Like Google, only hand-crafted

January 13th, 2008 • Search, Social
Tags: Google, Search, Social, Untitled

Just stumbled upon a Firefox extension from the people at Mahalo.

Not Earth-shaking, I know, but quietly cool. Mahalo, in case you’ve been holidaying on Mars for the last six months, in the new search engine from Jason Calacanis, the entrepreneur who brought you such legendary web properties as WeblogsInc (the power behind Engadget and Autoblog).

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Checkout Trends: the new retail price index

January 13th, 2008 • Google, Search
Tags: Google, Search

Just about everyone working on the web uses Google Trends at one time or another, if only to give that quick gauge on which term would prove more popular (Hilary or Barack?).

But now there’s Google Checkout Trends, the search equivalent of every retailer opening their ledgers to the world’s prying eyes. Well, almost. Read more »

The largest threat to Google yet?

January 7th, 2008 • Google, Search, Social
Tags: Google, Search, Social, web3.0, wiki

Wikia Search went live today.

So what? So it’s the brainchild of one Jimmy Whales, the clever chap who brought you Wikipedia. So there’s just a remote chance that it may fly.

The search results are, so far, pretty damn poor, and many of the preferences do not work. But as the world gets stuck in and begins to rate those returns, so they’ll improve (tricky right now, as the star ratings that accompany each entry in a return are disabled), and doubtless the various features will get switched on in the coming weeks. Read more »

New Live.com: fighting relevance battles

September 27th, 2007 • Business, Search
Tags: Google, live, Search

So today, we have a new Live.com, with Microsoft attempting to steal some Google turf by primarily focusing on relevancy of search returns.

Sensible enough: apparently, many billions of hours of analysis by people with large foreheads revealed that most people want to find things.

Being a person, I thought I’d give it a totally unreasonable test - one search query - and compare the big G with the big, er, L. As you’ll plainly see, Google is the infinitely better thing: Stuff.tv is clearly the right thing to return when you search for ’stuff’. Live, on the other hand, has decided that you want some kind of English course. Blagh. Anyway, in total fairness to Microsoft, many millions of queries from humans around this fair planet of ours will settle the debate. Let battle commence.

Google Reader gets search

August 31st, 2007 • Google, Social
Tags: Google, rss, Search

Silly things please simple minds. I open my browser this evening for my usual trawl through 1001 news stories using Google Reader, and… there’s a search box.

OK, OK, it’s hardly earth-shattering. But I’m a Reader addict, and could never understand why the world’s search giant didn’t have search enabled on its popular newsreader. Daft. Well, today, at long last, it has. And it works - you can either query all results, or drill down by category. Smart, quick, and wonderful.

The bluffer’s guide to SEO

July 30th, 2007 • Business, Social
Tags: Search

SEOmoz | A Complete Glossary of Essential SEO Jargon

The A-Z of search engine optimisation jabber. Read, memorise, enjoy the look on the face of the SEO guru at the next meeting.