Internet News

Blinkx gets news clips from Sky News

Sky News and blinkx Partner to Search and Deliver News on the Web, PRNewswire via Marketwatch (May 30)

"blinkx, the smartest thing on the Web, today announced a partnership with Sky News, Europe's first 24-hour news channel. Under the agreement, Sky News will provide blinkx index with hundreds of news clips each week, providing a broad and unique addition to the growing list of news sources at www.blinkx.tv."

ROO Video Search

ROO Introduces Video Search Engine - "New Features Allow Viewers to Easily Search 300+ Hours of Video News and Entertainment Content for Broadband TV Viewing", MarketWire via Marketwatch (May 30)

"The ROO Video Search Engine is available at http://search.roo.com , and will provide instantaneous search results through ROO's exclusive library of more than 7,000 videos, allowing visitors to quickly search and access breaking news, favorite artists' music videos and health news updates 24 hours a day. ROO Search is one of the first search engines on a syndicated video network and serves as a gateway to all the videos in the ROO library across 130+ affiliate web sites. These include Verizon Broadband Beat, Excite, iWon, Bulldog Broadband (a Cable & Wireless company), News.com.au in Australia, 36 local U.S. television station websites and a variety of targeted lifestyle destination sites such as Music.com, Rock.com, VegTV and more."

ScienceDirect Enhancements

Elsevier’s ScienceDirect Announces Redesigned Interface by Laura M. Felter, Newsbreaks (May 30)

"Elsevier’s ScienceDirect (http://www.sciencedirect.com) announced that it is making significant enhancements to its Web interface over the course of the next 2 years, with Phase 1 of the redesign to be launched in August 2006. ScienceDirect, one of the leading science, technical, and medical (STM) resources available, claims it provides 25 percent of the world’s full-text STM content. It will be providing easier and faster access with improved navigation, quicker searches, and personalization."

Moreover Newsdesk 3.0

Moreover Introduces Newsdesk 3.0 Search Portal, by Paula Hane, Newsbreaks (May 30)

"For enterprise clients, Moreover Technologies (http://www.moreover.com) has offered its Connected Intelligence (CI) line of current awareness solutions, including its CI-Metabase (the content database that drives all its products), CI-Builder, and CI Watch. The company’s CI-Newsdesk has provided a single point of access to aggregated online news content. Now, the company has announced a major upgrade to CI-Newsdesk that involved a complete rewrite of the application."

Of interest: For individuals (noncommercial use), Moreover continues to offer free, advertising-supported RSS feeds for more than 330 prebuilt, topic-specific categories (http://w.moreover.com/site/products/ind/rss_feeds.html).

User Content on the Web

Pew: Nearly 50 MM Americans Create Web Content, by Enid Burns, CLickz (May 30)

"Forty-eight million American adults have contributed some form of user-generated content on the Internet, it found. That's 35 percent of Internet users. Of those adults who have posted content on the Web, 73 percent, or 31 million, have a broadband connection at home."

""There is an element of the Internet being the medium for creativity and the Internet being an outlet for creativity people bring to the Worldwide Web," according to the report. It considers blogging, Web site creation, contribution of work on Web pages or blogs and submissions of artwork, photos, stories or videos as user-generated online content."

Protection from Rogue Sites

The Dangerous Side of Search Engines -- "Popular search engines may lead you to rogue sites. Here's what you need to know to avoid dangerous downloads, bogus sites, and spam." by Tom Spring, PC World (May 26)

Can this be true? "Who knew an innocent search for "screensavers" could be so dangerous? It may actually be the riskiest word to type into Google's search engine. Odds are, more than half of the links that Google returns take you to Web sites loaded with either spyware or adware. You might also face getting bombarded with spam if you register at one of those sites with your e-mail address."

Read on. Tom Spring recommends a new kind of security software to protect us against "shady" sites. SiteAdvisor from McAfee is one - currently available for free. There is also ScanDo and StopBadWare.org .

Where's the Cash in Social Networking

Social networks are hot, but where's all the cash? by Matthew Ingram, Globe and Mail (May 25)

Good question. Ingram points to the collapse of earlier social network projects such as GeoCities, Tripod, Homestead - where are they now? MySpace.com may have 70 million users but they are mostly teens who will be fickle in their tastes - and don't have deep pockets. Friendster used to have 20 million users and is now a thin shadow of itself, didn't make money and users moved on.

As for the current hot property, MySpace.com -- "Even in terms of revenue, MySpace is well behind other sites that are about the same size. Its page-view number was just a shade less than Yahoo's 32 billion (for March), and yet the site's estimated revenue of $200-million for this year pales in comparison with Yahoo's almost $6-billion."

New Commerce on the Web

Peer-to-peer money, By Rafe Needleman, CNet News (May 24)

"Just as the Net allows individuals to find others who share their interests and ideas and form groups focused around them, it can help people with shared financial interests form groups and do commerce within the group. We're in the early stages of this, but a few examples show us how the Web is enabling a new kind of group commerce"

Video Advertising

You thought you were already bombarded with ads - sponsored listings, text ads, banner ads, embedded videos - it's about to get much heavier.

The Revolution Will Be Televised, Details After These Ads by Google, SEO News at Stepforth (May 24)

"Google introduced a new age of advertising earlier this week by announcing plans to distribute video commercials on websites in its pay per click AdWords network. The move opens the once exclusive marketing channel of televised ads to a far wider array of small and medium businesses."

Marketwatch has a video -- Capitalizing on the online video explosion -- in which Richard Fetyko of Merriman Curhan Ford "discusses companies who stand to gain from the explosion in online video, which he calls the next "big catalyst" for the Web."

Kayak.com for Deals

Review: Kayak best travel search engine, by ANICK JESDANUN, Associated Press via Silicon Valley (May 24)

Jesdanun tried several travel engines and liked Kayak.com best -- "Factoring that in, Kayak.com most often had the best fare - six times - while Yahoo came up best - or tied - five times. Mobissimo was on top four times, and SideStep Inc. tied for first once." ... "But Kayak is a good place to start, both for its deals and ease of use. Since it already searches Orbitz, you only need to perform separate checks at Expedia and Travelocity to see if either has special deals. And time permitting, try Yahoo and then Mobissimo just in case."

Video Search

Video Search: YouTube Dominates, Google Video No. 5 by Ben Charny, PUblish (May 24)

"YouTube continues to dominate the Internet video search market, according to a new report. ... MySpace Videos is second with 24.2 percent of the video search traffic, Yahoo Video Search third with 9.58 percent and MSN Video Search fourth at 9.21 percent. Google Video, in fifth place, has a 6.48 percent share."

Local Search Slow

A Local Search Roundup by Phil Stelter, Clickz (May25)

Local search services at search engines aren't as successful as we might think. According to traffic ranking of travel maps by Hitwise, "... less than 1 percent of their total share. True local search adoption will likely only occur through successful integration into primary organic search results and other relevant properties. The comparison of map properties demonstrates MapQuest's enduring dominance, with Yahoo a distant second at 20.5 percent, and Google Maps trailing at 7.5 percent. It would be interesting to see this trended over time to see how market share might be shifting.".

New Version of Windows Live Local

Microsoft Upgrades Windows Live Local -- "Online mapping service adds real-time traffic data, Outlook integration." -- Juan Carlos Perez, IDG News Service via PC WOrld (May 24)

"Windows Live Local lets users search for local businesses, obtain driving directions and locate places on a map. It will eventually replace the local search service Microsoft currently offers on its MSN.com portal and thus become Microsoft's competitor to similar services from Yahoo, Google, and IAC/InterActiveCorp's Ask.com."

Coming in the new version:

+ For the US - traffic information along specific U.S. roads. Being done through Traffic.com
+ "users save their favorite places and locations to an online notebook, upload photos, and add notes."
+ "integration with the Windows Live Messenger instant messaging"
+ connect Windows Live Local mapping to Outlook e-mail, calendaring and contacts application

For Canadians (finally):

"Also on Wednesday, Microsoft is unveiling Windows Live Local versions for the U.K. and Canada, featuring local business search, aerial mapping images and driving directions, but not all of the features available for the U.S., such as the very detailed bird's eye images of certain areas and the real-time traffic data.

