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Vivisimo releases Cluster Med™

Vivisimo announces the release of Cluster Med™, a powerful research tool that allows biomedical and life sciences researchers to search the MedLine database far more productively and efficiently.

ClusterMed(TM) organizes the long list of results returned by PubMed(R) into hierarchical folders allowing researchers to hone in on the most relevant results quickly.

By organizing results into categories, users discover the main themes relating to the subject of the query and can easily reach relevant articles buried deep in the chronological list. In addition, similar articles are grouped together, rather than scattered throughout the results.

Using ClusterMed(TM), drug discovery researchers save mission-critical research time and discover insights that previously required long hours of browsing through results. Results can be organized by author or source allowing researchers to customize their queries based on their research needs. This feature can also profile the research specialties of an author or institution. For additional flexibility, results can be clustered by date of publication or MeSH headings.

The enormous amount of information being produced today by the life sciences industry requires new, sophisticated tools to help users synthesize that information into timely, actionable knowledge. "Imagine intelligently organizing in seconds -- under your control -- all the PubMed research literature on a specific topic," stated Don Taylor, Senior Director, Life Sciences Solutions, Vivisimo. "For example, searching PubMed for 'apoptosis and breast cancer' returns 2,536 articles in a chronological, one dimensional list.

ClusterMed enlivens this unwieldy list into meaningful, hierarchical folders in which PubMed article number 1,432 may appear within a ClusterMed folder just 2 clicks away. We expect ClusterMed to swiftly become the most affordable, mission-critical knowledge management tool in the industry."

ClusterMed builds upon Vivisimo's extensive experience with several of the largest pharmaceutical firms, Journal of Biological Chemistry, JAMA, NEJM, BMJ, PNAS, and other top biomedical journals and societies and is currently in trials at several life sciences companies.

A free demonstration of the product is available at http://www.clustermed.info

Source: Vivisimo

Google tests personalized search & alters look

Google changed its home page to add a link to Froogle, while at the same time it tests personalized search.

The search results page has been changed, with Google's paid listings now separated from its algorithmic results by a thin blue line. Previously, paid search results were contained in colored boxes.

Google also unveiled the test of a personalized search engine that tailors results based on a profile users build. For example, a searcher self-identified as a soccer fan will receive different results than a hockey fan when both search for "world's best goalies."

The service, called Google Personalized, is available in the Google Labs section. It gives users 13 categories and 200 subcategories to identify interests. For example, the sports category breaks down into 19 sports.

On the results pages, searchers can choose the degree of personalization they want based on a slider, which dynamically changes their results as it is moved. Personalized search results that are moved up based on a searcher's interests are identified with a colored-balls logo.

Google Personalized is the result of a new algorithm Google built that reorders search results culled from its index of 4 billion Web pages. In regular searches, results are based on page-rank algorithms -- Web pages linked to by large numbers of high-quality sites are given prominence -- while Google Personalized adjusts results by weighting searcher interests.

The service marks the first time Google has built searcher profiles. The profile is stored on a user's computer in a cookie. It contains only the user's interests, not any personally identifiable information. A search profile is not transferable to another computer.

As a beta site, the personalized search engine does not carry advertising. Google's local search service recently graduated from a Google Labs project to more prominence on Google.

Personalizing search results is seen as key in figuring out what searchers are looking for. For example, customizing to interests can be used to determine whether an ambiguous search like "eagles" is looking for a band, a football team or birds.

Google rival Yahoo has made small steps toward personalizing search results. It lets users set the language for their results and the number that are displayed on the results page. Yahoo has spent nearly $2.5 billion on search-related acquisitions in the past 18 months, and its executives have tabbed personalization as a key Yahoo strength that can be applied to search.

More than 130 million users have registered with Yahoo to personalize other aspects of their Web experience.

The initial step to personalize results could yield further advancements. Google CEO Eric Schmidt said last week that Google planned to add its Orkut social networking service to the site in the next year.

Social networks already have been used to hone the search experience. A startup called Eurekster lets searchers tap into their circle of friends and contacts to improve search results. It shows registered users which searches are popular among their circle of friends and gives weight to search results found relevant by others.

