Perennial Searcher

Google realtime

briansmithmccallum — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 18:35:38 +0000

Google has unvieled Google realtime. Be sure to checkout the information page about the service. In brief, Google provides up-to-the-minute updates from the likes of Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, FriendFeed, blogs, etc. Pandia, by the way, provies a helpful overview of the service. You’ll want to watch the following video, too:

Inside Searcher’s Minds: Introducing Google Beat

briansmithmccallum — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 21:25:42 +0000

Google has introduced a new, weekly video update called The Google Beat.

It highlights top searches of the week.

Guess what topped the list as of late?

Eggs recall

For more up-to-the-minute updates, check out Google Hot Trends.

Swingly: Just The Facts

briansmithmccallum — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 17:06:45 +0000

I just learned about a beta service called Swingly. It’s a fact-based answers engine.

Here’s a snippet from the Swingly blog:

“While keyword-based search is great for a lot of things, there are times when it just lets us all down. For starters: we think it’s crazy that most search engines leave you to scan zillions of search results just to find the one piece of information you need. Snippets help, but they’re not really the answer if all you’re looking for is, well, an answer.“

Currently Swingly is available via invite-only beta; you can login here.

TechCrunch provides a nice overview of Swingly, and they provide some sample questions to pose to Swingly:

How many copies of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo were sold?
What killed the crocodile hunter?
When did Steve Irwin die?
Who is the highest paid player in Major League Soccer
Who was the Mayor of Dallas in 1963?

Search Alliance

briansmithmccallum — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 20:19:56 +0000

Pay attention to this development: Search Alliance. In brief, Microsoft and Yahoo! have joined forces.

“The Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance combines the complementary strengths of Yahoo! and Microsoft to create a competitive choice in search with the scale to fuel sustained development. Both companies aim to ultimately enable searchers to find relevant results faster, and provide more value for advertisers and better results for web publishers.”

Google Images

briansmithmccallum — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 20:07:14 +0000

Google has taken a cue from Bing and revamped Google Images. According to the Official Google blog, Google Images now indexes more than 10 billion images. Users will see less whitespace in the results page and be able to view up to 1,000 images in the results. Furthermore, searchers can obtain information about images by mousing over them.

Foursqaure Dialogs with Major Search Companies

briansmithmccallum — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 16:28:34 +0000

Mashable reports that Foursquare, the location-awareness tool for smartphones, is in talks with major search engines. As the post points out, Twitter showed the world what people are talking about and thinking. Foursquare has the potential to learn about places, locations, and trends. Definitely monitor this potential development.

Does Searching Make Us Smarter?

briansmithmccallum — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 16:22:15 +0000

Eli Goodman over at Search Engine Watch writes about “How Search is Making us Smarter“.

Excerpt:

“Reference related searches account for 13 percent of the total U.S. monthly search volume (over 3 billion).”

He specifically mentions positive applications for Wikipedia and Google Doodles as well as how they’re good resources for learning.

Wolfram Alpha and Drug Treatment Options

briansmithmccallum — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 16:15:25 +0000

Wolfram Alpha has been hard at work, expanding its datasets and features. Recently, W | A has included information about diseases, treatments, and drugs. See this post for more information.

Cool feature:

W | A provides generic treatment options for conditions.

For example, run this query on “drug treatments for depression“.

You’ll be able to click on “Show drugs” in the results and sort by Brand Name first . . . and then Generics.

MetaWeb

briansmithmccallum — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 16:06:05 +0000

Google (according to its official blog) has acquired MetaWeb, a semantic search company that maintains a free “database of things”. Their flagship tool is called Freebase. You can read more about Freebase here. In addition, watch this video for an overview of MetaWeb:

Wikipedia and Movies

briansmithmccallum — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 15:25:43 +0000

Internet Movie Database is one of the most well-know sources for film and TV information. There’s another game in town, however. A site called makeuseof.com highlights 7 tips on how to use Wikipedia.

Takeaway:

“Featured content on Wikipedia comes in various forms, from articles, lists, topics, and portals. Films and movies have a portal for themselves.“

Of possible interest . . . a free download called “The Internet Guide to the Movie Addict“.