.

Topsy best for searching old tweets

Topsy: Now Searching Tweets Back To May 2008, Danny Sullivan, Search Engine Land (Aug 24)

"Looking for old tweets? Look to Topsy. The service has just expanded to have what it claims to be the largest searchable collection of past tweets, over 5 billion of them, stretching back to at least May 2008. That makes it more comprehensive than Google’s Twitter search or even Twitter’s own Twitter Search."

Danny Sullivan says that Topsy and Google are the only two search engines that will dig into the archives. Topsy has advanced search and syntax.

New way for exploring history

Back to the future: Yahoo’s Time Explorer is a search engine for the past and future by Chad Catacchio, The Next Web (Aug 27)

Time Explorer from Yahoo's lab "goes back AND forward in time to see what people have said and predicted will happen on a topic."

It uses New York Times collection back to 1987.

Requires Firefox browser.

Identifying entities in the query

Not Brands but Entities: The Influence of Named Entities on Google and Yahoo Search Results, SEO by the SEA (Aug 19)

Google may be identifying entities (person, place, or thing) as part of the search process.

"The process in that patent may mean that if Google recognizes when a search query involves a particular entity, and if the entity can be associated with a specific web site, it might show multiple results for that site. For example, Google recognizes that “SEO by the Sea” is an entity, and when I perform a search such as “SEO by the Sea entities,” (without the quotation marks), Google will show a number of search results from SEO by the Sea:"

Thanks to Metaweb, Google might be able to keep a cross-reference / see-also index that identifies different names for a particular entity - such as UN = United Nations.

Yahoo is doing something with named entities and interpreting the query accordingly.

Using URL Shorteners

A short look at URL Shorteners , Martin Belam, Fumsi (Aug)

We use url shorteners to abbreviate long complicated urls to something that can be inserted to an email or a tweet. This article gives the background, and reminds us that there can be problems in using the shortener.

Finding Stock Video

5 Sources for Stock Video, Connie Crosby, Slaw (Aug 16)

Need some video to explain a point and YouTube doesn't have it? One of these might.

"But what about stock video when producing video content for presentations, websites or advertising? Here are five prominent sources for stock video I found:"

Finding blogs thru Google

Google Adds A Filter For Finding Blogs, Matt McGee, Search Engine Land (Aug 27)

"Google has added a new filter to its blog search option that makes it easier to find blogs themselves, not just individual blog posts. The filter is part of Google.com search, not Google’s specific Blog Search service at blogsearch.google.com."

Yahoo moves to Bing database

Yahoo! Transitions Organic Search Back-End to Microsoft Platform, Yahoo Search Blog (Aug 24)

Yahoo search is not using Bing's web index for organic search.

"Yahoo! Web, Image, and Video search experiences on both desktop and mobile devices are now powered by the Microsoft platform in the US and Canada (English), with more markets to come."

Tools for exploiting the site: operator

New Awesome Ways to Search within Current Site (Using Google), Ann Smarty, Search Engine Journal (Aug 27)

The site operator at Google and other web search engines is very powerful - dig into individual sites, analyze your own site. Ann Smarty gives us some tools to get more mileage out of site search.

Google Real Time Search

Google opened a new specialty search engine for real-time search - http://www.google.com/realtime. The function is the same as that found under the Update option on the left panel of Google search.

Putting Google Realtime to Real-World Use, Tony Bradley, PCWorld (Aug 27)

Sees this as being most useful to companies for watching what is said about them and their products.

"The significance of monitoring real-time Facebook status updates and Twitter tweets is that it is raw, unfiltered information. When a customer has a bad experience at a restaurant, he is not shy about sharing that information with the Twitterverse. When someone really loves the movie she just saw, odds are fair that the Facebook social network will hear about it."

New Google Realtime Search with Realplay, Pandia (Aug 29)

"Google Realtime can also be used to research trends and retrace the development of a particular happening, let’s say a natural disaster or a political scandal."

Google Gmail adds Voice

Google adds regular phone calls to Gmail, Pandia (

Google aims to be your number one communication centre as it expands the Skype-like voice-and-video chat that can be used to reach anyone, whether they use Gmail or not.

"All you have to do is to install a voice and video chat plug-in, and you can use your computer’s microphone, loudspeaker and — if needed — video camera to communicate. And yes, a dedicated head set with mike is useful."

Will be great for Gmail and Gtalk users.

Gmail's Phone Feature: A Logical Addition, PCWorld (Aug 28) -- says that the quality is "sensational".

Google sets its sights on Skype with phone service, Toronto Star (Aug 26)

"Google promised free calls to U.S. and Canadian phones from Gmail for the rest of this year and said it would charge low rates for calls made to other countries."

Older Adults using Social Media

Older Adults and Social Media, Mary Madden PewInternet (Aug 27)

Older adults (over 50) in the United States have been adopting the new social networking tools. One in five (20%) are now using twitter, facebook or similar tool, daily.