Google also rolled out a Web Alerts option that lets searchers receive automatic updates on specific searches. The search results are e-mailed daily or weekly. The tool builds on Google News Alerts rolled out last August.

Source: DM News

Google getting 41% of search in March

Google this month recorded an all-time high in search referrals in the United States.

On March 23, it accounted for 41 percent of all referrals, up from 36 percent for a similar day in March 2003.

Yahoo took second place at 27 percent, down from 31 percent a year earlier, while Microsoft's MSN placed third at just under 20 percent, up slightly from the earlier recording period. The Yahoo figures, however, do not include referrals from the Overture Services network, which Yahoo now owns.

Search referral is a term used to describe the visitor traffic that a search site sends to other Web sites. This can include referrals resulting from paid keywords, unpaid search results and banner ads on the search site. WebSideStory said its survey sampled 25 million unique browsers on March 23 and that the one-day results are indicative of search activity for the entire month.

"The main thrust is that the gap is widening" between Google and Yahoo, said Geoff Johnston, an analyst at WebSideStory. "Yahoo's given up market share, but Google isn't the only one stealing it. MSN is also making a move--they aren't shrinking."

Johnston added that the picture is even brighter for Google in some countries in Europe and Asia, where the company has as much as twice the market share that it has in the United States.

The WebSideStory figures are only the latest to confirm Google's leading status in the search field. Nielsen/NetRatings reported earlier this year that in January, 39 percent of active Internet surfers--or 59.3 million unique viewers--used Google to do searches, while Yahoo and MSN attracted approximately 30 percent each.

The market researcher said that three years ago, Yahoo had a U.S. search referral ranking of 37 percent, while Google came in at only 12 percent, behind MSN's nearly 15 percent.

But Google's rivals aren't sitting still. Yahoo last week said it will spend about $575 million to acquire European e-commerce site Kelkoo, its fourth major acquisition in a year and a half. Microsoft, meanwhile, has aggressive plans for new search-related services.

And Google itself is busy tinkering with its set of products and services.

Source: C-Net News

Sensis: a new online search engine

"Our biggest differentiator (from Google) is we have all this local content. So if (you) go to Google today and search for a restaurant in Kew, you might get two restaurants.

Andrew Day doesn't wear a tie to work and embraces the open plan, casual-dress office, giving the impression of operating like one of the dotcom kings of the past. It's therefore ironic he's about to take on the biggest names in the online world, like Google and Yahoo.

Day is chief executive of Sensis, Telstra's powerhouse directories arm. He is about to take his company - until now, primarily a print-oriented business based around the White and Yellow Pages - and create a new online search engine in the quest for more revenue.

For the first time, Day is willing to put a time frame on when his company is to take on Google: the next six to nine months, as a new search brand is wheeled out.

"Print is really our core, but the next frontier for us is search. We've really been in the search business for 50 years," said Day.

"The Yellow Pages is a search book. We don't call it that because it's not trendy. "But we will start to go into a more Google search environment. This is for people that don't want to look in Yellow Pages online because they've always searched through Google or Yahoo.

"If you go to our future search vehicle and we put all the White and Yellow pages, CitySearch and Whereis content on it, plus internet content, the same search in Kew will get a much bigger reply" - marrying local search and internet search together in one search capability.

"We expect we'll have something in the marketplace in the next six to nine months." After the service has been introduced to the internet, Sensis will offer the same service in voice (by calling an operator), mobile phone (your phone will recognise your position and send you a list of the 10 nearest Malaysian restaurants) and, eventually, interactive television.

"We will be looking like a Google, but an Australian Google," according to Day. Although Sensis is a subsidiary of Telstra, it is certainly well cashed up to expand.

Last financial year it took $1.2 billion in revenue, and recorded earnings before tax of $650 million. Day believes it is possible to multiply that earnings result by 10 to create an estimate of Sensis's current market value, which would put it in the top 20 companies on the Australian Stock Exchange if it were listed.

Its financial success has led many to conclude that, if for political reasons the second half of Telstra cannot be sold, perhaps floating Sensis would be a good second option to extract value out of Telstra.

