Software News Daily » search engines

Facebook: Bringing ‘Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon’ to the General Public Level

Lansia — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 23:30:22 +0000

Last week or so, Financial Times declared Facebook a “bigger hit than Google.” Hitwise, an online intelligence research firm, found Facebook “surpassed Google in the US to become the most visited website for the week” ending March 13, 2010.

In just one year, visits to Facebook increased 185% whereas, Google had only increased 9% in the same time period. Director of Media Relations at Hitwise, Matt Tatham, tells us “It shows content sharing has become a huge driving force online.” Unlike the uncertainty of searching blindly, “People want information from friends they trust, versus the anonymity of a search engine.”

The margin may be slight, but it’s a huge accomplishment in socializing the web. According to CNN Money, “Facebook had never before beaten Google over a full weeklong period.” Facebook claimed 7.07% of all US visits, Google held second at 7.03% and Yahoo Mail ranked in third with 3.8% of all US visits. Yahoo came in fourth with 3.67% — not really sure why they separated Yahoo and Yahoo Mail though…

Now, back to the present… Website Monitoring found a few more interesting statistics in regards to Facebook’s overwhelming popularity on the web.

More than 400 million active users
More than 60 million status updates posted each day
More than 3 billion photos uploaded each month
More than 3.5 million events created each month
Average user spends more than 55 minutes on Facebook a day
Average user has 130 friends
Average user writes 25 comments a month

Facebook history, top 10 countries on Facebook, top 10 Facebook pages and more statistics at the Website Monitoring Blog. Yes, I’ll admit it — and also a bit ashamed to say — I am part of the 50 percent of active users logging on to Facebook in any given day. But, by being one of those users, I also feel a couple degrees closer to Kevin Bacon (is he even on Facebook?)…

Google Halts Censoring in China, Redirects to Hong Kong

Lansia — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 21:44:43 +0000

Google announced today that they have stopped censoring their search services on Google China. Google says…

Figuring out how to make good on our promise to stop censoring search on Google.cn has been hard. We want as many people in the world as possible to have access to our services, including users in mainland China, yet the Chinese government has been crystal clear throughout our discussions that self-censorship is a non-negotiable legal requirement. We believe this new approach of providing uncensored search in simplified Chinese from Google.com.hk is a sensible solution to the challenges we’ve faced — it’s entirely legal and will meaningfully increase access to information for people in China.

What does China have to say about it? Well, Xinhua, the official press of the People’s Republic of China, has a very brief comment on the matter…

Not too long after that comment, Xinhua got a bit more defensive and issued this brief article…

Could China be censoring Google by blocking the redirect anyway? It’s possible. SND readers, what do you think? Share your thoughts!

Google Maps: Bicycling Option Added With Bike Routes and Directions

Lansia — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 22:36:16 +0000

Google announced a big addition to Google Maps today. “Today we’ve added biking directions and extensive bike trail data to Google Maps for the U.S.,” reports Shannon Guymon, Product Manager for the biking directions team. In cooperation with Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, a nonprofit dedicated to building a nationwide network of trails for healthier living, Google has marked over 12,000 miles of trails for this maps venture.

The bicycling feature even goes above and beyond by taking in numerous factors to calculate the most efficient bike route possible. Google takes a look at roads with bike lanes, busy intersections and steep hills — then computes all that data to output the best route possible. Basically, Google is looking out for bicyclists… safest, quickest path possible while trying to avoid hill-peddling exhaustion. Similar to the road maps, bicyclists may also customize their trip by dragging their path to a desired route.

This feature is currently available for 150 cities across the United States. Since it’s in beta, it’s constantly being improved upon and feedback is encouraged. Roll on over to Google Maps Biking to try it out. Hey, just in time for spring too!

Cooking with Bing’s New Detailed Recipe Search Feature

Lansia — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 00:30:00 +0000

A friend of mine, Emily, is moving to New York to learn, as she puts it, a practical skill. After working in the arts for a while, and majoring in the arts, she decided drop the harsh, struggling lifestyle to learn a more generally applicable skill. You know, in a more technical profession where the skills are often utilized in any part of the world! What what did she decide on?