Bird's eye images will begin to appear for London in the coming weeks and in Canadian cities in the coming months, as well as expanded in the U.S., since they are only available for some parts of the country."

When is Microsoft going to drop the awkwardly long "windows live"? MSN was much easier to say and type. WL anyone?

Semantic Web Part 2

Researchers look to semantic Web to drive Internet -- "Computer scientists discuss ideas for organizing the Internet's growing mass of data" By Jeremy Kirk, IDG News Service via Infoworld (May 24)

The idea of the semantic web is still strong, although it won't be accomplished by adding keywords to metatags. Labelling is still needed, but people have new hopes on how that might be done.

"Labeling information on the Internet involves tagging it with code and then classifying it into a taxonomy. Customized taxonomies and ontologies, or data models, could be created for different subject matters to connect disparate, rich information tucked away on servers.

It's an approach that differs vastly from current search engine technology, which may be able to find all instances of a keyword and rank a document's popularity but not interpret the context. "

I, for one, am not holding my breath in expectation that such taxonomies will be developed and used.

Offline Newspapers

How newspapers can face online rivals -- Commentary: Is it too late to cooperate? by Bambi Francisco, Marketwatch (May 23)

Reports on a panel held at the Interactive Media Conference - 5-year forecast: See the Future Today: offline newspapers are in grave danger. Advertising dollars for newspapers are falling fast as local ads move to the web.

+ "In 1949, newspapers accounted for 37% of the advertising market in the U.S., according to Atwood. Today, they account for 17% to 18%."

+ "newspapers still account for 35.8% of the online local ad marketplace, which he estimates to have been $2.4 billion in 2005." - but this is what is at risk.

Yahoo News is the top online news property. Google News is 11 with 9.7 million unique visitors in APril 2006. Knight Ridder Digital is about the same with 10.6 million.

Two-tier Internet

Web inventor warns of 'dark' net, By Jonathan Fildes, BBC News (May 23)

"The web should remain neutral and resist attempts to fragment it into different services, web inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee has said."

The telecom companies in the US want to charge content providers money to give delivery of their content priority. The content mainly has to do with video, and specifically TV shows. But a two-tier system would have consequences - "A two-tier system would mean that people would only have full access to those portions of the internet that they paid for and that some companies would be given priority over others"

Really Online Maps

Microsoft's Plan to Map the World in Real Time -- "Researchers are working on a system that allows sensors to track information and create up-to-date, searchable online maps." By Kate Greene, Technology Review (May 8)

"Researchers at Microsoft are working on technology that they hope will someday enable people to browse online maps for up-to-the-minute information about local gas prices, traffic flows, restaurant wait times, and more. Eventually, says Suman Nath, a Microsoft researcher who works on the project, which is called SenseWeb, they would like to incorporate the technology into Windows Live Local (formerly Microsoft Virtual Earth), the company's online mapping platform."

Enterprise Search Portal

Information Today, Inc. Launches Enterprise Search Portal, eContent (May 23)

"Information Today, Inc. (ITI) has announced the launch of a new portal covering enterprise search and related technologies. The site is to be launched in beta version on May 22 to coincide with the first day of the Enterprise Search Summit conference." Portal is at http://www.enterprisesearchcenter.com/

Inxight Search Extender for Google

Inxight Launches Search Extender for Google, eContent (May 23)

Google Desktop users who are in organizations using the Google Search Appliance will soon see results filtered by person, company, place, or concept - a kind of clustering - through technology from Inxight.

"Inxight Software, a provider of enterprise software solutions for information discovery, has launched Inxight Search Extender for Google, an application that allows Google Search Appliance and Google Desktop users to find relevant documents and locate hidden information in document sets and individual documents."

Specialty Search Tools

[pdf] Beyond Google and Yahoo: Advanced Search - presentation by Sabrina Pacifici and Tom Mighell at the ABA Techshow (April 21, 2006) - run through of specialized search tools for articles (Findarticles, Highbeam), blogs (Technorati, Blogpulse, Feedster), business (Yahoo, Bizjournals) , discussion, international, US Government, health and science (Healthline, Scirus, PubMed), some metasearch, news (Topix, New Directory, News Search Portal, Inform, Newsvine), people finders (Zabasearch, Zoominfo), audio (Podzinger), US public records, cool search engines.

Visual Image Search

Searching for Images by Similarity, by Chris SHerman, SearchDay (May 23)

The new Tiltomo image search engine will be able to help you find images at Flickr that are similar to a selected one by its characteristics. Options are to search by Theme : Analysis of (Subject / Color / Texture) or Color / Texture : Analysis of (100% Color / Texture). Tiltormo wasn't working when I tried it - didn't show any images not even the examples provided - but maybe later.

The Canadian company Idée also creates the visual search software Epsion -- http://www.ideeinc.com/. You can see it at work at Wonderfile , a service for finding royalty free stock photographs.

Search Engine Market Share

Google expands search lead -- Google handled 43.1 percent of searches conducted by U.S. residents in April, up from 36.5 percent in April 2005 -- By Juan Carlos Perez, IDG News Service via INfoworld (May 22)

The others try but Google keeps drawing in searchers. comScore Networks in surveying US users found that Google received 43.1 % of all searches.

Market Share Statistics for April 2006

+ Google 43.1%
+ Yahoo 28 down from 30.1%
+ MSN 12.9 down from 16.1%
+ AOL 6.9 down from 9%
+ Ask 5.8 down from 6.1%

"While it increases its dominance in the search engine space, Google is attempting to make inroads into the Web portal turf of Yahoo and Microsoft's MSN unit by offering services such as Web mail, blogging, photo sharing, RSS (Really Simple Syndication) reader, online calendar and instant messaging."

Quaero Work-In-Progress

Quest for a Euro-Google by Peter Day, BBC News (May 18)

"Some time this autumn Francois Bourdoncle will roll out what he would like to call a "Google killer"." Bourdoncle is the CEO of Exalead who is also involved in Quaero project to build a new search engine with European sensibilities. This is partly a culture war and partly a grab for advertising dollars. It's likely that Quaero will have clustering --

"Search for Kyoto on this new engine and you may get climate change, in a special folder; not the 85-million page references Google throws up.

"We go in deeper but then wider," he [Bourdoncle] says, slightly mystically.

He promises eight billion Internet pages surveyed on these principles when the new engine has its fullscale launch in the autumn. "

Australia and New Zealand

Google Maps Australia and New Zealand, SEW Blog (May 19) - street levels for Australia and New Zealand.

Microsoft Shopping Search

Guide To Microsoft's Many Shopping Search Sites, Brian Smith, SEW Blog (May 19)

Aims to "clear up confusion around Microsoft's multiple shopping sites which include MSN Shopping, Windows Live Shopping Beta, and Windows Live Product Search Beta. The Marketplaces & Shopping team at Microsoft also runs Windows Marketplace and Windows Live Expo but in this post, I'm just covering the general ecommerce initiatives".

Statistics: Portal Parts of Google, Yahoo and MSN

Search driving 80 percent of Google traffic, by Juan Carlos Perez, IDG News Service via Computerworld (May 22)

Google is still the most used seach engines at nearly 3 billion Google searches in March 2006 according to NetRatings. In the Google suite of search products, the search engine draws 80% of the traffic.

"Google's image search engine draws 9.5 percent of the visits, followed by Gmail with 5.5 percent and Google News with 1.49 percent, according to a blog posting by Bill Tancer, Hitwise's general research manager. (http://weblogs.hitwise.com). "

But at Yahoo -- "Most visits to Yahoo sites are to Yahoo Mail with 33 percent, followed by the Yahoo.com home page (32 percent), while Yahoo Search gets only 9.8 percent, according to Tancer. Something similar happens at MSN, where Hotmail gets the most visits (41 percent), followed by the MSN.com home page (33 percent), with MSN Search a distant third with 16 percent."

Why Google Is Better

A Bigdaddy Timeline, Courtesy of Google's Matt Cutts, Stepforth, the SEO BLog (May 17)

Google's index changed sometime in March judging from discussion in blogs by the complaints of webmasters at having Google drop content. Matt Cutts from Google explained these changes and gave more insight into how Google ranks.

