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Microsoft launches MSN Spaces

After many months of development, MSN launches MSN Spaces.

Was 2004 the year of the blog? If it was, MSN has found a great way to end it with a bang with its new blog service, MSN Spaces.

After leaping into search last month and offering a news search service this fall, MSN has taken a much needed step into the online network realm and more or less updated themselves from a dusty old ad ridden web network to a major innovator with blogs.

MSN Spaces, is now open for public testing in beta and bloggers should have a great time figuring it out. MSN’s blog service will be funded by advertising, there is no word on if Overture will be providing contextually based ads.

People with MSN Messenger or Hotmail accounts will get the service for free. The AP reports that “Microsoft is closely linking MSN Spaces with its Messenger and Hotmail programs on the premise that people will hop from one Microsoft product to another for online communications.”

Users can set up a system that alerts friends on MSN Messenger when they have new blog entries. Bloggers can choose to restrict access to a select group of friends and family, but guests will need to use Microsoft’s “Passport” to log in. Blogs can also be updated via MSN email or messenger.

According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, only 6 percent of adult Americans have created blogs, while 17 percent have read those of others. Between Google’s Blogger and other popular blog services, MSN should help grow that number. Will Yahoo be next to adapt their Korean Yahoo Blog service to a US audience?

Neowin reports that Microsoft’s goal with the project is to make getting (and running) a blog as simple as any other task.

After a simple signup process (you pick a name and url) you’re ready to tell the world your views.

Spaces have most of the common features seen on blogs (RSS, track back, etc) and a few more. Microsoft offers a variety of themes, ranging from the default, to a variety of others.

The 15 custom built themes were created by none other than The Skins Factory. The Skins Factory have been responsible for a number of high profile Windows Media Player skins too.

Source: Search Engine Journal

IBM wants to improve site indexing

IBM is preparing a software upgrade to its WebSphere Commerce Suite in an effort to better index web sites in the search engines.

New to WebSphere Commerce v. 6.0 is the ability to create static URL pages.

This lets spider technology used by search engine sites, such as Google and Yahoo, query the URL, grab the keywords, and push the page back to the search engine so it shows up in the search results.

Web-site performance--speed and accuracy--is only half the battle. The other is getting the consumer to the site.

Most consumers start the buying process searching on a word or phrase. The problem is that spider technology used by search engines can't query and find search keywords on every Web site because most Web pages are dynamically generated, says Craig Stevenson IBM's worldwide WebSphere E-commerce manager.

He says the new feature WebSphere Commerce release drove search engine results from three to 278 hits for an unnamed company that worked with IBM to develop the technology.

The feature will ship as an integrated function in WebSphere Commerce v. 6.0, scheduled for release sometime between April and June 2005. Customers who have purchased v. 5.6 are eligible for an update.

Source: Information Week

Google Groups now in production

Google today permanently launched Google Groups (out of its beta testing).

This enhanced product enables users to create, manage, search and browse web-based groups, as well as subscribe to and track favorite groups.

Building on the foundation of the original service that currently includes more than 1 billion searchable posts from the Usenet archive, Google Groups now offers users the ability to join and follow discussions among different groups, keep in touch with family and friends, and share information more easily.

Using Google Groups, people can search and participate in a variety of discussions. Users looking for advice on treating carpal tunnel or disputing a cell phone bill can find discussions from other people who have experience in these areas.

In addition, family, friends, and official organizations like schools or community centers can keep their members informed via email lists and announcement-only newsletters through Google Groups.

“Google Groups enables users to easily gather groups of friends, acquaintances, and those sharing interests together, and communicate with them directly via email, newsletters and message boards,” said Jonathan Rosenberg, vice president, Product Management, Google Inc.

“These online communities connect people with information they care about, and that furthers our commitment to enhancing the online experience for Google users.”

Source: Search Engine Journal

Google Guy says PageRank statement is false

Yesterday it was reported on a SEW forum thread that discussed a quote from a supposed Google representative saying that PageRank is for Entertainment Purposes only.

GoogleGuy has strongly commented on that forum post and others saying:

"I'd strongly disagree with the statement that the toolbar PageRank is for "entertainment purposes only"-- millions of toolbar users use the PageRank display to judge the quality of pages".

"I think it's also a little irresponsible to quote John Galt claiming to talk to some random person at Google, and then for somebody to quote it as a response from Google, which makes it sound more official."

"I'm happy to refute that this is any sort of official stance".

Source: Search Engine Roundtable

AOL updates its SingingFish multimedia engine

The are rumors that Yahoo, Google and MSN are working on improved multimedia searching capabilities.

AOL entered into the field with their acquisition of Singingfish around a year ago.

Singingfish would be today announcing their updated services to cater to the increasing user base they have been getting since the acquisition. They started with few thousands of queries a day and now they are handling around 7 million queries a day!

The new services would include ability to save and share queries, refine searches and discover new multimedia content. According to the company, they are indexing around 14 million multimedia files in various formats (both streaming and normal) like Windows Media, Real, QuickTime and MP3.

