Category: Of Note in Search Biz

Another Not-News Story About Search

Wired News rounds up the usual suspects (Google, Yahoo, Microsoft) today, going so far as to quote Danny saying "this is not news." More proof that anything related to Google gives editors the urge to assign a story. However, one can always find something of note buried in me-too news…

Wired News rounds up the usual suspects (Google, Yahoo, Microsoft) today, going so far as to quote Danny saying “this is not news.” More proof that anything related to Google gives editors the urge to assign a story. However, one can always find something of note buried in me-too news – for example:

According to Kelsey Group program director Gerg Sterling, ‘2004 is going to be the Year of the Search’…”

2004?!! I better get my book done and quick….

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Beyond the Browser Again…

Cnet's Stephanie Olsen notes that several portals are considering following Google into the taskbar world…effectively increasing pressure on MSFT to get its Longhorn act together. This is a significant threat to the mindspace that Windows occupies: If Windows becomes a layer that is built upon by others…where is the margin…

Cnet’s Stephanie Olsen notes that several portals are considering following Google into the taskbar world…effectively increasing pressure on MSFT to get its Longhorn act together. This is a significant threat to the mindspace that Windows occupies: If Windows becomes a layer that is built upon by others…where is the margin for Gates & Co? Hence their massive efforts to get into search…

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Yahoo Getting Into RSS Aggregation Game

While I was down in the Valley Weds. I heard word that Yahoo's aggregator was up and running. But then I couldn't find it when I got home. Seems they put up a brief beta in MyYahoo, then brought it back down again. Internet.com has a story on it…"Insiders at…

While I was down in the Valley Weds. I heard word that Yahoo’s aggregator was up and running. But then I couldn’t find it when I got home. Seems they put up a brief beta in MyYahoo, then brought it back down again. Internet.com has a story on it…”Insiders at Yahoo confirmed the plan to add an aggregator as a module within the ‘My Yahoo’ section but described the public appearance of the beta Wednesday as an accident.”

Also of note, NewsGator has a new service to push RSS onto mobile devices.

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Good Overview of Local Search

Comes, as usual, from Search Engine Watch. My posts will be brief for the next day, as I am taking Friday off, but this is worth a read if you care about why local search seems to be a big deal……

Comes, as usual, from Search Engine Watch. My posts will be brief for the next day, as I am taking Friday off, but this is worth a read if you care about why local search seems to be a big deal…

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Baidu: A Chinese Google? OK, I’ll Bite

Via Reuters, Forbes reports on another Chinese search company planning to go public, this one called Baidu – the name "comes from a Song dynasty poem about a man searching for his lover." The company claims to be profitable, and to serve 30 million searches a day ("one seventh that…

Via Reuters, Forbes reports on another Chinese search company planning to go public, this one called Baidu – the name “comes from a Song dynasty poem about a man searching for his lover.” The company claims to be profitable, and to serve 30 million searches a day (“one seventh that of Google”) – the largest in China.

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Crawler Available, Will Work for Free

From Boing Boing I learn that the Internet Archive is releasing its crawler for free under a LGPL license. Why is this news? As I've argued in the past, it's not cheap or easy to innovate in the search space, but the search space desperately needs innovation. If key components…

From Boing Boing I learn that the Internet Archive is releasing its crawler for free under a LGPL license. Why is this news? As I’ve argued in the past, it’s not cheap or easy to innovate in the search space, but the search space desperately needs innovation. If key components like crawlers can be snapped in place relatively easily, new ideas heretofore unthinkable become possible. I also like the philosophy behind the crawler, which is named Heritrix: “Heritrix (sometimes spelled heretrix , or misspelled or missaid as heratrix / heritix / heretix / heratix ) is an archaic word for inheritess. Since our crawler seeks to collect the digital artifacts of our culture (my emphasis/link) for the benefit of future researchers and generations, this name seemed apt.”

Way to go, Brewster!

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MetaCarta Gets MetaFunding

Ever wondered how local search is going to work, really? Or how the government might associate particular documents or databases with specific geographic locations? MetaCarta makes a business of wondering just that, and just got $6.5 million in a series B round, led by Sevin Rosen. This company has clearly…

Ever wondered how local search is going to work, really? Or how the government might associate particular documents or databases with specific geographic locations? MetaCarta makes a business of wondering just that, and just got $6.5 million in a series B round, led by Sevin Rosen. This company has clearly stepped into a significant role in “geographic search.” It’s customers include intelligence agencies, the military, and energy companies (Chevron is an investor.) What do they do? From the site: “With MetaCarta Geographic Text Search™ (GTS), analysts accelerate their efforts by searching text documents in a geographic context. MetaCarta GTS turns text documents into geographic data layers.  This accelerates decision support and analytic workflow.”

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Yahoo Gets Set

Two Yahoo items this morning: First, the Journal (sub req'd) reports that Yahoo is set to drop Google (this is not a surprise, but rather the other shoe of the Overture/Inktomi purchases dropping). Second, CEO Semel promises many more innovations (and profits) from Yahoo search in the next year at…

Two Yahoo items this morning: First, the Journal (sub req’d) reports that Yahoo is set to drop Google (this is not a surprise, but rather the other shoe of the Overture/Inktomi purchases dropping). Second, CEO Semel promises many more innovations (and profits) from Yahoo search in the next year at a conference in NYC (link via CNet/Search Engine Lowdown.) The plan is to create personalized search products and beef up paid inclusion, a controversial practice, certainly, but one that is quite profitable. Google refuses on principle to do paid inclusion.

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Declaring the Relationship (RSS related)

Neat: Winer has created a feature that allows folks to see who subscribes to their blogs via RSS. I've always wanted to know who cares enough about Searchblog to check it regularly via RSS. In fact, I think such a connection is one of the cooler things about blogs and…

Neat: Winer has created a feature that allows folks to see who subscribes to their blogs via RSS. I’ve always wanted to know who cares enough about Searchblog to check it regularly via RSS. In fact, I think such a connection is one of the cooler things about blogs and the web – the two-way conversation is declared and nurtured, the community is known. It’s like an email subscription, but more intimate. But some folks prefer anonymity with their RSS habits, and I respect that as well. How do you all feel about it?

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Bloomberg: Google Chooses Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs to Lead IPO

This is not confirmed by any parties, but Bloomberg claims to have an inside source. If this means the bakeoff is final, then the IPO is 90-120 days away, maybe sooner depending on the SEC. Exciting times for all concerned, and possibly and end to all this speculation. WR Hambrecht…

This is not confirmed by any parties, but Bloomberg claims to have an inside source. If this means the bakeoff is final, then the IPO is 90-120 days away, maybe sooner depending on the SEC. Exciting times for all concerned, and possibly and end to all this speculation. WR Hambrecht (the Dutch auction folks) is named as a banker on the deal, but not as a lead, and there is no immediate news on whether an auction or online distribution scheme will play a part in the deal. Slashdot has hundreds of comments on the deal already, for those of you with a lot of time on your hands…(Thanks to Ross for the tip!)

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