search

It's no secret that the Olympics are big business. Big for development, tourism, and of course cable networks. Not to be outdone NBC, Microsoft, and Google have joined the drive to bring Olympic coverage to as many people as possible. The trio have ... launched initiatives allowing simplified searches of Olympic events and results. This plan should be welcomed by people on-the-go, who can watch events on their smartphones. It's also handy for those who don't have access to cable TV, and rely on their computers for news and entertainment. How does it work? By downloading a Microsoft web browser, ... (view more)

One-third of the long-running major search engine love triangle is now quite literally giving it away. Yahoo has launched what it calls an 'open search web services platform'. In effect, it's letting outside firms use its technology to run ... independent search engines. While that's been done before, this is the first time a major search group has made its technology available without any restrictions on what you do with it. The Yahoo deal has no limits on how many searches you can offer each day, or how you order and present the results. And for the first time companies using Yahoo's search ... (view more)

Microsoft is launching a centre in Europe to study search technology, following the example of a similar facility in China. According to the firm, it's part of a specific plan to "help accelerate Microsoft's investments in Live Search and disrupt ... the search and advertising marketplace." That appears to be corporate speak for "compete better against Google and Yahoo". There's no official word yet on where Microsoft will choose as a site for the facility, though it has recently bought Fast Search and Transfer, a search engine company based in Norway that developed the AllTheWeb.com site. ... (view more)

One of Wikipedia's co-founders has just announced major changes to Wikia, the search engine he launched earlier this year. Jimmy Wales describes the relaunch as "a complete overhaul of everything", applying the Wikipedia philosophy of user ... involvement to search. This all means that users can add or delete the results appearing for any particular search. They can also rank the relevance of results, which will affect how high up in the list they appear. They'll also be able to edit the headline and description which appears alongside the web address for each result. This means people ... (view more)

As technology doesn't seem to be helping Microsoft in the search engine wars, the firm is resorting to a tactic that predates computing itself: bribery. Registered users of Live.com will be paid every time they visit a dedicated 'Live Search ... cashback' site, click on a search result to a participating website and then make a purchase. The amount they'll 'earn' will be a portion of the sale price set by the retailer and, once the user has racked up $5, they'll be paid through Paypal, online bank account, or check. (Source: bbc.co.uk ) In most cases, customers will earn money for every product ... (view more)

If you're a Wikipedia fan, you've probably noticed that the site's biggest drawback is its search facility. That's because the internal search tool appears to be largely based on early search engines, which simply measure how often and how ... prominently a particular phrase appears on any given page. While it's still a useful technique, such systems can feel quite ineffective now that we're used to more sophisticated searches such as Google, which takes into account how prestigious and respected each site is in the Internet community. And the Wikipedia system has a big drawback in that it doesn' ... (view more)

When Google emerged on the web it quickly overwhelmed competitors due to a simple page layout and superior search abilities. Since that time, various companies have tried to unseat the popular search engine, but with very little luck. Now two ... different companies are trying one approach: visual search. The first new service is called SpaceTime, a desktop application currently available only for PCs (though the company promises to deliver a Mac version shortly). SpaceTime is more 3-D browsing experience than search engine; however, its ability to search is what sets it apart from Firefox or ... (view more)

Google recently announced that it has completed negotiations before European anti-trust commissioners, and is finally able to close its $3.1 billion deal to acquire DoubleClick. The new addition to the Google brand will bring a greater concentration ... of advertising power within one corporation. However, anti-trust hearings in the US and Europe felt that the companies could merge because they occupied different parts of the advertising search market (Google is the dominant online supplier of text-relevant ads, while DoubleClick is a large advertiser for banner ads). (Source: nytimes.com ) ... (view more)

Google Experimental Search Google is always experimenting with new features aimed at improving the search experience. Take one for a spin. http://www.google.com/experimental/index.html Belvedere Keep your desktop or any other folder on your hard ... drive organized and under control with Belvedere, an automated Windows file management tool. Use Belvedere's friendly interface to create advanced rules to move, copy, delete, rename, or open files based on their name, extension, size, creation date, and more. Sets up rules for taking actions on files based on the name of a file, its extension, size, ... (view more)

Microsoft is hoping that its acquisition of Yahoo will help it gain ground on the advertising and search front, and adding Yahoo's 500 million users to its base. But assuming that Jerry Yang and Co. yield to the Redmond giant, will it be enough? The ... New York Times recently ran a picture depicting the Microsoft and Google as two large sharks consuming everything in their path: aQuantive, DoubleClick, and MultiMap. Then there are the smaller exclusivity agreements with prominent tech companies such as The Wall Street Journal and Facebook for Microsoft, and Google's deals with MySpace, Fox, and ... (view more)