The result -- "Google has gotten better at judging the quality of content found on a document and within a site. Content includes text, images, titles, tags and both inbound and outbound links. Consistently said that well-built sites offering quality information and a positive user experience should perform well throughout its search indexes, Google provides a wealth of information via the Google Help Center and through its webmaster focused spokespersons, Cutts and Googleguy.

As Google has gotten better at determining the origin and history of content found in its various indexes, it tries to snip away at duplicate forms of on-site content, with the goal of listing the most trust worthy sites under any given user query in the main index."

Knowing Where You Are

Google Wants Your Trust, "Consumer trust could open the door to more location-based services, Google says." Martyn Williams, IDG News Service in PC World (May 19)

"Sharing your current location with a data-hoarder like Google might seem unattractive to some people, but greater trust could open the way to a whole range of location-based services, said Deep Nishar, Google's mobile product management director."

Yahoo Social Search

Yahoo embraces man over machine - Commentary: But can that approach dominate in Silicon Valley? by Bambi Francisco, Marketwatch (May 18)

Yahoo and social search was the message of Yahoo's analyst day.

"Weiner [Yahoo head of search, Jeff Weiner] -- whose presentation focused entirely on social search -- said that searches at Yahoo's social properties account for 30% of incremental queries. This means that for 100 searches done on Yahoo, an additional 30 come from Yahoo's social services, like Answers, del.icio.us, Flickr, MyWeb. What this reveals is that people are finding answers within communities."

Article looks at Yahoo Answers , saying that it is "a fun service". Yes - but is it at all useful? Francisco likened it to Google Notebook and Co-op - why not to Google Answers?

" Google just introduced Co-op and Notebook, which relies on users to offer up their knowledge to help Google's search results. Weiner said that Yahoo has the first-mover advantage and it's building critical mass fast. Yahoo Answers was launched in December 2005. I asked Weiner whether being first to market was enough advantage to drive usage of Answers since Google and soon Microsoft's MSN will be tapping into user knowledge.

Weiner just said that the way Yahoo is going to maintain its lead is to have enabling technologies, incentives and critical mass. I guess he means a network effect that just builds. "

Thoughts on Ask

A Conversation With Ask's CEO, Jim Lanzone, by Gord Hotchkiss, Search Insider (May 18)

Lanzone is tired of having Ask compared to Google. (Article doesn't mention why then does Ask do the comparison in its own ad.) It wants to be one of the 3.2 engines that Americans use each month.

Of interest is their drive NOT to be known as the natural language machine. Apparently that has stuck, people enter full questions and are disappointed. Hotchkiss comments that people do "truncate search intent into a few words". I would argue that people don't do that truncation very well or they do it too soon, and a natural language query is a better start to searching. Whatever, "Rather than trying to accommodate natural language, Ask now takes a more standard approach to query construction." I would rather they had found the technology to support natural language queries.

There are also some comments on the redesign for placement of parts. Ask is quite attractive right now as a search engine and it has some great tools (MyStuff, Maps), but it doesn't have the search depth it needs to rank as a top search engine.

Search Queries Getting Longer

Yahoo: 'Searches more sophisticated and specific', Digital Micro-Market Blog (May 18) - Claims that searchers at Yahoo are more sophisticated based on the fact that words in a query are now 3.3 on average.

"The average search query length was 1.2 words in 1998, 2.5 words in 2004, and is now 3.3 words:"

Refers to a study on done at Rutgers University and Queen's College which found that longer queries brought higher user satisfaction. (2003)

"Results show that the specific technique results in longer queries than a standard query elicitation technique, that this technique is indeed usable, that the technique results in increased user satisfaction with the search, and that query length is positively correlated with user satisfaction with the search."

Google Scholar Blog - Health

Discovery - UBC Academic Blog - Google Scholar Blog - concerned with academic research related to health and medicine. This blog is the work of Dean Giustini, reference librarian at the Biomedical Branch Library of the Vancouver Hospital and Health Sciences Centre.

Yahoo's Plans for the Future

The next Yahoo: social search, user content by Juan Carlos Perez, IDG News Service (May 17)

Yahoo had its press day on May 17. CEO Terry Semel spoke.

"Among the company's "big bets" for the coming years is to actively employ emerging technologies, as it is doing with AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML), Semel said.

Likewise, Yahoo will be bold about embracing new trends, such as social media, where online companies like Yahoo let users create and submit content, such as videos and blog entries, and participate in categorizing content with tags and labels, he said. "

Digitizing Books for the Web

Building the Universal Library by Chris Sherman, SearchDay (May 18)

Musings on an article by Kevin Kelly in the New York Times Magazine (May 14, 2006) Scan This Book!

Leslie Walker at the Washington Post also wrote about the digitizing work of Google after a conversation with Vinton Cerf.

Google's Goal: A Worldwide Web of Books (May 18)

Book: Search Engines and Web Navigation

"An Introduction to Search Engines and Web Navigation"; Written by Mark Levene; Reviewed by David Stuart, Freepint (May 18)

An Introduction to Search Engines and Web Navigation is from a UK perspective. "Whilst it is intended as both an undergraduate introductory text and as a resource for IT professionals wishing to know how these technologies work, its interest is likely to extend to other information professionals who find searching and navigating the web plays a large part in their lives."

Of interest: "Levene also looks at the impact of social networks on the web, and how they can "add value to existing information-seeking methods". Social networks on the web are an area of increasing interest, and Levene tackles many of the areas that are currently in vogue, including instant messaging networks, peer-to-peer networks and blogs."

Add serendipity to your life with StumbleUpon

CYBERIA: Happy stumbling by Jack Kapica, Globe and Mail (May 16)

"Garrett Camp, Geoff Smith and Justin LaFrance have created StumbleUpon, a browser plug-in (or extension) for Mozilla's Firefox browser, which is designed to surprise surfers.

StumbleUpon places a button on the Mozilla browser, and with a (free) registration, surfers tell the plug-in their personal preferences by checking radio buttons from a long list of interests. Then when they click the "Stumble" button, the browser delivers them to websites, news articles, photos, videos, or Wikipedia pages according to the listed preferences."

I'm game.

Mixed Bag on Search

Web Search Sites Give New Ways To Find Results , Reuters via Information Week (May 15)

"Yahoo is implementing a new automated means of suggesting answers to search queries, and another site is giving users a visual snapshot of sites before they click. "

Also has information about changes at Snap.com -- "Snap.com (http://www.snap.com) has the classic set of 10 links down the left side of its search results page, but each link a user selects is displayed in a half-size screenshot of the Web site's home page." Looks nice but it's slow going.

Google Notebook Review

A Closer Look at Google Notebook by Chris Sherman, Searchday (May 17) - Describes the steps for getting Google Notebook, and the steps for using it (though neglects to mention that according to the Google download page you need Windows XP). Sherman then compares Google Notebook to other research tools, saying that it is probably closest to Furl. His summary is a good roundup of the current offerings.

"The bottom line with Google Notebook: It's a useful, unobtrusive service that will be most useful for quick, informal web research projects where you want to quickly gather up links and snippets of content (for example, I used it in researching this article). If you're looking for something you plan to use heavily, I'd suggest taking all of the services mentioned for a test drive, and pick the one that works the best for your own needs."

Microsoft Enterprise Search

Microsoft unveils new search tools for businesses, Reuters via Topix (May 16)

"Microsoft Corp. will unveil new tools on Wednesday that make it easier for office workers to share and locate information as the company seeks to fend off rivals such as Google Inc. in the enterprise software search market."

"Windows Live Search, which will be available for free from Microsoft's Web site, allows users to search for documents stored on their computers, on departmental computer networks or out on the Internet and see the results in one place."

Tracking Down Tags

Meta-Search by Tag or Site URL, ResearchBuzz (May 17) - tips on tagging from one of the Net's best searchers. Tara Calishain has added following up on tage in her bag of tricks. The new tool is Tagground . "Currently it searches a variety of tagging sites, including digg, del.icio.us, Ma.gnolia, and RawSugar. You can search Tagground by tag but the cool thing is to search by URL. That way you can see where a particular site is being tagged and better, what words it's being tagged with."