As far as Day is concerned, a Sensis float is not on the agenda. "The issue of a float is really a Telstra issue. I don't think they have any plans at all," he said.
It might surprise some to know that Sensis, which Day says gets 99.5 per cent of its revenue from advertising, receives 13 per cent of total Australian media spending. In the online world it attracts almost 25 per cent of total advertising dollars.

While Sensis's $1.2 billion in revenue still puts it behind the amount of advertising revenue that either newspapers or television enjoy, Day gives the impression he'd like to be No.1 in the medium term.

"We'll close the gap because we do have strong growth in print and we do have stronger growth online than most newspapers in Australia would have today," he said.

Source: The Age.com

Finding new ways to better index the Internet

Startups and leading tech companies, including search exemplar Google, are tinkering with new ways of culling and presenting information - ones that could prompt the next revolution in search.

One company has an idea for how search engines can catalogue the Web more completely. Another believes it can better divine what a searcher wants. Yet another is trying to synch all that with how the human brain works.

"Because information is exploding, (the Internet) is going to become increasingly difficult to use if we don't get it right," said Liesl Capper, chief executive of Australian search startup Mooter.

Current technology troubles users like private investigator Cynthia Hetherington. When she suspected an Australian company recently of possible fraud, Hetherington turned first to Google. But then she went to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, LexisNexis and Dun & Bradstreet.

Users who consider Google exhaustive are only fooling themselves, experts say. Today's search engines may be capturing as little as 1 percent of the Web, largely because of how they find and index online resources.

"It's very frustrating," said Hetherington, who runs a Haskell, N.J. company. "It's like going to a library and only pulling one book off the shelf."

Search analyst Danny Sullivan sees promise in developments to address such flaws, and he believes tomorrow's search engines are likely to blend the best.

But he also cautioned that the Internet is littered with search innovations that failed to draw investors or market share.

Currently, all search engines fail to capture the bulk of the "invisible Web" - resources locked up in databases and inaccessible by the engines' indexing crawlers. These include regulatory filings at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, detailed reports on charities at GuideStar and complete archives of most newspapers.

Sometimes, accessing an "invisible" database requires payment. Search engines can't let you know about a document's availability for purchase if they can't scan it in the first place.

But even when a database is free, a site may require registration, prohibit search crawlers or use incompatible formats.

In particular, crawlers are stymied by dynamic Web pages, which are customized as users choose various options, such as car color at Cars.com.

To counter that, Chicago-based Dipsie Inc. is developing software that promises to fill out Cars.com's simple online forms, which are based on multiple choice, though not the complex ones for the government's patent and trademark databases, which require typing in keywords. A public test version is expected by summer.

Other companies are working to capture sound and video files that have troubled text-based crawlers.

StreamSage Inc. uses speech-recognition technology to transcribe feeds, so a search engine can pull out relevant portions of a long presentation. Company president Seth Murray said Harvard's medical school and NASA already use the technology, but engineers still must speed it up for broader use.

Yahoo Inc. (YHOO) is going a less technical, more controversial route: Businesses can pay to ensure that their "invisible Web" pages get indexed.

But indexing more of the Web only brings up another challenge - identifying the most relevant among the billions of documents available. So some search developers are focused on personalizing and organizing searches.

Eurekster Inc., a startup launched in January, is marrying search with social networking, in which friends, your friends' friends and their friends form online circles. Eurekster guesses what you're seeking based on what others in your circle have found relevant.

"At the moment, when you search on Google, everyone gets the same results for the same keywords," said Shaun Ryan, vice president of business development for Eurekster in New Zealand. "We try to personalize those results."

So a search for "casting" might produce sites on movies if your circle is heavily in entertainment, fly fishing if members enjoy weekend outings.

The major search engines, meanwhile, are trying to localize results, Yahoo! and America Online having an advantage over Google because they already have billing or registration information on many users.

And sites like SuperPages.com are tagging data, so customers can search not only by city but by store hours or credit cards accepted. Adding "Saturday" to a Google search might get you a store that's closed Saturday, or it might indicate Saturday's hours.

Tags also help Factiva personalize its archives of 9,000 news sources, so an engineering team gets tech-heavy results, while the marketing department gets consumer-friendly documents.

