I find it funny how multinational companies still get the littlest things wrong. Ask is really trying to find it legs in the search engine market, but they obviously have a huge amount of competition to stand out. Today I followed Ask on twitter with my own personal twitter account.
Now I hate automatic direct messages on twitter at the best of times, but this is what Ask sent me.
Now if ask can get something as basic as a reply message wrong the why the hell do they think they can get me to use their search engine! Jeeves its “look forward to answering your questions!” Sort it out.
1. Navigate to this URL if you want to submit your website to Bing. You will need to sign in with your Windows Live ID to access the webmaster center.
2. Enter the website URL and also sitemap URL (sitemap is not mandatory, but it is highly recommended to add one).
3. Next step is to verify your website and this can be done either with XML verification or HTML meta tag verification. You can get more details from the help center.
4. Once your website or blog is validated, you can see the complete details of the website submitted like number of URLs indexed, any issues with the crawling etc.
Bing the new search engine from Microsoft launched on the 1st of June and since then they have been getting a lot of hype and even people moving over to use their service. I personally cant see the difference between Bing and Live.com in terms of results, if anyone can let me know how they are different that would be great.
Anyways, Microsoft has just launched the first advertisement for their new search engine Bing and here it is!
Bing is the new search engine by Microsoft which was due to launch on the 3rd of June, but for some reason it has launched today!
After using the service for the last ten minutes or so there seems to be do real major difference between Live.com and Bing.com. Search results are still terrible and it is really only the interface that has improved and only slightly.
I cant see Bing in its current form taking any search share from Google. In fact I think in its current form it is probably going to do the opposite and give Google more share of the market. Im amazed that Microsoft cant get a good search algorhythm and that Google are just so far ahead in actually providing quality results.
Microsoft really seems to just lack originality when it comes to search and the majority of their online products. MSN has never really done too much, Windows media player is completely outdated and hotmail needs a revamp but never seems to change much, now bing is the search engine that couldnt.
It would be great to hear your thoughts on the new Bing search engine. The best example of the results is that I searched ‘Crenk’ and the our own website came up 9th! Terrible!
There has been a lot of hype around Microsofts new search engine Bing. However, the site isnt supposed to launch until June 3rd, but I thought I would let everyone use it now!
There are so many alternative search engines in the market today. I came across a new alternative search engine that might be work bookmarking, ErrorKey. ErrorKey is a new search engine dedicated to provide results for any error you encounter. Developed in a way that it crawls across the web to search for information associated to various errors plus builds itself up from contribution by users and other developers alike, it just requires you to type in an error and get information about it. It also has pre-defined tags that contain search results associated to various devices, programs etc (HTTP to Cars). It’s neat and pretty useful if you are looking for errors alone.
Today it was repoted by Torrentfreak that according to a report in the Norwegian press today, some companies have reacted uncomfortably to the news that their Google Adwords text ads have been appearing on IsoHunt, the world’s third largest BitTorrent site.
Google has a policy of not displaying ads on sites that are involved in or linked to copyright infringement, with many torrent sites previously excluded from the scheme. Of course, some still carry Google ads, purely because Google is unaware of the nature of those sites, but with IsoHunt the situation is different. On IsoHunt the Google ads aren’t directly served by Google, but by Ask.com, a Google AdWords ‘reseller’.
Ask.com, formerly known as Ask Jeeves, works with several other BitTorrent sites. Only on IsoHunt have they displayed search based ads that came from Google AdWords campaigns. They have been doing so for several months, perhaps years, but up until now nobody complained, or knew.
In a statement, Jan-Henrik Ohme, head of digital marketing at Sony BMG said “We have stopped the section of the campaign that goes to the third party until Google cleans up the issues. We have contacted Google, and they took immediate action.”
For its part, Google Norway has apologized for the situation, and said that the advertisers should not be held responsible for the placement of the ads, since due to the 3rd party involvement, they had no way of knowing where they would appear. The campaigns are not limited to Norway though, and Ask.com certainly has something to explain to Google.