She’s pulling a Julie and Julia. Emily’s going to culinary school (and says she’ll even be blogging the experience)! I, similar to Emily and Linda from Better Off Ted, have secured a position in the time-wasters hall of fame by studying the arts. Thus, I’ve acquired a slight sort of envy for Emily… I thought about culinary school once, twice, thrice before… maybe more often. I love to cook. I love food. Okay, mainly, I love to eat! And these are reasons why I love Bing’s new detailed recipe results feature (brilliant segue, eh?).

Bing pulls from a variety of popular recipe sites, including Epicurious, Delish and MyRecipes.com. The feature also breaks down the search by rating, cuisine, convenience, occasion, main ingredient, course and cooking method. My only beef (pun intended!) with the feature? Not all search queries activate the detailed recipe search feature — simple is key here, it seems. Excited, I tried “coq au vin” and “lasagna,” but did not see the option for Bing’s new recipe search. Slightly disappointed, I tried simpler terms, “bacon” and “cheese” with success. Okay, so not the best recipe search utility — especially since simple terms give such a wide range of results. But that’s what the filters are for, right?

As someone that frequents Food Network and AllRecipes.com for food ideas, I think Bing’s new feature is awesome. I can’t wait to see how they will improve it. What about you? Do you agree?

http://www.epicurious.com/

Google Stands Up For Free Speech, Ready to Pull Out of China

Lansia — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 18:10:03 +0000

Is China going too far? Was the Chinese government behind, as Google puts it, “a highly sophisticated and targeted attack” that’s gotten Google ready to pull out of China? In mid-December Google and, apparently, about 20 other companies, were attacked. Google’s investigation discovered “that the accounts of dozens of U.S.-, China- and Europe-based Gmail users who are advocates of human rights in China appear to have been routinely accessed by third parties.”

A blog post from Google’s Chief Legal Officer, David Drummond, declared that Google is “no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn.” Google doesn’t necessary dominate the internet search market in China (about 15% or so), but there is lots of potential for growth — especially since Google will soon dominate the world. And if they pull out, Baidu, China’s leading search engine, will surely saturate the market even more.

Although Google will attempt to work with the Chinese government on a censor-free possibility, I doubt it’s likely. I mean, I had a hard time with the internet limitations while I was vacationing in China (and nope, I didn’t look up one political site). Just trying to plan the next leg of our trip to Taiwan, I had extreme difficulty accessing tourist information sites. Oh and did you know it costs an American $130 for a single entry tourist visa to China while it costs a Canadian just $30? I’d say there’s some sort of agenda there…

What do SND readers think of Google’s decision? Do you support Google’s decision? Click comment and let us know!

There is much more information out there, in case you’d like to become a bit more informed… you know, before you comment and tell us what you think of it all. We like interaction.

Oh, and on a side note, looks like Baidu, the Chinese-run search engine, was recently hacked by the Iranian Cyber Army. First Twitter, now Baidu, who’s next? Who are these guys!?

Search (Free) Faster by Just Saying the Words

Lansia — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 21:07:51 +0000

Nuance has released another mobile application for iPhone, Dragon Search. Powered by their popular Dragon NaturallySpeaking software, the app lets you search the web just by saying the words. It’s the “fast, easy, and smart way to search online content on your iPhone using your voice,” declares Nuance. Voice your search and receive results from engines such as Google, Yahoo, Bing, YouTube, Twitter and iTunes. Their top five reasons for getting it?

Most convenient way to search on your iPhone
Amazingly accurate
Up to five times faster than typing
Easy to use
Safer and more productive while you are out and about

And the best reason that’s not mentioned? It’s a free download (at least for now). Download either Dragon Dictation or Dragon Search at the Dragon Mobile Apps site; it’s also available through iTunes.

AOL Separated, Got a Makeover. And Now, Aol is Free and Making Changes.