"People don't want to be spending time searching and looking for things," said Clare Hart, Factiva's chief executive. "They want to be spending the time analyzing the information."

At Microsoft Corp., researchers are exploring ways to return specific facts rather than entire documents. A search for "Marilyn Monroe's birthday" would return an answer, "June 1, 1926," instead of sites on her famous "Happy Birthday, Mr. President" performance.

"We still have this library metaphor of 'Let me give you back a bunch of books that might help you,' ... rather than 'Let me go through the books for you and figure out what you're looking for," said Eric Brill, a senior researcher with Microsoft's AskMSR project.

Mooter tries to mimic the brain's organization methods by identifying underlying themes and grouping sites - a search on travel in Spain might separate hotels from warnings about terrorism. Mooter also attempts to refine results based on links a user visits.

Building the technology is expensive, and some experts believe the best tools may be developed by and reserved for pay services like Factiva and ChoicePoint Inc., which aggregates personal, financial and legal data from a variety of government and corporate sources.

But don't count Google out. It has hundreds of engineers in California, New York, India and soon Switzerland working to make searching better, most recently with localized searching.

Google's director of technology, Craig Silverstein, said the industry leader must keep innovating because search is bound to morph into something completely different within a decade.

"It will be something that we haven't even thought of yet," Silverstein said. He offered few details, but the Google Labs site offers a peek.

One project, Google WebQuotes, returns listings with comments from other sites to help you evaluate a site's credibility and reputation.

Article by Anick Jesdanun
Source: Associated Press

Google releases 3 new innovative search features

Google Personalized Web Search and Google Web Alerts, both debuting on Google Labs, enable searchers to specify what interests them and to receive customized results based on those interests.

Google Press Release
Changes to the Google interface improve the speed and accessibility of Google's search offerings, further demonstrating the company's focus on providing the best search experience for users.

Google Inc. today released three new innovative features that demonstrate the company's ongoing commitment to improving the search experience for users. The new offerings include a revolutionary search engine that uses user preferences to match search results to their interests, a service that delivers search results via email, and an enhanced interface for Google web sites worldwide.

Google takes the first step in providing personal search results based on users' preferences," said Larry Page, co-founder and president, Products. "We can deliver search results tailored to your interests or promptly email you new information on any topic. In addition, Google has a cleaner new interface and easy access to the comprehensive Froogle product search."

Google's personalized search services
Google Personalized Web Search and Google Web Alerts deliver customized search results based on preferences that users specify.

Google Personalized Web Search uses personal preferences to deliver custom search results based on interests selected by users. Users can control the degree of personalization in their results using a slider, and see the results change dynamically as the degree of personalization changes. For example, music enthusiasts will see different relevant sites for a search on (bass) than people who indicate an interest in the outdoors. More information about both services can be found at http://labs.google.com

Google Web Alerts are automatic updates for web users who want to stay current with topics that interest them. After specifying keywords they want to track, users can receive daily or weekly email with links to new web page results, plus top stories from Google News that are related to each query. For example, Google Web Alerts can be used to follow the progress of a favorite sports team or a business competitor, all without having to perform searches repeatedly.

Google interface enhancements
The Google homepages and search results pages worldwide have been modified to include links across the top of the search box, which directly connect users to other Google services including Froogle. These links provide a faster, simpler search experience. Also, with Froogle now available via the Google homepage, shoppers can directly search the web for products to buy.

Google search results pages also feature a cleaner look to better connect users to relevant information, additional Google search services and targeted advertising. As always, Google's sponsored links are clearly marked, so users can easily distinguish between advertisements and search results, which Google strives to make as objective and unbiased as possible.

Three additional search enhancements announced today include:

-- New Froogle home page and search results page - Froogle's simpler new design closely resembles the Google homepage and search results page. The new Froogle homepage also features links to recent popular product searches, such as (iPod cases) or (airzooka) instead of categories. These links enable users to see the variety of products that can be found via Froogle, from the most obscure to the most popular. Try a search on Froogle at http://froogle.google.com

-- A new number range (numrange) advanced search command enables users to specify that results contain numbers in a range they set. Users can conduct a numrange search by specifying two numbers, separated by two periods, with no spaces. For example, a user looking for information about DVD players between $250 and $350 or technical information on high capacity batteries, can conduct a search for (DVD player $250..300) or (50..1000 wh/kg battery).