This strategy would appeal more to the researcher than the casual user or for reference desk work. And the person would have to have some tolerance for the junk that accumulates on the Web. A search for ResearchBuzz at Tagground shows such meaningless tags as blog, news, cool, wissen. A few are relevant but still not especially useful - search engines, reference, search engine blogs.

Google Notebook

Google Notebook is now available at http://www.google.com/notebook/. This service for clipping content and sharing requires Windows XP or Linux and works with the Firefox 1.5 and Internet Explorer 6 browsers. Content can be saved as private or public and searched. (At present a notice comes up to say that Search will be available in a few days.) There are some screenshots on the a demo page of the notebook. Looks interesting but the Windows XP requirement will block out all the Windows 2000 users. Would be nice if Google could merge this with its Personalized Search.

The blog for Clinical Cases and Images has a worked-through example of using Google Notebook with screenshots - Google Notebook To Save Search Results and More (May 16) - Some people have commented on the post and it's clear that one commenter things Clipmarks is far superior.

Google Scholar Citations

Web Search--Google Scholar -- Google Scholar and Viewing Citations Beyond 1000, Resourceshelf (May 16) -- While you can view the citations in Google Scholar, there is a limit of 1000. You can now export entries to reference management tools but only one at a time.

Google's Strategy

Google's Desktop Offensive "The Internet giant is fighting Microsoft's advances into search with a host of tools that move it deeper into Redmond territory", Burt Helm, Business Week Online (May 11)

Competition between Google, Microsoft and Yahoo is very hot. Microsoft is launching a new search-advertising network as well as the ongoing construction of Live.com; Yahoo is redesigning its home page; and Google announced four new products.

Business Week has this analysis of Google's activity -

+ "Desktop and the other tools fit with Google's dual strategies of getting its brand in front of computer users in as many ways as possible, and at the same time creating ways for advertisers to get their message to specific audiences. "The key for them is to continue to leverage search, and then use their position there to garner success in other areas," says Scott Kessler, an analyst with Standard & Poor's."

+ "But for the millions who spend their days toiling (or playing) in front of a computer, there is going to be a growing number of places to find the Google imprint rather than just in search. And each one makes Microsoft's dominance of the desktop look that much less secure. "

New Yahoo Home Page

Users of Yahoo in the United States and Europe can view a new design of the Yahoo home page at http://www.yahoo.com/preview. The design seems clearner and calmer. Yahoo services are listed on the left, and your own tools on the right. Search box is on the top. News and a lot of advertisements are everywhere else. There is no directory.

I think there has also been a slight change in the presentation of the MyYahoo page that makes it more readable. However, if anything needs attention at Yahoo it is the personal page.

Yahoo! Inc. refreshes its popular home page - More interactive features added by Michael Liedtke, AP via Seattle PI (May 16)

Of interest:

+ "more interactive features that reduce the need to click through to other pages to review the weather, check e-mail, listen to music or monitor local traffic conditions."
+ Yahoo! Pulse "recommendations and insights about cultural trends culled from the Web site's 402 million users worldwide".

Comments by:

ResearchBuzz -- Yahoo's Got a New Home Page - notes that the directory is completely gone.

SEW Blog -- New Yahoo Home Page Available - likes the look Links to a podcast interview with the executives.

Yahoo Blog -- Yahoo!'s New Home Page and the Future of Information -- "we're also on a mission to empower people to find information and turn it into knowledge, play, and meaningful communication."

Grocery Deals Online in US

New web site allows U.S. consumers to find local grocery deals....fast & easy!, PRNewswire via Marketwatch (May 15)

" mygrocerydeals.com announced today that its new site and search engine (patent pending) has recently expanded its market coverage and is now "live" in over 475 U.S. cities.

The free site which is localized and personalized, allows members to quickly create a profile and then search their local stores automatically for the sale items they are most interested in. The member can create a price- optimized shopping list of items, save it, print it, even e-mail it, and be ready to save big on their weekly in-store grocery shopping, all in a matter of minutes. Mygrocerydeals.com is targeted to heads of households age 25-54, passionate about the deals "hunt game", interested in health and nutrition and looking for a better way to save time and money in planning their grocery shopping. "

Google Trends and Country Insights

A nation's interests? Google tells all By Anand Giridharadas International Herald Tribune (May 13) - this article teases out many interesting observations based on using terms at Google Trends. I don't think we can draw firm conclusions from country comparisons on search terms but the impressions might make us think.

"In India, suspicions that Sonia Gandhi is the power behind the throne of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh appear to be buttressed by search results. As the leader of India's governing Congress Party, Gandhi gets about 50 percent more searches from Indian users than Singh does."

Google Earth and Geospatial Market

The View from Google Earth, by Mary Jo Wagner, Geospacial Solutions (May 1) -- Michael Jones, CTO at Google, answers questions about Google Earth. Very interesting article on how Google Earth is being used and directions for future development.

+ Local Search: In the beginning, "Google Earth really was an Earth-browsing tool, and now it's an Earth-information tool. We have access to a rich, local search infrastructure at Google. From a value standpoint, if you go on Google Earth and search on businesses, you can type in "I want golf near here" and it won't offer businesses with only "golf" in the name, it'll have businesses like "Steve's Sports" that specialize in golf training. That's really useful and it speaks directly to our mission to get the world's information organized but present it in a geographical context."

+ Updates (some data is 3 years old): "Almost every month we publish a major update to our Earth model. Last month we did all of Germany, but we haven't done France yet. "

+ Use by organizations of the for-fee versions of Google Earth. "The people that use the enterprise product tend to be major home developers that build thousands of houses a year; major international construction companies; and governments, because they tend to have their own data as well. Pseudo-governments like the United Nations use Google Earth for some of their missions, like new peacekeeping exercises in the Congo."

+ Partnering: "We also just did a project with Discovery Channel where you can fly around the world and visit national parks and you can see interesting videos about these places for free, but you can click to pay more for more information if you so desire. We see this as the next phase of organizing all the world's information."

Quintura and Semantic Maps

Quintura, Staking The Future In Semantic Mapping, by Gord Hotchkiss, Search Insider (May 11) - On the one hand, users would benefit from maps that show aspects of a concept (semantic maps), on the other hand they won't want anything laborious for developing those maps. Hotchkiss likes Quintura , a desktop tool for developing a query by making choices, but it asks too much from the user - and will not be accepted as an alternative to the big search engines.

John Battelle reviewed Quintura 1.5 also and considered it good for exploration but not necessarily a competitor to the main search engines. Qunitura Search Approaches Launch. (May 6)

Google Press Day

Danny Sullivan picked up the slides from Google's Press Day. Watching Google Press Day, Slides & Live Commentary , SEW Blog (May 10) -- Slides show some interesting points about the ranking process at Google: Google uses over 200 signals to bring up the best and most relevant, all the time fighting spam. Also mentions other developments in Google's international coverage, toolbars, video, geographic information. Worth a scroll through.

Inside Google Co-Op

Pick of the Litter: Google Co-op by Barbara Quint, Newsbreaks (May 15) -- Barbara Quint says that although the product is being seen as "anemic" at the moment, it could signify a "a sea change in the importance and growth of such tools [social bookmarking and social search]".

"Describing the process involved in Google Co-op, Seth [ Shashi Seth, product manager for Google Co-op] stated: “Anyone can contribute. We expect it to work in a three-part process. At the first stage, the contributor will ask users to subscribe with specific pieces, relying on user trust and desire to utilize their content. At the initial stage contributors will ‘sell’ the Co-op product on their own sites and bring their own audience. Then we will tally how often they are used and the level of interaction and whether to build a signal. As confidence increases, the contributor has a better chance of getting into the [Google Co-op] directory. Once they are in the directory, it will make it easier for others to subscribe. And finally, with more quality proven, the information may affect Google Search itself.”"

Google's Intentions

Whither Google? Report on Google’s Press Day Webcast, by Barbara Quint, Information Today Newsbreaks (May 15) - Describes the four new products announced by Google at its press day, but also analyzes what these products suggest about Google's intentions.