Lansia — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 01:13:26 +0000

It’s begun! Last night as I checked my AOL mail, I realized it wasn’t “AOL” anymore. It had become “Aol.” AOL trashed their logo and has emerged as a publicly traded company, official as of this morning. Although it’s been a slow day at the stock exchange, AOL is throwing caution to the wind and coming out big – even Sean “Diddy” Combs, Matisyahu and Harry Connick, Jr. came out last night to celebrate the new AOL at their NYSE shindig. As a long time AOL user (it’s been well over a decade, maybe two?), the first thing I noticed was the logo. When I read about this new image that AOL had, I was definitely not sold. A long-time standing icon that I had been used to seeing, drastically changed?! Take a look for yourself at the new brand and logos AOL unveiled a few weeks ago. Certainly much more pop, but I wasn’t too keen… However, seeing it in action, I noticed that it all looked pretty good in context. I admit, I’m liking it more.

AOL web mail is different now too. An email I received this morning stated these simple changes:

1. Significantly fewer ads
2. An easier AOL Mail sign-in experience
3. A new message reading pane that helps you get through your email faster

Well, yep, I believe there are fewer ads. The new splash page for AOL mail was updated a few days ago (and again today), and yep, definitely simpler and better looking – hence, easier sign-in experience? And yep, it’s faster but I’m not sure if it’s because of that new reading pane. I haven’t quite cozied up to this new reading pane… It is nice to see my mailbox and my email next to each other so the two can be simultaneously referenced, but I also like seeing the entirety of my emails. Maybe AOL could give me a really big monitor to fix that…

Find out about the many other changes happening at AOL from Business Week.

Are you experiencing AOL’s changes as well? How long have you used AOL? How do you like the changes that are being made? Discuss it with me; hit that comment link!

Reasons Towards Google’s Eventual World Domination

Lansia — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 00:57:04 +0000

Google has been in the news a lot lately… new technologies, new innovations, new products… It’s all about Google. And that is why I think they are eventually going to take over the world. Well, the technological world, at least… Here are a few recent “waves” (no pun intended) Google has been making:

Google Introduces Real-Time Search Results: If we aren’t overwhelmed enough, Google now has a way to search real-time results. Real-time search brings instant results from stuff that is happens on the web – blogs being posted, live tweets, news articles and web pages being published all streaming to the search engine. Read more from ZDNet or watch the video demonstration.

Google’s Local Business Directory: Sending out QR code window stickers to popular businesses, Google is hoping to build their local business directory. See the SND blog about Building Better Local Businesses with Google Bar Codes.

Google Goggles: Search the web using a picture. Google Goggles, an app for Andriod, searches the web based on a photo you’ve taken with your phone. The application scans data from the photo and translates the material into a web search. Perfect for those “words cannot describe” moments. Read more from TechCrunch about the product.

Google Chrome: This up and coming browser is now available for Mac! Coming third amongst popular browsers, Google’s product is rising quickly. See the SND blog about the Google Chrome Switch: On or Off.

Google Chromium OS: This highly anticipated operating system is open-source and meant to be fast and easy to operate. It’s not yet available officially (looking at a slated 2010 arrival), but you can already play with it. See the SND blog about Google Chrome OS: Light Recap of the Update from Mountain View. Also see the SND blog of Google Chrome OS Out Now (Sort of).

Google Wave: An online communication tool that combines email, instant messaging and all your social networks was an exclusive club that has just opened up to more users. Google describes a “wave” as “both a conversation and a document where people can discuss and work together using richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.” See the really long video demonstration.

Google Public DNS: Google now has a free, global domain name service. Read about what it means to you in this TechCrunch article.

Have I proved my case, at least slightly?

What is Software? Google Lends a Few Definitions

Lansia — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 19:00:40 +0000

I was inspired by a TechCrunch article to see how Google defined software. Check out the results:

See more Google-isms at Autocomplete Me.

Microsoft, Yahoo’s Search Engine Matrimony Under Scrutiny

admin — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 18:39:35 +0000

Yahoo and Microsoft will couple against alpha-male search engine Google. After several years of negotiations, offers, withdrawals, and hesitations, the companies finally worked out a 10-year deal in July of this year. Google was required to pay no upfront dowry, and eventually have full access to Yahoo’s search power for use in new search engine Bing.

As expected, the proposition has been met with much scrutiny from the Justice Department and antitrust regulators. Microsoft and Yahoo together hold only about a quarter of the search market in Google’s great shadow. All eyes are on two companies now as they work out the details. And we can only hope their union will not be as rocky as their courtship.