-- Images now featured in Google News search results - Google News now displays thumbnail images of photos that relate to news stories. By including these photos, users receive more detail about any given event. Accessible from the Google homepage and at http://news.google.com, Google News provides users with multiple viewpoints on numerous stories from more than 4,500 English-language news sources worldwide.

About Google Inc.
Google's innovative search technologies connect millions of people around the world with information every day. Founded in 1998 by Stanford Ph.D. students Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google today is a top web property in all major global markets. Google's targeted advertising program, which is the largest and fastest growing in the industry, provides businesses of all sizes with measurable results, while enhancing the overall web experience for users. Google is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. For more information, visit www.google.com

Google is a trademark of Google Inc. All other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.

Source: Google press release
Contact: Nathan Tyler, Google Inc.,
nate@google.com

Overture launches mobile travel directory

Overture Services has launched a mobile travel directory in the UK provided by location-based mobile marketing firm Mobile Commerce.

Overture and Mobile Commerce will start distribution through Vodafone UK and Orange; other participating operators will be announced shortly.

Users browsing the travel section of a network operator's Wap portal -- such as Vodafone Live! and Orange World -- will see links to a menu allowing them to select the travel service they are interested in.

The system will return a basic display of results, and the user can click through to the advertiser's Wap page for more information.

Advertisers can bid for paid listings against specific keywords, which are prioritised according to the top paying advertisers for the category requested -- advertisers will pay Overture once the user has clicked on their link.

Martin Child, managing director Overture Northern Europe, said: "It is our mission to provide paid-for listings to find new ways to connect with customers online and so mobile paid listings are a natural transition.

"Initially we will deploy our successful commercial search model on text and location-based services, gradually moving on to more sophisticated applications allowing easy migration to 3G."

Steve Page, chief executive officer at Mobile Commerce, said: "Mobile is one of the fastest growth areas in Europe and we expect that non-voice sectors such as mobile search, will grow exponentially over the next five years."

Ben Taylor, Vodafone spokesman, said: "We are always looking for opportunities to offer a range of content to our customers under our easy-to-use menu.

We have around 200 content providers, one of which is Overture, and through this partnership we are able to extend our ability to get news to the customer."

Source: Revolution.com

Microsoft to build search site for blogs

Microsoft said MSN Blogbot will debut in the first half of the year, along with MSN Newsbot, a search site devoted to news.

Microsoft became the first big Internet company Friday to say that it would create a special search Web site just for Weblogs.

The service will not index all blogs, just the ones that MSN determines provide the most useful information, a company official said.

"We will look at credibility and popularity to get people the information they're looking for,'' said Karen Redetzki, a product manager for MSN. ``There are some blogs that may not be relevant to people. Those blogs we may never index."

Redetzki said Blogbot would look similar to the company's Newsbot service, which will automatically index news stories from around the world. A test version of Newsbot is at http://uk.newsbot.msn.com/.

Several Web sites are already dedicated to searching blogs, including www.daypop.com, www.blogdex.net, www.popdex.com and www.technorati.com. Google indexes and provides search results for blogs, as does Yahoo. But neither company separates blog listings from their regular search results.

The actual number of blogs is not known. Estimates range from several hundred thousand to 2 million. At last count, Technorati was tracking 1,973,555 blogs, though it is not clear how many of those are being regularly updated.

Source: Mercury News

Kelkoo shopping site bought by Yahoo

Kelkoo, which has been profitable for more than a year, has long been tipped by European bankers as a potential candidate for an initial public offering or a sale to a company such as Yahoo or Google.

Yahoo Inc. said on Friday it agreed to buy European price comparison Web site Kelkoo SA for about 475 million euros ($575 million) in cash to expand its range of Internet commerce portals.

The deal, which is expected to close in the second quarter, helps Yahoo beef itself up in overseas markets to compete with Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp's MSN unit in Web search technology.