Other engines currently providing similar searching abilities are AltaVista and AlltheWeb. Yahoo! incidentally happens to own both these search engines.

Source: Search Engine Journal

Google's PR is for entertainment purposes only?

Apparently, Google is still using PageRank to rank sites but just not displaying the current value to the Google Toolbar user.

This is shocking news, I mean, we all knew PageRank was not something to look at too closely these days, but for Google to come out and say “The PageRank that is displayed in the Google Toolbar is for entertainment purposes only", kind of shocks me.

I can not confirm this to be accurate, but a post at Search Engine Watch just a few minutes ago claims this to be the case. The member said that he emailed Google asking why a page’s PageRank is zero and he got the following response from Google.

The PageRank that is displayed in the Google Toolbar is for entertainment purposes only. Due to repeated attempts by hackers to access this data, Google updates the PageRank data very infrequently because is it not secure. On average, the PR that is displayed in the Google Toolbar is several months old.

If the toolbar is showing a PR of zero, this is because the user is visiting a new URL that hasn’t been updated in the last update.

The PR that is displayed by the Google Toolbar is not the same PR that is used to rank the webpage results so there is no need to be concerned if your PR is displayed as zero. If a site is showing up in the search results, it doesn’t not have a real PR of zero, the Toolbar is just out of date.

Apparently, Google is still using PageRank to rank sites but just not displaying the current value to the Google Toolbar user.

Source: Search Engine Journal

Overture quietly settles trademark dispute with Geico

Paid listings provider Overture quietly settled a trademark infringement lawsuit on Friday, brought by insurance company Geico.

The details of the settlement are confidential, but will not require Overture to change any of its business practices, said an Overture spokeswoman.

As of presstime, Geico's case against search engine giant Google was still scheduled to go to trial on Dec. 13.

The Overture settlement occurred about one week after federal district court judge Leonie Brinkema denied a motion by Google asking her to decide the case in its favor based solely on the affidavits and other documents.

Instead, she ruled on Nov. 19, a trial was needed to flesh out the factual issues. The trial, expected to last one week, will not involve a jury.

In its lawsuit, Geico accused Google and Overture, a Yahoo! company, of violating the Geico trademark by selling Geico competitors the ability to display links to their Web sites when consumers search for the name "Geico."

Brinkema earlier ruled that such practices can violate Geico's trademark, if they lead to consumer confusion.

"When defendants sell the rights to link advertising to plaintiff's trademarks, defendants are using the trademarks in commerce in a way that may imply that defendants have permission from the trademark holder to do so," Brinkema wrote in a prior ruling.

The case, and other similar cases pending in the United States, France, Germany, and Italy, could have dire consequences for Google, which frequently provides sponsored links to ads for companies that compete with the ones users have actually queried about.

In a recent report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Google stated that a defeat in court could ultimately lead to "a loss of revenues on a prospective basis." The company also stated that it couldn't estimate the magnitude of the potential loss.

The nonprofit consumer advocacy group Public Citizen weighed in on Google's side by filing friend of the court briefs on the search engine's behalf.

The group is concerned about the use of trademark laws to stifle competition--which it views as a danger of a Geico court victory.

"There is a continuing interest in protecting the right to advertise to consumers," said Public Citizen attorney Paul Alan Levy.

Allowing competing insurance companies to get their links in front of Web surfers who query for Geico can ultimately lead to increased competition and lower prices, Levy said.

Source: MediaPost

NuSearch launches Java-enhanced search engine

NuSearch utilises a Java applet that is embedded in the site that users have to opt-in to download before using.

NuSearch results are listed on the left side of the results page while the web sites themselves are in a Java powered window on the right side of the browser.

In the background, your browser has started downloading the first few target pages in your results list. Once each one is loaded, its entry in the list changes color and also gives you an indication of the size of the page.

The first page to be ranked is immediately previewed in the main area of the browser window. This means you get to see the page your searched for without having to go to it.

Once other pages are downloaded into the list, you can preview those too, simply by moving your mouse pointer over the list. The currently previewed item is highlighted.

NuSearch does offer some other cool features, like automatically sizes itself depending on the size of your browser window, an IE browser enhancing toolbar and an “Add UR"L function where users can submit their pages and have them indexed in realtime.

What else marks out NuSearch as revolutionary? According to Giles Chanot, Chief Software Architect at NuSearch “Well, that Applet that sits in the web page is really the key to the whole show.

Every time you perform a search and it downloads some web pages, it compares these with the copies on the NuSearch server.

If they’re new or have been updated, this information is sent back to the server (in a highly compressed form). This enables NuSearch to keep its index much more up to date than would otherwise be possible: the more people use NuSearch, the better it gets.”

At first glance the NuSearch rank indexing may need some help, but I think its a decent search tool with an interesting technology - best used with Broadband Internet Connections.

Source: Search Engine Journal