This situation was bound to happen but some of the companies dont really understand why it happened. Ask.com was only allowed to have their ads on Isohunt because the deal they started with Google was done after the Isohunt deal. Thus, Google allowed all historical deals to continue as normal. Therefore, it is impossible to now have Google ads on new bittorrent related sites.
Additionally, the ads are not done through Ask.com, they are from Ask.co.uk. This is because Ask.com sell their own adwords type program still and Ask.co.uk controls the Google Adwords reseller program.
I have been wondering for a long time now “what makes a good startup page”? How does an internet user determine what will be their start page and what just doesn’t do it for them? In this article I’m going to run through some of the basic types of startup pages out there today and see what characteristics are good for me and what aren’t.
The first type of startup pages are the ‘add your own modules‘ type of startup pages. About a year and a half ago these types of pages were being developed left right and center, but lately they seem be going into liquidation very fast.
Netvibes - Netvibes is a module based startup page that has been growing from strength to strength recently. They are based in France but have been able to build up traffic worldwide. All modules can be customised in whatever style the user sees fit. Netvibes is the leader in this type of startup page and I every time I head back to their site they seem to have made improvements.
Pageflakes - Pageflakes is a startup page very similar to Netvibes except they don’t have the adoption levels of Netvibes. Pageflakes was acquired by Live Universe about either months ago because they were struggling and running out of liquid funds.
iGoogle - iGoogle is basically the Google version of Netvibes but with the Google search option at the top of the page. iGoogle has very limited themes, but it is simple to integrate with everything Google of course.
These types of startup pages are good for the user because they allow you to place whatever modules you want onto the page, but there is such a thing as information overload. Personally, Im not so sure about these types of sites as startup pages, because they are simply just ugly to look at because everything is a base size module and they just take too long to setup!
The next type of startup pages are the ‘one page aggregators‘. This type of startup page brings together some of the most popular rss feeds from around the internet and puts them all onto one page. Basically it is a rss reader for the lazy.
Popurls - Popurls is the original startup aggregator which brings together some of the best sites in the tech industry. Sites include Digg, Reddit, Delicious, Yahoo Buzz, Metafilter and more. The site has a very simple layout showing the top 10 from each site. Additionally, they have added videos from Youtube and photos from Flickr.
Alltop - Alltop is a new site from Guy Kawasaki (evangelist at Apple), in which he takes the idea of popurls and spreads it to pretty much every time of market. This is basically an rss reader for every type of industry for the most basic of internet users.
Original Signal – Original Signal used to be one of the leaders in this space, but recently they have been losing market share fast. Original Signal covers mainly tech and business topics, but they have seemed to update the service in many years.
These startup pages are great if you just want to have a quick look at one site in the morning and see what is happening around the world on a specific topic. However, they don’t allow users to choose the rss feeds you want to read, this can be done easily by using an rss reader.
Finally the other type of startup page is the simple search engine and 99% of the time its Google. Personally Google is my startup page but mainly because I find it easier to click the home button at the top and then type in my search, instead of typing it into the top of Firefox. Google as a page is so simplistic and it provide immense functionality behind that basic exterior.
Overall, what makes a good startup page? This is probably a different answer for every single person. However, I do think that startup pages need to be simple, have a good search option and allow the user to customise if they wish. As always simplicity and functionality are the keys.
SnappyFingers is a new question and answer search engine that is slowly making waves in the search space. SnappyFingers currently has over 10 million questions in their database and has recently partnered with Kosmix in which you can see Snappy’s results within their searches.
SnappyFingers is a great place to come if you are looking to find the answers to the most basic of questions. Their search box is simple to use and users can just type in a question as if they were saying it out loud. This reminds me a little of Powerset in which was purchased by Microsoft for $100m about six months ago.
In terms of downside I mainly think that all comes from design. The design of SnappyFingers needs a huge amount of work. Currently the SnappyFingers seems to be set onto a fixed width, in which it really needs to be fluid. Additionally, the questions are actually quite hard to read and if the results were show in the same kind of way as Powerset or Google, then it would be much easier to scan the page looking for the answers you require. Finally the sidebar they are using is complete the wrong size for this type of site. A 300px sidebar is not needed, I’m sure 160px would be more than adequate.