Of interest: "The concept of user-generated content infused Schmidt’s remarks in various forms. He views Google as an information industry company, not an information technology (IT) company, and one that will ultimately form a platform for all information businesses. Success in the future, according to Schmidt, will come to companies that not only lead in technological innovation, but also in partnering. Google will expand the role of structured data. When it comes to innovation, Google is in the market for small, smart companies. As for content, Google looks to users to supply growth in that area. As Schmidt put it, “The first rule of information is that people have a lot to say all the time.” Identifying expertise and learning from it is a major goal. They expect personalization of Google products to encourage the input of user content as Google evolves its “interactive, collaborative efforts on a global scale.” “Create-Remember-Share” seems to be the new mantra at Google."

SiteAdvisor

Search at your own risk, The Minneapolis-St. Paul Pioneer Press (May 12) - McAfee, the company that makes anti-virus software, conducted a study into risks posed by web sites, and more specifically, search results.

"The study by McAfee's recently acquired SiteAdvisor product team showed that all five leading search engines - Google, Yahoo, MSN, AOL and Ask.com - returned risky sites for popular keywords in about 5 percent of their results within the first five pages - or about one dangerous site per page, the study said.

Those results included a 3 percent rate for so-called 'organic' or regular search results and almost 9 percent of 'sponsored' results that are really advertisements for Web sites that pay to be placed on the search engines' results page, usually off to the side of the regular search results."

Although McAfee would have some financial interest in doing the study, it's a good reminder to have your computer equipped with uptodate and effective spyware and anti-virus software.

SiteAdvisor, a McAfee program, will warn if a search result might be dangerous. This software is free at the moment and works on Windows and Macs.

Biomedical Journals

Free online access to nearly 200 years of medical research, press release, Wellcome Trust (May 11)

"Complete back issues covering nearly 200 years of historically significant biomedical journals are being made freely available online as a result of a landmark project launched today at the Wellcome Trust headquarters in London."

Google Trends

Interested in culture mining on the Internet? Google Trends is a new tool for watching the popularity of topics on the Web and in the News. It has two parts:

1) Compares search volume on terms based on Google's records of people's queries and "normalizes" them.

2) Determines how often the terms have appeared in the news.

Both types can be restricted to a country and by year.

You can compare up to 5 topics, separated by commas. There are more options for searching search volume as follows:
* compare one against the other -- stephen harper, paul martin
* either of two terms -- "stephen harper" | "harper government"
* exclude terms -- "david miller" -crime

They don't apply to the news search - a pity, since that is where we'd like to use them.

Let's try it. For lack of any scintilating topic, let's compare neil young to shania twain. Search volume for Shania far exceeded that for Neil until 2006, when Shania's dropped.

Most volume was in Canada, in both French and English, and mostly in Winnipeg.

There are news stories and a chart for news reference that show Neil was getting more than Shania, likely due to the Neil Young Heart of Gold movie.

Compare two mayors: David Miller in Toronto and Michael Bloomberg in New York. Miller receives many more searches and Bloomberg much more news.

We should take all of this with a shaker of salt. In these comparisons we can't specify we mean David Miller the mayor. We don't know whether Google is taking a representative sampling of search volume or news stories to make this comparison meaningful.

There are some strange figures when you limit the search to Canada. For one, there are no news stories. Secondly, the city mix for the searches is odd. On stephen harper, bob rae, Ottawa shows as a city where these search terms came up, but not Toronto.

ResearchBuzz in First Look: Google Trends (May 10) kicked the tires on this one too.

But Jack Schofield at the Guardian said -- Google Trends - great time waster, and so did several of his readers.

Personalizing Online News

The Mixed Blessing of 'Personalized News' by David S. Hirschman , Editor and Publisher (May 12)

"NYTimes.com is ready to launch a new function allowing readers to personalize their news habits -- on the advice of Times writers and editors. But maybe I'd rather have my news filtered by a computer."

Here's the nub -- "In allowing readers to customize their own pages, the paper is essentially deconstructing the importance of editors' choices as expressed in the print paper (in the way an editor confers importance on an issue by putting one story on Page One, and another deep in a corner of the Metro section); it's saying that readers can decide for themselves what they want to see first in the paper, and lets them bury stories they presume they would not find interesting. "

Domain Names xxx and tel

Internet agency rejects '.xxx' domain name by ANICK JESDANUN, Associated Press via Globe and Mail (May 11) -- As in real life, so on the Internet.

"Faced with opposition from conservative groups and some pornography websites, the Internet's key oversight agency voted Wednesday to reject a proposal to create a red-light district on the Internet.

The decision from the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers reverses its preliminary approval last June to create a ".xxx" domain name for voluntary use by the adult entertainment industry."

But there will be a new domain for .tel where people can keep their contact information. Why?

"Meanwhile, ICANN approved the creation of a domain name designed to help people manage their contact information on-line.

As envisioned, Internet users could buy a ".tel" name and set up a website with their latest digits — home, cell and work phone numbers, home and work e-mail addresses, instant messaging handles and perhaps even a MySpace profile."

The ".tel" domain could appear in use as early as this year.

Google Refine Results and Vertical Search

Under Google's new Co-op system, Google will allow "labeling" of urls / pages. Some might call this tagging. Many urls for a subject area could constitute a vertical engine. Google Co-op page has a list of verticals (called topics). They include destination guides, health, autos, and some electronics /entertainment topics.

Take Health as an example - this page shows the "labels" related to Condition info, Drug info, For doctors, and Info type; and the "significant contributors". the US National Library of Medicine, Health on the Net Foundation are two of the seven shown.

Run a search on metropolol - Note the labels that may be used to get more information: symptoms, treatment, diagnosis.

Click on these to add your refinements. If you select tests/diagnosis, the search statement becomes -- metoprolol more:tests_diagnosis

These labels will show in Google results too. For metropolol, Google shows some suggestions for refining the results.

Once you click into the results you'll see labels on the individual results.

Refine Results will show for health-related searches - lipitor, atrial fibriallation. Since travel destinations is another vertical I thought it might help with travel. Not yet - refine results does not come up when you enter a placename or a travel word.

Danny Sullivan examines this in more depth in Google Co-op: Add Your Own Vertical Search To Google , SEW blog (May 10) - Mainly he tackles the question of how can users participate in this labelling, and at present it's not at all clear except that it will be difficult. Google, according to Sullivan, has made no mention of controlled vocabulary, though it does look like some thought went into the health labels. Individuals can participate in this labelling but the instructions look very daunting to say the least.

The other part of Google Co-op is to pick up specialty or "vertical search" providers according to the search. These would show on the top of the page. You can subscribe to these providers - hence they are called "subscribed links". Providers are listed in the Google Co-Op Directory. . The Health ones are automatic subscriptions - as we have seen with the labelling. There are some choices for user subscription under Lifestyle and News.

Anyone can offer their own site as a subscribed link - at least in theory. Sullivan did not find the instructions at all understandable.

Google doesn't guarantee quality. In fact, the disclaimer reads, "Google makes no promises or representations about the content and services provided by those in the Google Co-op. Google doesn't charge for inclusion in this program or accept payment for better placement. "

It's all called Google Co-op for now, but my guess is that Google will rename the parts so that the purpose is clearer. They'll have to do something about user participation too. I'd prefer that Google set up an editorial department to vet the topics, the providers (sites), and the choice of labels, otherwise this could fall into the chaos of a social bookmarking site.

AlltheWeb LiveSearch

Yahoo is living up to its statement eons ago to use AlltheWeb as an experimental site for new search technology. Livesearch at AlltheWeb shows suggestions as you type and has some new scrolling. There is a refine button for limiting by filetype or domain. The old AlltheWeb at www.alltheweb.com is gone.

Livesearch on AlltheWeb, Michael Nguyen, Social Patterns (May 10)

Reviewed at ResearchBuzz -- Yahoo Announces Livesearch on AlltheWeb (May 12) -- Thought it got obsessive on a subject and was inflexible about special syntax.

PolyGlot Translator

Polly Glotto Translates and Reads Translations, ResearchBuzz (May 10) - Polly is an avatar who will translate words from one language to another and also speak them! The service is called Polly Glotto and was developed by Eric Iverson in Minnesota.

