February, 2007 Archives | Homepage
Microsoft Acquires Medstory
The New York Times reports that Microsoft has acquired Medstory, a medical search provider. The Times says there has been increasing investment in online health properties lately.
The acquisition follows Microsoft's purchase last year of Azyxxi, a clinical health care software system that retrieves and quickly displays patient information from many sources, including scanned documents, X-rays, M.R.I. scans and ultrasound images.Peter Neupert, vice president for health strategy at Microsoft, told the Times that the long-term goal is to "link personal information like age, sex, drug regimens, family history and even genetic markers to search." That sounds great as long as the serious privacy issues it would raise for consumers can be put at ease.
The Microsoft move comes at a time of increased investment in online health ventures, rising traffic at consumer health sites on the Web and profits at the most popular sites. Last month, a venture firm headed by Stephen M. Case, the former chief executive of America Online, introduced an ambitious new consumer health site, RevolutionHealth.com.
WebMD, the leading health-related site, last week reported strong quarterly profit of $8.9 million on revenue of $80.6 million, surpassing Wall Street’s expectations. The stock price of WebMD — an Internet pioneer in health information that struggled for years — has surged in the last year.
In health-related search, Healthline Networks, a start-up in San Francisco, reports rising traffic on its Web site and a growing string of deals to provide the search engine for sites of other companies, including Merck and PacifiCare. At Google, Adam Bosworth, a vice president for engineering, is leading the effort to develop a health-information offering.
Posted on February 27, 2007
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Editors Working on DMOZ Again
Shadow575, a volunteer editor for the DMOZ Open Directory Project, reported recently that DMOZ has opened editor access up again to the volunteer editors.
Well contrary to what was reported in numerous SEO blogs over the last few days, DMOZ returned today for editor access. There are still some bugs and apparently some scripts aren't turned on yet, as some are reporting that site suggestions and editor applications are still not working at this point. However the editors have gotten back in to assess the damage on their own, and to see what kind of work is ahead for those of us who remain dedicated to the project. I suspect there are quite a few upset bloggers (and forum posters) who have been singing the death of the directory. I had felt all along that the directory would be back and had faith in the sources that were saying things were being worked on. I just didn't think it would be today.There may be some SEO pros that don't like the human-edited directory because it is difficult to get listed in but overall it is a great resource for web users. Hopefully, the listings will DMOZ will continue to be updated and the directory will be able to grow and expand. The open directory has over 75,000 human editors.
Posted on February 26, 2007
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Silver Haired Surfers
Telegraph.co.uk reports that a significant percent of retired Britons are active surfers or "silver surfers." A recent study found that using the Internet is a favorite pastime of 41 per cent of retired Britons.The current generation of "silver surfers" spends an average of six hours online each week, research by the insurance company AXA found.The study found that silver surfers use the Internet for email (84%), information (83%), buying travel tickets (45%), online banking (35%), news (28%) and keeping up with grandchilden (42%). Maybe that search engine named Cranky has a good idea in targeting seniors.
Emailing and online chatting to friends and family was the favourite internet activity of the retired people surveyed, followed by researching information, booking holidays and shopping.
Alison Green, a spokesman at AXA, said: "It is encouraging to see British pensioners embracing technology. The report highlights how pensioners are using the internet to support a less stressful approach to life.
"The potentially arduous task of struggling with the shopping is becoming less of an issue as retired people can simply log onto their computers and select groceries at their leisure."
Posted on February 22, 2007
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HotFrog Business Directory Goes Global
HotFrog is expanding from its Australia business directory to other locations around the world. The U.S. HotFrog site can be found here. As Search Engine Watch explains the website uses a buzzcloud or tagclouds to help with navigation.
Like its Austrailian forbearer, the site brings the buzzcloud concept (utilized most notably by social search engines such as Eurekster's Swicki and Yahoo!'s MyWeb) to directory listings. This makes a lot of sense given that online directories are category based.You can also use Hotfrog's search engine to navigate the website if the buzzclouds are not for you.
The buzzcloud gives readers a quick representation of the post popular categories; and its front and center positioning gives off the immediate impression that the site is very web 2.0. (it also offers RSS feeds).
Posted on February 16, 2007
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Google Search Adds Malware Notices
Google has added a malware notice to the Google search results. The notice tells people that a webpage might have harmful malware on it and prevents them from clicking over to the website.You can see the malware warnings if you search for the keywords beautiful free screensaver (thx Google Operating System) or list keygen mirc (thx Google Operating System). Lifehacker has a list of terms that might lead you to malware.
It is a good move by Google and hopefully it will help keep malware of some people PCs.
Posted on February 13, 2007
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25 Web 2.0 Search Engines
The Online Education Database (OEDb) has posted an interesting collection of 25 Web 2.0 search engines. The post includes good descriptions of each search engine. The collection includes Flickr search tools like Flickr Storm, Tagnautica, Tiltomo, Xcavator and Retriever. There are rich applications searches like Huckabuck, KwMap and Ujiko. Also included is Whonu, which is billed as a semantic web search engine.Posted on February 10, 2007
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Homeowners Find Zillow Data Intriguing
A Fortune article on CNN/Money explains how many people are using the Zillow.com real estate data site to find out not only the value of their own home but the values of their neighbor's homes as well.
This is what usually happens the first time you visit Zillow.com: You type in your address to check out the Zestimate, an approximation of your home's market value. It appears in a little pop-up superimposed on a photographic map of your neighborhood. The number might make you smile; it could make you angry.The article says Zillow recently added a feature called "Make Me Move" that allows Zillow users to post the value for an offer on their own home that would "cause them to pack up and go." The article says the average Make Me Move figure tends to be about 17% above the Zestimate (Zillow's estimate price for a home).
Next, you realize that the information on your property is incomplete. What about the kitchen upgrade? Your new deck? The landscaping? All that work's gotta count for something. You've spared no effort to convince the assessor that your house is worth less than the official report, but now it's time to primp. So you tap in some modifications and watch your home's value rise.
Next, you check your neighbors' Zestimates. Then your childhood home, a best friend's place, your boss's house. Just as you open your address book in search of more targets, your spouse calls out from the bedroom, wanting to know what the hell you've been doing for the past two hours. "Nothing, honey," you say, shutting the laptop and trudging off to bed, caught red-handed in a loop of real estate yuppie porn.
Posted on February 8, 2007
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Startups Vs. Amazon.com's Reviews
A post on GigaOM looks at several startups that are taking on Amazon.com's monster database of product reviews. The startups discussed in the GigaOM post include PowerReviews, Bazaarvoice, Reevoo and Ratepoint.While low prices and huge inventory are the main attraction at Amazon.com, the site's reviews have emerged as an essential online resource. Now, a new generation of start-ups wants to take on the shopping giant by spreading reviews across the web.Even if these new startups do a better job than Amazon.com of providing product information it is still going to be very hard for them to overcome the powerful branding behind Amazon.com.
As PowerReviews CEO Andy Chen puts it, he's building a "next-generation Epinions." His competitors in the distributed reviews space include Bazaarvoice and European-oriented Reevoo. Today, a new start-up, Ratepoint, is throwing its hat in the ring.
Posted on February 1, 2007
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