Yahoo has already bought Overture and Inktomi to strengthen its Internet search operations. ``Commerce has emerged as a key component of search,'' said Yahoo Chief Executive Terry Semel in a statement on Friday.

Google, the No. 1 Internet search engine, has developed its own comparison shopping site Froogle, which is still at the testing stage. It was not immediately clear if Google's plans to sell advertising on Kelkoo, revealed in January, would be affected.

Yahoo, which is recovering from a slump in online ad sales, said the cash payment for up to 100 percent of Kelkoo's share capital could be subject to adjustments.

Yahoo said it did not expect to reduce the 250-strong workforce at Kelkoo, which will become a subsidiary of Yahoo. Kelkoo Chief Executive and founder Pierre Chappaz will continue to run the company's operations.

The service, which allows users to compare prices for online purchases, has 27 million monthly European users, making it the continent's third-largest e-commerce site.

Founded in France in 1999, Kelkoo has since merged with or acquired several companies in the United Kingdom, Spain, Norway and France.

Source: Money Central MSN

Microsoft's ruling in Europe spells uncertainty in search

Analysts and observers have long predicted that Microsoft could rule the Web search world -- now dominated by Google and Yahoo -- with a tool that is a ubiquitous part of its market-leading operating system.

The European Commission's decision to force Microsoft to ``unbundle'' its media player from Windows raises questions about the software maker's plans to integrate search technology into its next operating system.

But Wednesday's ruling clouds that picture, raising the specter of antitrust complaints about the company's efforts to integrate such a tool into Windows.

``The big question is how precedent-setting'' the decision is, said Joe Wilcox, senior analyst at Jupiter Research. ``We've got a precedent that says . . . bundling is not acceptable in some circumstances. If it could apply to media player, it could be applied to other technologies.''

Microsoft's MSN Search holds third place in market share, behind Yahoo and Google. But the company now has at least three research projects devoted to search technology.

One program, called ``Stuff I've Seen,'' employs a search box in the task bar that helps people quickly track down anything they've ever viewed, including e-mail messages, address book contacts, office documents and Web pages.

In a report last month, Forrester Research analyst Charlene Li said such a tool could allow Microsoft to strike ``a winning blow'' in the search wars.

But search expert Danny Sullivan said Microsoft's new approach appears to switch the Web search function out of the browser and into the operating system, a change many users may balk at.

Sullivan, editor of the Web site Search Engine Watch, noted that Microsoft already tries to drive people to its MSN Search page through its operating system, Web browser and office applications, with limited success.

``Despite all these advantages, these other players have thrived,'' Sullivan said. ``That would be an interesting argument to make in court, that Microsoft will wipe out these two competitors who have been kicking it around. There are three very strong players, and Microsoft is the weakest of the three.''

Sullivan said a threat might exist if Microsoft created a new stand-alone search program and bundled it with its next operating system, code-named Longhorn.

``That would pose a bigger challenge because Yahoo and Google would need to develop applications then, and that would require a download for the user,'' he said. ``But if we're talking search as we're doing search today, I don't see a problem.''

Source: Mercury News

Shopping.com files for an IPO

Shopping.com plans to use IPO proceeds for general corporate purposes, including possibly funding acquisitions of businesses, products or technologies, according to the filing.

Shopping.com Ltd., which runs Web sites like epinions.com, filed with U.S. regulators on Tuesday for an initial public offering worth an estimated $75 million.

Shopping.com did not provide a price or amount of shares for the IPO, but the details are expected in future Securities and Exchange Commission (news - web sites) filings.

The online shopping comparisons company, which runs Web sites including (http://www.shopping.com) and (http://www.epinions.com), provides free services for consumers.

Shopping.com said it receives referral fees from merchants and other listing providers who get customers from Shopping.com Web sites.

Entities like Bertelsmann DealTime Holding and others affiliated with German media conglomerate Bertelsmann AG (news - web sites) (BERT.UL) have a 14.37 stake in Shopping.com, according to the SEC filing.

Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse First Boston are to underwrite the offering along with Deutsche Bank and Piper Jaffray.

An Israeli company, Shopping.com has U.S. headquarters in Brisbane, California. The company said it had applied to list on the Nasdaq under the symbol "SHOP".