"An animated talking language translator. It's a mashup between Google Translate and SitePal. Polly Glotto is available at http://www.pollyglotto.com/ ."

Google Goes Social

Google going vertical -- Commentary: Using communities to enhance search results by Bambi Francisco, Marketwatch (May 10)

Google goes social. At its annual press meeting Google announced it " is harnessing communities with Google Co-op , a concept that lets users contribute their knowledge and expertise to improve search results for everyone. Google also announced, on Wednesday, Google Desktop 4 and Google Notebook, which allows people to share their notes about their searches."

How will it work? "First, if you want to participate, go to Google.com/coop. Sign in and create a profile and a label. For instance, if I want to make a page about travel in Napa, I might label it "Travel in Napa." Then, I could put all sorts of information in that page. (For anyone who read my column about PreFound, the idea is the same. PreFound allows people to be Featured Finders to create pages about topics. In this way, anyone who wants information about that particular topic can leverage the work of that particular Featured Finder.) In many ways, Google's Co-op is the same thing."

The Web will be abuzz with this.

Pandia Search -- Google launches Google Co-op -- Google to harvest the collective wisdom and competences of experts.

ZDnet Blog -- Google Press Day 2006 highlights

VNUnet -- New Google products emphasise search core -- Returning to its search roots

USA Today -- Google jazzes up search capabilities -- describes the 4 new tools briefly.

•Google Co-op. Users can sign up at www.google.com/coop/directory to subscribe to free health information from several organizations, including the federal Centers for Disease Control, the Mayo Clinic and Kaiser Permanente. Their tips on the best health data will show up in search results. Google Co-op also offers city guide information for more than 300 cities, including London and New York. Co-op is designed to let organizations label Web pages relevant to their areas of expertise. "We're going to take the Tom Sawyer view and see how our users paint the fence," said Google Vice President Marissa Mayer.

•Desktop 4. An extension of Google's tool to search for items on your computer now comes with more than 100 "Gadgets" — little widgets that do things such as list friends' birthdays, show videos and play music.

•Google Trends. Lets users examine searches for market trends. For example, a search for "surfers" will show that most searches come from Hawaii and Australia and link to news stories about surfing.

"For the first time ever, Google is making it possible to sift through billions of search queries from around the world to see what people are thinking about," said Mayer. Trends is targeted primarily toward marketers.

•Google Notebook. Available next week, it lets people save a portion of a website to a box that can be shared with others. Google showed an example of shopping for shoes, saving a certain pair and writing a note about it, then sending it to friends. The tool works in conjunction with Desktop 4.

Lots to try, absorb, and assess.

Can Microsoft Do Search?

The Microsoft Search Tar Pit by John Dvorak, PC Magazine (May 8) - Here's some straight talk and some interesting data from Dvorak about Microsoft's aspirations to compete with Google and Yahoo Search. He doesn't mention the new Live, but based on the past (and the present), Microsoft will not succeed at web search.

He calls their search engine strategy "half hearted" and cites as evidence the low activity of the Microsoft bots. Looking at bot visits to his weblog, he found that, "Google pounded the site 2,180 times, Yahoo hit it 218 times and MSN hit it 93 times. While 93 shots is probably more than adequate for a blog the fact is that Google is probably hitting all the sites 20 times as often as MSN. And I assume it does a deeper index job too. It's apparent that Microsoft is outgunned here by both Yahoo and Google. Nobody ever talks about this simple fact. Don't expect to have a showdown with the big boys if all you've got is a peashooter."

Maybe, as Dvorak speculates, Bill Gates and Microsoft doesn't understand search.

Webby 2006

MySpace.com founders among Webby recipients; Friedman named person of the year by ANICK JESDANUN, AP via MorningSun (May 10)

MySpace.com got a Webby award for being the "breakout of the year" as a social-networking site - 77 million members! ""Everyone is using it, from politicians to rock stars to students to people of all ages," said Tiffany Shlain, the founder of the Webby Awards ...".

The Webby Awards has 69 categories for "business, consumer and culture categories - from favorites like Community, Fashion, Film and Politics to new categories making their debut this year such as Podcasts, Best Visual Design, Business Blog and Best Use of Video or Moving Image." (From press release.)

Full list of winners and nominees for the 10th Annual Webby Awards 2006

These are alway a delight to read. They are considered the very best sites for content and/or design, and will take you into corners of the Web that will absorb you for hours. There are two awards - the Webby and the People's Choice.

Some examples:

+ The NewYorker got "best copy/writing" - I should say so. However the People chose Nerve.com (which describes itself as "smart, honest magazine on sex, with cliché-shattering prose").
+ Best navigation and best practices to Flickr.
+ Best Visual design - Function - Google Earth
+ Political Blog - Huntington Post
+ Community - BBC Cumbria, but TripAdvisor was the people's choice.
+ Food and Beverage - Epicurious
+ Health - people chose Healthline, Webby picked Invision Guide to a Healthy Heart.
+ Humour - the Onion
+ News - BBC for Webby and People. CBC wasn't even on the list as a nominee.
Services - Google Maps

Will Google Have Clustering Soon?

Two New Google Operators and Limited Google Clustering, ResearchBuzz (May 6) - More sightings of Google offering a form of clustering for search results. Watch for a Refine Result option at the top of a Google results page.

Finding Good Health Information

Dr Google Is In by DR. MICHAEL EVANS, Globe and Mail (May 8)

A doctor considers the findings from the Pew Internet and American Life study into people's use of web search engines to answer medical questions.

More health information and services are going online. "At Healthyontario.com, the government health portal for the public, a new diabetes centre has all these things as well as the opportunity to e-mail questions to an expert." But, he says, people may not find this site and that answer through Google.

Google (and the others) could do more to earn their advertising dollar. "Imagine if Google contacted 100 universities, 100 hospitals and 100 governments and asked them each to create a multimedia centre of excellence around a particular disease or health communication."

Good article - catch it while you can.

Social Search Possibilities

MySpace-engine -- Commentary: Can Google, Yahoo, and MSN keep search dollars to themselves?, by Bambi Francisco, Marketwatch (May 9)

Should MySpace, the youth online community centre and leading social networking site, set up its own search engine and keep the ad dollars? Should Yahoo and Google be worried?

Of interest:

+ MySpace has 70 million members
+ "In March, MySpace recorded 19.4 billion page views vs. 13.7 billion at Google, according to Nielsen/NetRatings"
+ 8.2 % of searches at Google came through MySpace

+ Yahoo is changing its ad program - "Essentially, the new platform will allow advertisements to be ranked based on how relevant or popular they are (how often they're clicked) as well as how much marketers pay to be ranked. Advertisers can also get geo-targeting. Ranking based on relevance and geo-targeting are two criteria already offered by Google."
+ MSN will be adding the use of demographic data to its AdCenter. "Essentially, advertisers can buy a particular demographic clicking onto a keyword."

Put this all in a pot, and social search might be the result. Francisco asks, "What if you layered the social network of MySpace's 70 million-strong members over search results to get even more relevant results?"

Article mentions prefound and some other social community / search services.

Prefound has as its tag line, "never search alone". Prefound taps into research or compilations that other people have done.

From the About page: "PreFound.com allows human users to (a) see what other humans have gathered by-hand from all places on the web, and have shared with the PreFound.com community and (b) gives these human users a technology which allows them to easily and efficiently gather and tag this information, then share it with the PreFound.com community if desired."

Newsreader for the Mac

Scout Report recommended Shrook 2.5, a newsreader for Macintosh users that will pick up podcasts and download to iTunes.

Publishers use RSS

Industry considers RSS by David Mort, IRN Research (Dec 2005/Jan 2006)

""The initial attraction of RSS to scientific publishers and databases was that it could be used as an alerting service, typically offering new tables of contents as they were published. This is still the main function of many RSS feeds, but some publishers are now developing RSS feeds for a range of other news services such as jobs, product data, events and public announcements."

CNet Review of Google Sketchup

CNet editors rated Google Sketchup, a 3D drawing program, 8 out of 10. Want to try it? There is a video review, text review, page of specifications, and a download link at CNet's Google Sketchup page.