* Between April 2009 and May 2010, social networking use among internet users ages 50-64 grew by 88%--from 25% to 47%. * During the same period, use among those ages 65 and older grew 100%--from 13% to 26%. * By comparison, social networking use among users ages 18-29 grew by 13%—from 76% to 86%.

There is no privacy online

Privacy should go hand in hand with transparency , Don Tapscott, Globe and Mail (Aug

Chew on this for a while - "At Zeitgeist, Google CEO Eric Schmidt noted that between the dawn of civilization and 2003, five quintillion bytes of data were collected. Today, the same amount is collected every two days. "

And a lot of that data is about us. Don Tapscott warns we've gone too far.

"Information privacy is the foundation of a free society, and not just because of the harm that can occur from blackmail, identity fraud, impersonation, cyber-stalkers and nosy employers. When data can be assembled into profiles, matched with other info and used to make automated judgments and decisions about individuals, such as whether or not to hire them, whether to admit entry, whether to calculate benefits or terms of an offer, whether to corroborate a claim, whether to discriminate against or manipulate, it should make us shudder to think about what it would be like to live in a world where all is known and nothing is forgotten. "

The End of Online Privacy, Susan Karshinsky and Omar El Akkad, Globe and Mail (Aug 13)

The San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation has proof that we divulge far too much - and most of the time we don't know it.

"The most alarming result of the study of more than 470,000 Web surfers is that 83.6 per cent of them had an instantly identifiable, totally unique fingerprint: Their particular combination of settings and information was unlike that of any other user, increasing the chance they could be personally identified, even though they had done nothing but make a few clicks of the mouse. "

"Put it all together with the constant availability impelled by texting, tweeting, cellphones and status updates – and you have a culture on a path to near-total transparency, a see-through society that may be past the point when it could ever cover back up. "

New search engine - NowRelevant

New Search Engine Promises Relevance, Now , Avi Rappoport, Newsbreaks (Aug 19)

"The new search engine, NowRelevant.com, says that it will find, “everything about your subject for the past two weeks.” The name promises relevance, but what does that even mean? Information science researchers have been trying to understand it for over fifty years, and it’s become clear that relevance is in the eye of the beholder. Some beholders may love NowRelevant.com—others may not."

The search interface and results page are very sparse - and there are no advertisements. The search is slow - this is beta version. Hard to know if results are more relevant.

NowRelevant does not state how it selects for within 14 days. As we know, date on webpages is very unreliable.

From the About Page.

"NowRelevant.com allows users of its PPC campaigns to access the wealth of its resources dating back chronologically to exactly 14 days from the time of their search. This enables both the viewers of search results as well as PPC advertisers to target their PPC campaigns to a specific set of keyword phrases that are bound to receive public attention no matter what, enabling advertisers to compete better on NowRelevant.com with a much lower advertiser competition ratio than found on any other search engine."

Avoiding giving information about yourself to Google

Google Alarm Alerts You When Your Info Goes to Google, Preston Gralla, PCWorld (Aug 19)

Don't want to give any information about yourself to Google as you surf the web? Try Google Alarm addon with the Firefox browser.

"If you're determined to stay away from sites that send information about you to the search giant, Google Alarm will tell you which sites to avoid. Of course, given how many sites send information back to Google, that may not be practical. At a minimum, though, it's a constant reminder of just much of your information leaves your control--and goes under Google's."

Facebook Places

Facebook has added a new feature called Places by which users can disclose their location to make it easier for friends to find them - and for them to find services where they are. More than 25% of users access Facebook from their mobile devices. This has considerable potential for marketers.

Three Ways Business Can Take Advantage of Facebook Places, Tony Bradley, PCWorld (Aug 19)

The new Facebook Places service "provides businesses with a platform for marketing and promotion, and provides an opportunity to build customer loyalty."

"Like current social location-based check-in services, Facebook Places lets people share where they are, see which friends are in the local area, and discover new places by following where others from their social network have checked in. The real value of services like Foursquare has been the integration with Facebook and the ability to share the check-in details with the broader social network, so Facebook Places seems like a natural evolution of the concept."

Related: Facebook Unveils Service That Lets Users Share Their Locations, Brian Womack, Business Week (Aug19)

Facebook Places checks in to Foursquare’s location-based service turf , AP via Globe and Mail (Aug 19)

Real time search tools

Top 5 real time search engines, Pandia (Aug 18)

The challenge to using social media for research is that it delivers more junk than useful information. Pandia describes five meta search tools that can help in sifting through to get what you want.

+ Collecta - a meta social search engine with a newspaper display
+ Topsy - meta search with many option for sorting and selecting
+ 48ers - similar but includes delicious.
+ Leapfish - regular web search and real time search - can be customized
+ Scoopler - strong search tool

+ Sency - does Twitter well.