December, 2006 Archives | Homepage
Wikipedia Founder to Launch Search Engine Called Wikiasari
The Times Online reports that Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales plans to launch a search engine called Wikiasari.The project has been dubbed Wikiasari — a combination of wiki, the Hawaiian word for quick, and asari, which is Japanese for "rummaging search."Wikiasari may have a difficult time catching the major search engines. Human power might produce better results in some areas but even the human powered web directory at dmoz.org is not as popular as it once was. A visit to Wikiasari.com takes you this Wikia page that says "Amazon has nothing to do with this project." The page also recommends the Exalead search engine.
Mr Wales told The Times that he was planning to develop a commercial version of the search engine through Wikia Inc, his for-profit company, with a provisional launch date in the first quarter of next year.
Earlier this year he secured multimillion-dollar funding from amazon.com and a separate cash injection from a group of Silicon Valley financiers to finance projects at Wikia.
However, it is understood that amazon has also collaborated with Mr Wales on the search engine project and is expected to lend its support to the venture in the future.
Posted on December 23, 2006
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Very Unsimilar Search Results for Google, Yahoo and AOL
Rough Type looks at the top search results for 2006 from Google, Yahoo and AOL and finds there is no similarity. Only the term "American Idol" made it on multiple top search lists.There's only a single overlap: "American Idol" appears on both Yahoo and AOL. That's it. I would have thought that, given the sheer number of searches done through each engine, there'd be a lot more similarity in the results. I guess it means that very different types of people use each of the three engines.The search engines either each have completely different users or there is something fishy going on. Yahoo's top search for 2006 seems the most likely given our culture's obsession with celebrities.
Looking back over the results, I think I can suggest the following market segmentation: Google users are dweebs. Yahoo users are horndogs. And AOL users are geezers.
Posted on December 19, 2006
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Add Moustaches, Santa Hats to Your Picture With PikiPimp
A new free online service called PikiPimp lets you modify a photograph online to add features like bikinis, hats, moustaches and hair styles. Go2Web2 lays out the five easy steps to pimpin your pic.
PikiPimp also has a Christmas category that lets you add antlers and Santa beards to your photograph.Upload your image from your hardrive. Edit your image (just drag&drop objects from the right side bar to your image) Manage your image - Rotate, flip, move, order, delete, etc.. Preview your image to see if you're happy with the results. Save image - You can save the file to your computer or copy an HTML code to use in your site or blog.
Posted on December 15, 2006
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Visual Web Search With Pagebull
Pagebull is a visual search engine that gives you an idea of what pages look like before you visit them. For example, if you search Pagebull for recipes you will see pictures of pages from AllRecipes, the Food Network, Epicurous, Better Homes and Gardens and Meals.com in the search results. Panda Search Engine News explains how Pagebull has abandoned text search results completely by using linked pictures of pages instead of words and hyperlinks.
What makes Pagebull stand apart, though, is that all results are presented as pictures of the search result pages. Yes, that's right, this is not a question of adding small thumbnails to regular search results (that has been done before). Pagebull abandons text alltogether.It is a good thing the text on the pages is not very readable -- otherwise the websites being listed might object to their content being framed by Pagebull. As is stands most web publishers will probably not object to what Pagebull is doing. Pagebull does provide information for webmasters who do not want their site in Pagebull. Pagebull is an interesting search tool that provides a completely new way to search the web.
Pagebull shows the search results in a 3 by 4, 2 by 6 or 4 by 3 image grid, depending on your Internet browser window size. You can use a drop down menu to customize the image grid, if needed.
It is amazing to see how much information is contained in pictures like this. Although it may be hard to read the text present in the images, the lay out, the picture selected and the main headlines immediately give you an impression of what the page is about.
Posted on December 11, 2006
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Yahoo's Top Searches of 2006
Yahoo has released its list of the top searches for 2006. Here are the lists for the top overall searches and for the top news searches.