Google Suggest Extended

Speaking of Google Clustering: Looking at Lists of Google Suggestions, ResearchBuzz (May 7)

New tool developed by Eric Giguere lets you put in a word or two and see a linked list of Google suggestions. As Calishain says, it's not quite clustering - more like related searches - but it helps one see the possibilities.

Google Suggest Explorer http://www.memwg.com/suggest.html

A Look at MapQuest

MapQuest Continues to Redefine Itself By Adena Schutzberg, Directions Magazine (Apr 17)

About the MapQuest site: "First off is "Places," a built-in local search tool. Don't know the address, but rather what you are looking for? Enter it in for a "local search" map of what fits the category for the geography of interest. The database behind these searches is built from business directories, gazetteers and other resources and searched with great speed by Fast's technology. The second hallmark is the goal of making the information on MapQuest.com available on a mobile phone. The third, coming soon, relates to personalization, creating a custom map for say a birthday party or mapping your IM buddies. The fourth relates to support of international business, including such efforts as re-launching country-specific portals for France, Germany and Great Britain."

Public Radio Podcasts

Public radio podcast directory -- 700 public radio podcasts are listed here, including three (only three!) from CBC: Metro Morning and Quirks and Quarks and Radio 3 for pop/rock music.

Windows Live Messenger

Search, IM and Share All At Once! from Inside Windows Live Messenger (April 20) - Search with friends through the new Windows Live Messenger.

Mentioned in ResourceShelf as a Search Brief (Apr 24)

360 Degree Views

Cool Stuff at the ResourceShelf: Forget Static Street Level Imagery, Check out What Immersive Media is Building: 360-degree views of Surroundings (Apr 25)

Physical View of Maps at Ask

Maps at Ask.com has street level, aerial level, and now physical level. See the mountains and plains of the United States. This works mainly at the distance - ie you have to zoom out to the rivers.

Search Engine Trends

Search Engines: Where We Were, Are Now, and Will Ever Be by Phil Bradley, Ariadne (April 2006) - History is interesting, but the "emerging trends" is the best part.

"Consequently, search engines will become more pervasive than they already are, but paradoxically less visible, if you allow them to personalise increasingly your own search experience. Alerting services will become even more commonplace as search engines learn your interests and preferences and can inform you of new developments, news, new Web sites and so on without users having to do anything at all, since the engines can monitor what you do and where you go."

RDN History

Retrospective on the RDN by Debra Hiom, Ariadne (April 2006)

"In the first of a two part series on the Resource Discovery Network (RDN) , Debra Hiom looks back at the development of the RDN and its activities to date. The second article will examine some of the changes taking place and set out a vision for the future of the service. "

Resource Discovery Network is the excellent entry point to the several subject gateways developed in the UK to academic and scholarly materials on the Web.

Yahoo Tech Portal

Yahoo has a new portal on technology - Yahoo! Tech. Get technical help, research products and prices, merge it with MyYahoo or put on your mobile phone, track products you own and recent searches. Tech seems to be everything electronic - camcorders, home audio, laptops, cell phones, etc.

People Turn to Internet for Health

Finding Answers Online in Sickness and in Health, Pew Internet Life and American Life (May 2)

"Fully 58% of those who found the internet to be crucial or important during a loved one’s recent health crisis say the single most important source of information was something they found online."

Search Behaviour in the UK

British study of search practices, by Lars Iselid, Internetbrus via Pandia Search (May 2)

"As many as 20 percent of respondents use four or more search engines, a British study reports."

"As many as 68 percent of the respondents use more than two keywords in their queries. Of these 40 percent use three keywords."

Jacsó on Windows Live Academic

Windows Live Academic - review by Péter Jacsó in the Digital Reference Shelf (May 2006). Jacsó, who really knows the academic scene, finds Windows Live Academic beta "deeply disappointing".

+ WLA claims 6 million records but Jacso estimates less than 4 million.
+ Sources are "4300 journals and 2000 conferences” in the fields of computer science, electrical engineering and physics."
+ "Microsoft deserves credit for admitting that in the initial beta version of WLA only the fields of physics, electric engineering and computer science are covered. Actually, the scope of coverage is broader. You will find records for publications in the field of medicine, nursing, life sciences, psychology, sociology, economy, women’s studies and in a variety of fields within the arts and humanities."
+ "The records include the usual bibliographic information, chronological-numerical designations of the source documents and the Digital Object Identifier (DOI) of the articles and conference papers when available.
+ Search facility is poor -- "Essential search features are missing from the software: I could not find a truncation operation, nor did there appear to be a way to refine a search by limiting it to a publication year or year range."

OCLC and RLG Merge

RLG and OCLC to Join Forces, ResourceShelf (May 4)

From the press release: "Two of the world's largest membership-based information organizations have agreed to come together. The combined organization will offer an integrated product and service line, and will give libraries, archives and museums new leverage in developing services, standards and software that will help them support research and disseminate knowledge online."

Note this: "RLG's program initiatives would be continued as RLG-Programs, a new division of OCLC Programs and Research that would provide programs to support architecture, standards development and best practices, to name a few."

MSN Social Search

Microsoft Gets Social -- "Redmond has big plans for tools and partnerships that will let users consult a circle of friends when conducting Web searches", Olga Kharif, Business Week (April 19)

"Microsoft (MSFT) plans to unveil a question-and-answer social-search tool in the coming months, says Justin Osmer, senior product manager for MSN. The feature will let users direct questions to a specific universe, such as a group of friends, rather than to get automated lists of results from a generic search engine."

Collaborative Tagging

Folksonomies: The Fall and Rise of Plain-text Tagging, by Emma Tonkin, Ariadne (April 2006)

"Today's 'hot topic' is collaborative tagging; the classification of items using free-text tags, unconstrained and arbitrary values. Tagging services are separated into two general classifications: 'broad', meaning that many different users can tag a single resource, or 'narrow', meaning that a resource is tagged by only one or a few users [2]. For a full introduction to folksonomic tagging, read Hammond et al [3].

There are now a large number of tagging services, many general-purpose, attracting a large and diverse audience. Some are intended for specialised purposes, targeted to a smaller, well-defined audience. Resources may be pointed to by any number of different databases, each of which is aimed at a different set of communities on the Web. The result is a large network of metadata records, containing a tuple of free-text descriptions and a pointer to a resource. The sum of the records from the various tagging services creates a sort of 'tag ensemble' - the sum of taggers' contributions regarding a certain resource. "

Google Scholar Search

Google Scholar Enhancement -- Recent Articles, ResearchBuzz (Apr 29)

"Search results include the ability to see who is citing a particular paper, view the article as HTML (if available) view a cached version of the article (if available), do a Web search for the title and author of a result, and the ability to search external sources (WorldCat and British Library direct) for copies of articles, books, and periodicals."

Search Engine Watch - 10 years

My Decade Of Writing About Search Engines, Danny Sullivan, SEW Blog (Apr 17) -- Danny Sullivan looks back on his involvement with search engines over the past 10 years - his fascination with search, the challenges of getting a site to show well in results, and the changes he has seen.

Notable:
+ Advice on how to place well in search engine listings.
+ List of Sullivan's article he has picked as being the most important 1997 to the present.

Free Content for Business Research

"Trends in business information, provision and use", By Pam Foster, Freepint (May 1)

One of the trends is that "Content is increasingly being given away for free". Article has several examples - Highbeam Research has about 3,000 sources some of which are free; Congoo is a search engine that picks up premium sources of business information; Google Finance has North American stocks but is expected to be extended to cover Europe.

Monitoring Blogs and Podcasts

"Gleaning consumer intelligence from blogs and podcasts" By Patrice K. Curtis, Freepint (May 1)

"Blogs and podcasts provide intelligence for consumer trend monitoring. In conjunction with your existing consumer intelligence (CI) resources, social media can highlight significant issues that affect your brands, identify competitor weaknesses, opportunities in the marketplace and those specific to a brand. Monitoring blogs and podcasts can help you develop actionable solutions to fuel your organization."