Source: Yahoo News

Google developing voice search technology

Within a few years, Google could have a voice interface for everything from driving directions to help you finding the aisle for a particular food in your local supermarket.

Google has grown from a small research project at Stanford University into a global company and a household name among Web users, but the next step in the company's evolution could even take it beyond the Internet.

Google is not the obvious company to telephone when you are looking for directions to a restaurant or hotel, but the popular search engine's development team is hoping that its emerging voice search facility may over time completely change the concept of a search engine.

Craig Silverstein, director of technology at Google and the company's first official employee, was in London on Tuesday and spoke to ZDNet UK. He was at university with Google's founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, and helped transform the idea from a research project at Stanford into one of the hottest Internet properties.

Now he's focused on the future of search and is excited about some innovations which are accessible in pre-beta form in the Labs section of the Google site.

He said that although the utilities are not ready for prime time, they gave an indication of where the company is heading: "Sometimes we risk our reputation if these projects are out there and have some problems, but we think the user's benefit is more important than some nasty coverage," he said.

"That's something you would never think to ask a search engine. You're not likely to be using your laptop in a supermarket, but in the future I think search will be far more accessible -- you won't be tied to your desktop, you will be able to do it from your mobile phone or PDA -- and you'll start to see search used in fundamentally different ways. The kinds of things people want information about when they are walking around or sitting in a bar is very different to what they want while they're at home," he said.

An embryonic version of the speech search is already available on the Google Labs Web site, where the company lets Web users play with its pre-beta projects before they are ready for "prime time". Silverstein said speech-based searching presented a real problem but not because of the recognition technology. Instead he said the problem lies in the way results are returned.

"The problem is, how do you get the answers back? Do you have someone reading them off to you like one of those voicemail mazes where it takes so long to speak to someone? A big list works visually, but doesn't work very well in audio," he said. For now, Google's Voice Search can receive keywords by phone, but it displays the results in a browser window.

Silverstein said the problems presented with audio searching will be solved as computers improve: "When computers can pick the information that is really useful, as opposed to displaying a big list and letting you decide what is useful and what isn't. Already we've seen a sea change because information is much easier to find than it was before the days of computers. I think we'll see another one after which information will be easy to find wherever you are," he said.

Silverstein said he was unconcerned about the phenomenon known as Google Bombing. Human nature dictates that Web searchers are more likely to click on the results at the top of the results page rather than scrolling down the list, so Web administrators and marketers have been keen to try different ways to improve their chances of being discovered in a search.

One such method is called Google Bombing, where Web sites add a carefully worded hyperlink pointing to a specific Web site in an attempt to boost that Web sites ranking when the phrase is part of a search.

A recent example of Google Bombing was when anti-war protesters successfully made the first result for "miserable failure" point to George Bush's official biography. Pro-Bush sites retaliated by Google Bombing the same term, but pointing to one of Bush's high profile critics, Michael Moore. Within weeks, Moore's official Web site was ranked second on the list. And the battle continues.

Silverstein admits it is possible to affect Google's search results but he said he didn't consider it a serious problem, especially when there isn't an obvious search result in the first place: "The term 'miserable failure' doesn't have an obvious result and it is going to be fairly random to begin with. In cases like this, even if a fairly small percentage of the Internet community do it, the result will pop up. But for something where there is an obvious good result -- like the IBM home page -- it is not going to be possible," he said.

Searching beyond text
Silverstein said that Google is also interested in adding new kinds of content that were not previously available in any electronic form. "I think we probe much if not most of the static Web, which consists of pages that are not dynamically generated.

From the dynamically generated stuff it is hard to say. We cover a lot of it, but probably not close to everything," he said.

One area where the company has added new content is in its Google Catalogues section, in which entire shopping catalogues have been scanned and published: "We took a bunch of mail order catalogues, many of which are not online because they are very small. We converted them to text and made them searchable.

This information wasn't even available electronically but now you can search it and we are hoping to get more of that type of information available," he said.

Source: ZD Net.co.uk

Skype introduces P2P conference calling

Global peer-to-peer telephony company Skype Technologies has announced it has added a conference calling feature to its P2P telephony system, allowing up to five people to talk with each other simultaneously, regardless of geography.