I think SnappyFingers has a lot of potential, but I’m really not keen on the design and if I owned the company that would be the first thing I changed. Additionally, I’m not really sure where this company is going and what market they are trying to enter, because I know they are a question and answer search engine, but why would I use SnappyFingers over Yahoo Answers for example?
I don’t know where to begin with this one. It was not that long ago, earlier this year, when Cuil was touted as the Google killer. This search engine was to massacre all known search engines known to man, a powerhouse of innovation and usability. There was a lot of hype, some amazing PR, and the world anticipated this amazing release. Sure many of us had out doubts, Google was just so dominant, how could this awkwardly named search engine be anything better. Then again, Google was an odd word some years ago prior to it making its debut.
So just happend with Cuil, and where is it today? Well aside from the fact that the search engine was a miserable failure. Aside from the fact that the search engine was actually crashing sites. And aside from the fact that there were entire sites, highly trafficked sites, that just did not make the listings. Cuil really tried to succeed, but alas, it was a marketing disaster, a sinking ship, a search engine site that just could not search.
The backlash was expected and even became the root of several jokes in the tech community. I personally remember looking for stories on Cuil so that I could laugh. Critics did not hold back anything with their analysis of the search engine, and almost immediately the wind left its sails.
Today those using Cuil are very very very few and far between. With the number of users practically hitting rock bottom, I almost wonder who is actually using this search engine for anything other than research. I’m convinced that only people using Cuil for research on how not to build a search engine are the numbers that are being recorded. I can’t imagine anyone seriously using it for any practical purposes. Perhaps the developers left their computers on a an infinite search loop to give it some traction, but I doubt it.
Alas Cuil, as we wrap up 2008, you will not be missed, but gosh you provided us with laughs. Thank-you!
I came across a new search engine this morning called Social Mention. Social Mention is a social media search engine, search areas include blogs, micro-blogs, bookmarks, comments, images and more.
Social Mention is great for website owners/ceo’s for keeping track of the buzz surounding their web properties. However, I would have liked to see the text size in the main column a little smaller, thus allowing more articles above the fold.
Social Mention is a great start at a search engine and Im looking forward to seeing how it grows in the future. I think Social Mention is already a lot easier to use than Technorati!
Searching is big business. Those listings on the right side of any Google search are there because someone paid money to advertise there. Same goes with the top 2 or 3 links. Google makes a lot of money off of these paid placements, which are there based on their dynamic search technology. Google has also come under fire for the way in which it ranks sites, called Page Rank, it is a top secret way they calculate what search results should be at the top for any given term, based on their algorithm that, some have suggested, is based on the number of in-bound and out-bound links from other sites.
Google is the killer app of this decade, no one is doubting that. It is so popular it has become a verb, people just say, “Can you Google this for me?” which is almost impossible to do with anything anymore. So what if a new search engine comes along and tries to flatten the playing field?
That is exactly what Cuil (pronounced Cool) is trying to do. They claim to index three times the number of sites Google does and display them in a three-across pattern. That alone is kind of unique for searches, as they have always gone vertically. They have also implemented tab searches, a kind of, well maybe if you were looking for camera you might also want to look for digital camera. The search engine works, that really isn’t a question, but why should I use it?
Google does so many things now, like simple and complex math problems, fast weather look-up, package tracking from UPS and other services, all the way to stock quotes and word definitions. For me, it has eliminated the need to go to specialized sites if I can just put a special query in the Google search bar in Firefox. Cuil is also missing an image search function, something even Microsoft and Yahoo have worked into their site.
Cuil has some cool features, like roll overs, drill-down menu’s and the tabbed feature mentioned earlier. They are taking on the proverbial 800 pound gorilla by going after Google too. My two cents say that Cuil will have a small cult following for a while but ultimately, this will only make Google stronger.
Netvibes 
Pageflakes 
iGoogle 
Popurls 
Alltop 
SnappyFingers
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