Google Press Day

Google Health: Probably coming next week, Kevin Manney, USAToday blog (May 3) - Rumours were confirmed that Google is soon to add a health search. Also, video will be added to Google news. More announcements expected at Google Press Day on May 10.

Kebberfegg RSS Finder

Do You Kebberfegg?, by Mary Ellen Bates, SearchDay (May 4)

Picking up RSS feeds can be a good way to stay abreast with changes. Mary Ellen Bates recommends Kebberfegg as a tool for finding feeds that pertain to your interest.

"But another, really cool, option for finding RSS feeds is a tool called Kebberfegg, developed by web search maven Tara Calishain. Yes, it's kind of a strange name—a pronounceable version of Keyword-Based RSS Feed Generator. Instead of trying to remember where the best RSS feed search tools are and how to use them, Kebberfegg builds RSS feeds around the specific information you're looking and in the types of sources you would probably find most useful."

Windows Live Product Search

Microsoft unveils product search, Ina Fried, ZDNet.uk (May 5)

"Adding to its ever-growing list of Windows Live beta products, Microsoft on Thursday night plans to launch Windows Live Product Search — a search engine aimed specifically at finding items. The company is beginning with an index of 100,000 merchants."

Also, Windows Live is expected to replace MSN Search as the company's flagship search engine this summer.

Government of Canada Web Site

We stand on-line for the Tories, by
IVOR TOSSELL, Globe and Mail (May 5)

What can Canadians expect next from their politicians and governments? More propaganda. The Government of Canada website, intended as the gateway to federal departments and information about Canada, has turned Blue and become a publicity podium for the Conservative government.

Tossell writes , "Our national website has become a party organ. The trouble is, the Canada Site has never looked better." .... "But turning it over to political cheerleading of any stripe removes any sense of ownership from citizens, and drives users away."

Canadians beware - you are about to be bamboozled.

Corporate Blogging

Blogging: It's Not Just for Self-Expression Anymore -- Trend Has Companies 'Blogging for Dollars', PRNewswire via Marketwatch (May 4)

"It's nothing new to find bloggers, whether intentionally or unintentionally, hogging the top of the rankings on search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and MSN. What is new, however, is that companies large and small are entering the blogosphere in droves, hoping to create that success for themselves."

Laurie Baldwin, CEO of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) firm NetBaldwin has some tips on how to create a successful corporate blog.

Technorati Could Become International

How Culturally Biased Is Technorati?, Fons Tuinstra, Poynter Online (May 3) - Technorati isn't global in its capture of blogs yet, but it has substantially increased its Japanese content and has the potential to bring in other parts of Asia. It all depends on the pinging.

Dueling Edits at Wikipedia

Dueling edits dog Wikipedia's Cuba entry, Pablo Bachelet, Knight Ridder via Seattle Times (May 5) -- There is quite a fuss about edits being made to the entry about Cuba in the grass-roots Wikipedia. The activity is so intense it's been called "dueling edits". Entries are supposed to be neutral but political biases can erupt as seen on the talk page about Cuba.

"But the Cuba entry, like those on President Bush and abortion, has been snared in intense political divisions over everything from the impact of U.S. sanctions on the communist-ruled island to whether it should have a separate section on its human-rights record. Russia and North Korea do not."

CBC Podcasts

More favourite CBC Radio shows move onto podcast, CBC (May 3) -- "CBC has launched 22 radio programs on podcast as part of a major expansion of podcasting by the public broadcaster." Get the list at http://www.cbc.ca/podcasting/. Unfortunately Eleanor Wachtel's Writers and Company is not on the list.

Searcher Surge

Think Like a Searcher by Barbara Quint, Searcher (May 2006) - Quint considers a recent statistic that online searches have jumped 55 percent -- "That means an increase from a per-searcher average of around 16 searches a month to some 25 searches a month or from approximately one search every 2 days to close to one search a day." It's great that people can have access to the information, but how well are they searching and assessing what they find? There are shoals of hoaxes and misinformation. But as well, there are techniques, and how is the amateur untrained searcher to learn about those?

A9 with Windows Live

Windows Live Search replaces Google on A9, SeattlePI (May 1) - A9.com and Alexa, Amazon's search services, are now using Windows Live for its web search rather than Google.

According to an entry at PC World, the change is partly due to expired contracts. Amazon Dumps Google for Windows Live (May 2)

Activity Search at Travel Destinations

SideStep Launches Activity Search, by Brian Smith, SeachDay (May 2) -- Going somewhere? Want to know what activities (tours, entertainment etc) are available? Several travel search services have offered this - Expedia, Travelocity, but this review says SideStep is much better.

Andrew Goodman at Traffick.com tried it and found content wanting. In Search, "Truly Useful" Gets the Nod. (May 4)

Google 3D Drawing Tool

Review: Google SketchUp Beta, by Lance Ulanoff, Publish (ZdNet) (Apr 27)

"Google SketchUp Beta, the brand new, free 3D drawing tool isn't an obvious fit for the Google desktop application canon. However, this blend of vector-based 3D drawing and CAD-like control lets you rapidly build 3D models that can be exported to numerous bitmap and compressed file formats and, more importantly, geo-coded and shared on the company's Google Earth satellite imagery program, which is also free. So, it's a undeniably cool, oddball app that has the potential to turn one of Google's most popular services, Google Earth, into an even more powerful and personal tool."

Google News Suggest

Google News With A Suggestive Twist , ResearchBuzz (Apr 29) -- Google Suggest for Google News - start to type and Google News offers possibilities. Could save time. Try it at http://news.google.com/news?complete=1

Teens and Social Networking

Social Networking: A New Tech Tool and a New Security Concern for Teens and Schools , Joanne Bartlett, Multimedia and Internet Schools (May 1)

"Social networking sites are having a huge impact on schools because of the ways in which some of our students have been using them."

Primer on Web 2.0 and Library 2.0

The Terrible Twos: Web 2.0, Library 2.0, and More, Greg Notess, Online (May 1)

"Rather than debate the overall merits of the 2.0 movement, information professionals should explore the territory, techniques, and examples to find the most useful applications in your own work environment."

Provides an overview of the Web 2.0 movement - "The technologies often used in connection with Web 2.0 include Ajax, blogs, APIs, clouds, CSS, RSS, social networking, tagging, and wikis." Describes long tails and tag clouds well.

Watson 2.3

Intellext Releases Latest Version of Watson Search Tool, Newsbreaks (May 1)

" Intellext (http://www.intellext.com) announced the release of Watson 2.3, an upgraded version that adds people and company content from Zoom Information, Inc. (ZoomInfo; http://www.zoominfo.com), a drag-and-drop feature for easy information collection, and Yahoo! Desktop Search integration. The product is designed to provide richer delivery of people and company information to Watson users. Watson is an intelligent search tool that proactively finds and delivers relevant information to users."

Internet Explorer 7.0 in Test

Google protests Microsoft Web search 'grab' - New browser sends user queries to MSN By STEVE LOHR, New York Times via Seattle PI (May 1) -- A test version of the new Internet Explorer 7.0 is raising questions about its neutrality. It has a built-in search box, something Firefox has had forever, but the IE one defaults to MSN. Twas ever thus. Supposedly users can change the default.

New Ad Programs at Yahoo and MSN

The Counterattack On Google - How Yahoo and MSN are scrambling to slow its search-ad juggernaut - Business Week ONline (May 8) -- This isn't about search, it's about advertising.

" These tiny text ads, usually no more than a dozen words in length, generated more than $10 billion last year and are expected to top $14 billion in 2006, according to eMarketer. Increasingly, Google, Yahoo, and others send the ads along, for a split of the revenues, to a network of publishing partners so they can run alongside other types of online content, from blog entries to news stories on CNN.com. For instance, auto site Edmunds.com showcases Google text ads for local dealers or car insurance companies alongside its content."

MSN is going to start using demographics (or what it knows about you) for text-ad placement. Yahoo isn't saying but it might be aiming at matching ad to search query and pages of online content as Google does.

Lexxe for natural language

Lexxe natural language search reviewed, Pandia (Apr 30) - reviews Lexxe , a search engine that prefers the question format. It will cluster results into topics and present results that might answer the question.