The new Skype Beta 0.97 version of the Skype P2P software also includes a multiple call-hold feature that allows for 16 callers to be simultaneously put on hold by a single user.

Skype’s programme, downloadable for free from its website, allows users to exploit peer-to-peer networks similar to those used to download MP3s to provide free voice telephony over their broadband internet connection.

Estonia-based Skype was beta-launched in August, 2003 and is currently offered in 15 languages and has around 3m users in 165 countries. Skype is currently averaging approximately 15 new user registrations per minute.

Like previous versions, the latest offering is free to download and the calls are unmetered.

Should you be concerned over Google's monopoly?

The power and use of on-line purchase is growing. Google and other search engines have more power to influence the selection and immediacy of Internet purchases, and in more industries than ever.
Subject to any niceties and distinctions of the purists, there is broad agreement that Google controls almost 80% of web search requests. What threats and risks does that situation pose, if any? Google remains a privately owned company, whose technology is available at no cost to end-users.
However, Google does record and store, as no doubt do other search engines, by individual details of everything searched through the Google engine.
This may be released where legally demanded or to satisfy national security or other state interests but that is a separate issue altogether. Its revenues derive primarily from licensing its technology to a number of web based service providers as well as sales of text advertising, the often irritating paid for listings which accompany web search results.
How should we view this apparent monopoly? In a strict commercial sense it seems that Google "has got there through its own merits; the adaptive use of the technology to date has enabled to rise to the top of the pile."
It has not threatened or stifled competitors. Search engines seek to differentiate themselves.
Some do it technologically and this is the route by which Google has become so prominent and, of course, others suggest that superior technologies are coming to market, which will outshine Google, thus providing that competition.
Of course, if Google goes for a public offering of its shares, certain to be a very popular offering, one of the risks could be that the relevant national competition and anti-trust will take a more intrusive look in the nature of Google's monopoly.
Two areas of "monopoly" which do concern commentators and commercial organisations are only indirectly commercial. In one sense, although it is a search engine, Google has some of the powers of a major newspaper or periodical. It does and can exercise editorial control and influence.
Some say this is understandable, if only to avoid exposure of itself and others to action for defamation by the more aggressive organisations who use the instrument of litigation to suppress critical comment. So it may and has edited out links and content of this nature. Unless Competition Authorities view search engines companies as "media company " akin to newspapers or television it is unlikely they will be subject to investigation on this count.
Secondly, the power and use of on-line purchase is growing. Google, and other search engines for that matter, have more power to influence the selection, availability and immediacy of purchases in the way it sets the so-called algorithms for prioritising and selection of websites, bringing distinct commercial advantage to some and disadvantage to others.
Much of that will invariably be determined by the commercial power of advertising revenues. This could trigger investigation by Competition Authorities.
Source: IT Analysis.com

Barry Diller buys TripAdvisor

Needham-based TripAdvisor Inc. is being purchased by InterActiveCorp, the Internet conglomerate controlled by media mogul Barry Diller. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

TripAdvisor manages an online travel search engine and directory, with clients including American Airlines, Expedia.com, Hotels.com, Orbitz, and Travelocity.

In December it was called the seventh most-visited travel web site in the world by comScore Networks, with 5.2 million unique visitors monthly.

"Trip Advisor is a fine addition to both our extensive travel service offerings and our local group of services connecting customers to consumers with targeted information and offers," Diller said in a statement.

"We now have more than 80,000 merchant customers, a number that continues to grow significantly, and believe that the consolidation of these efforts across all our brands will only increase the value to all our marketing partners."

Formerly known as USA Interactive, IAC has accumulated several top web brands in the past 15 months, including Expedia Inc., Hotels.com, Hotwire, Ticketmaster, and Lending Tree.

TripAdvisor was founded in 2000 and received $3.3 million in funding from Cambridge-based Flagship Ventures and private investors. CEO Stephen Kaufer last year forecast $15 million in revenue in 2003. The company said it achieved profitability in the third quarter of 2002.

InterActiveCorp had revenue of $6.33 billion last year.

Source: Yahoo News