Top Overall Searches
- Britney Spears
- WWE
- Shakira
- Jessica Simpson
- Paris Hilton
- American Idol
- Beyonce Knowles
- Chris Brown
- Pamela Anderson
- Lindsay Lohan
- Steve Irwin death
- Anna Nicole's son dies
- Iraq
- Israel and Lebanon
- U.S. elections
- Fidel Castro stroke
- North Korea nuke
- JonBenet confession
- Saddam Hussein trial
- Danish cartoon
Posted on December 8, 2006
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Agloco Reminds Some Bloggers of AllAdvantage
A website called Agloco is promising to pay you to search the web. Members get paid for running a "Viewbar" on the bottom of their browser and by referring friends. A GigaOM post compares Agloco to AllAdvantage, a pay for surfing scheme that collapse during the dot com crash in 2000.
TechCrunch also compares this new pay-to-surf site to AllAdvantage. A VentureBeat article notes that a couple of the people working for Agloco also worked for AllAdvantage. Shawn Collins says don't call it a comeback but others like Geeks are Sexy say "there's really nothing to lose by signing up."
It is unclear whether or not Agloco will work but it is annoying they spell their name in all caps on their website -- that always looks like spammy shouting to us.
Posted on December 6, 2006
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Ask.com Goes Local With AskCity
Ask.com has rolled out Ask City, a new local search service. The New York Times reports that early reviews of the service are positive.
On Monday, Ask.com is introducing AskCity, a service that integrates maps with information about local businesses, restaurants, concert and movie listings and reviews.Search Engine Land and News.com report that AskCity includes information about businesses, movies, events and directions using data from InterActiveCorp (IAC) properties including Citysearch, Ticketmaster, Evite, Trip Advisor, ReserveAmerica, OpenTable, Yelp, Fandango, InsiderPages and Judysbook. A more detailed review can be found here on Screenwerk.
These so-called local searches already account for 10 percent of all Internet queries and are expected to grow faster than other searches. They are also seen as a way to tap into tens of billions in spending by small businesses, which have yet to switch much of their advertising dollars to the Internet.
Early reviews of the service by analysts are positive, and Mr. Lanzone said AskCity, which makes use of data from other IAC businesses like Citysearch and Ticketmaster, was just the kind of service that was slowly helping Ask build a top-quality search engine.
"Right now, the focus is almost entirely on improving the user experience," Mr. Lanzone said. "This is the product that, to date, we are the most proud of. It is going to have a huge impact for people who use Ask."
Posted on December 4, 2006
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Google Answers Stops Answering Questions
Google is going to stop answering questions at Google Answers. However, the Google Answers database will remain online.Google is a company fueled by innovation, which to us means trying lots of new things all the time -- and sometimes it means reconsidering our goals for a product. Later this week, we will stop accepting new questions in Google Answers, the very first project we worked on here. The project started with a rough idea from Larry Page, and a small 4-person team turned it into reality in less than 4 months. For two new grads, it was a crash course in building a scalable product, responding to customer requests, and discovering what questions are on people's minds.The Yahoo Answers team responds to the closing of Google Answers here (thx 8seek). There has also been a lot of discussion why Google Answers shut down in the blogosphere. You can see some of them here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here. Many of the bloggers say Google Answers wasn't as good and as competitive as some of Google's other services.
Google Answers taught us exactly how many tyrannosaurs are in a gallon of gasoline, why flies survive a good microwaving, and why you really shouldn't drink water emitted by your air conditioner. Even closer to home, we learned one afternoon that our building might be on fire.
The people who participated in Google Answers -- more than 800 of them over the years -- are a passionate group committed to helping people find the information they need, and we applaud them for sharing their incredible knowledge with everyone who wrote in.
If you have a chance, we encourage you to browse through the questions posted over the last 4+ years. Although we won't be accepting any new questions, the existing Qs and As are available. We'll stop accepting new Answers to questions by the end of the year.
Posted on December 1, 2006
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