search engines

Interesting article by Brian Berstein about Tools that refine web searches. Brian writes about Vivisimo that groups searches from Google in a more intuitive way. Seems to work OK for English, but not so good for other languages. While Brian writes extensively about Vivisimo, he also touches on some other interesting search refinement tools, such as Grokker, Touchgraph and a few search engines that rival Google.

Ari Paparo has put together an impressive list of Blog Search Engines I honestly didn’t know that there was so many services out there to search blogs and their feeds. [Via Digme via Weblog Hype]

Bill Thompson at BBC World Service asks the question Is Google good for you? He talks about how Google has become more commercial, and claims that we are all suffering because of it. He actually goes as far as suggesting that search is now so important that it should be regulated, just like telecom and broadcasters are in the UK. While I will admit I don’t mind regulation of several areas, and that I am missing the regulation of power companies that we enjoyed in Norway until last year, I

Google Weblog: Big News! New Google Operator So what is the big deal? The ~ operator adds the ability to search for synonyms of the keyword marked with the “~”. Example: weblog help and weblog ~help According to the Google Blog the ~ character was chosen because it’s shorthand for approximate and a good way for users to express their wish to expand searches to include synonyms. More information at Google’s search help [Via Google Blog]

The Google Weblog has discovered that you can check out what ads would be shown on any given website. Interesting stuff: Try Before You Sell Not everyone believe that Google Adsense is a good idea: Pamela Parker at ClickZ Today writes about her initial response in her article Does Google’s AdSense Make Sense? Her point is that Google’s advertising won’t work as good when placed on web sites, as when it is displayed on their search pages, because people act differently when they are in search mode, as opposed to

This is very interesting: A blog with quotes from Google staff’s Usenet postings. Instead of having to keep updated on various Usenet groups and Google staffs postings there, all I have to do is add GoogleGuy Says to my blog-reader and I’m automatically updated on postings. Just wish I could put more blogs than Evan’s to the list of Google staff blogging. BTW: If you want to keep updated on new results for searches in Google, then you might want to check out the excelent e-mail service from Google Alert

In the news today (Google news): The purchase of AllTheWeb.com and its technology from Fast Search and Transfer to Overture Services Inc for 100 million US dollars. That, just a week after they announced their takeover of the Altavista search engine. Its going to be interesting to see if Overture, which made its money from pay-for-placement search, will add more of the same to both AltaVista and AllTheWeb. To me, it seems like AllTheWeb soon will be filled with pay-for-placement ads, and that it will become less of a competitor

Interesting article in Wired: Google vs. Evil, its about the challenges facing Google as it (to use Wired’s words) matures into teenage, its interesting to get small glimpses into the culture that drives Google.