Pandia Post No. 23 Part 4

Google launches desktop search

(October 14 2004) Google has launched a new desktop search tool that lets you search your email folders, local files, web history files and chats, and get the results within a regular Google search result page.

Pandia has more about Google Desktop Search.

AOL testing desktop search

(October 16 2004) America Online is testing a new search engine that scans for files on a PC's hard drive, not unlike Google Desktop Search launched this week.

AOL's desktop search is powered by third-party technology. The desktop search tool is offered as part of a test version of a standalone Web browser that AOL is developing.

AOL spokeswoman Anne Bentley has confirmed that a desktop search tool is being developed and that it is tested alongside the AOL Browser. The AOL Browser may launch as early as November, according to Bentley.

By launching its own desktop search engine, AOL hopes to keep up with Google, Microsoft and others in the race to expand the success of Web search into new arenas. This might be a challenge for AOL, since so far they have invested little to develop their own search technology.

Read more at news.com.

AOL with new comparison shopping search engine

(September 20 2004) AOL is determined to compete with Google, Yahoo and Shopping.com in the field of comparison shopping, i.e. with a search engine that compares product prices from different shopping sites. The new site is called in-Store, while the search engine is named Pinpoint Shopping.

Pinpoint Shopping is accessible on the net in a beta version. The in-Store site can also be visited. Unlike the Pinpoint search site, in-Store is more like a shopping portal with category listings and selected product presentations.

We searched for an iPod MP3-player and got a large number of results, sorted according to different models. A "more info" button gives you additional information on the product, and a list of online stores that sell the product, together with price and product ratings and store ratings.

Listed stores will be paying AOL per click-through. At the moment data is fetched from some 48,000 merchants.

AOL on the Pinpoint beta. See also Search Engine Watch (Gary Price also searched for "iPod". A great gadget, isn't it?)

Google adds SMS search

(October 11 2004) Google is currently testing a service in the US that lets you send in an SMS mobile/cellular phone message and get search results in return.

Read more about Google's SMS phone service

Yahoo! tests personal search

(October 5 2004) Yahoo! has launched a beta test version of its new My Yahoo! Search feature, adding personalized search.

Pandia has more on Yahoo's new bookmark service.

Searching for printed material using Google

(October 4 2004) Google has included the text of some printed material in its database. But how do you find the text of these books and articles, and are there any good alternatives?

Lars Våge takes a look at Google Print.

See also our October 14 article Google Print expanding

Vivisimo is testing new search site

(September 30 2004) The metasearch engine company Vivisimo is testing a new search site at Clusty.com. The search engine makes use of Vivisimo's clustering technology, sorting search results into more narrow categories, helping the searchers target their queries more accurately.

Read more about the Clusty metasearch engine and its more advanced features.

Google censors sites in China

(September 25 2004) In September we saw some disturbing news from the East. Google has apparently given in to Chinese pressure and excluded some sites from the news listings its presents Chinese searchers.

Pandia argues that Google has an obligation to help the democratic forces in China by including censored sites.

Newsletters and search engine marketing

(September 21 2004) Newsletters are definitely relevant from a search engine marketing perspective, and for several reasons. They make your sites more popular, bringing in more visitors, and -- not to forget -- inbound links. However, they also generate a lot of valuable content, exactly what Google and Yahoo! ask for.

Read part 1: Search engine marketing benefits of an email newsletter

The new Ask Jeeves

(September 20 2004, Update September 21) Ask Jeeves has launched its new profile, and presented its new version of the butler Jeeves.

We guessed we would face a slimmer version of Jeeves, probably a bit like the man found on the Japanese site (see picture). We were right.

So what's new? A new service for searching local listings is already accessible. This service includes listings from CitySearch.

Ask.com has also added a "My Jeeves" feature that stores and organizes favorite search results chosen by users. Visitors may also add comments to these online bookmarks. Users that choose to register may access this information from any computer. At a later stage, Ask Jeeves will make it possible to search the bookmarked webpages.

Moreover, in the future it may also be possible to save the content of the pages, not only the links to the relevant pages.

John Batelle reports that AskJeeves forthcoming desktop search software (which will make it possible to search for files on your own computer as well) will be integrated into MyJeeves. This software should be ready to download late this fall.

Furthermore, there is also a "search history", a list of the searches you have done, automatically organized chronologically.

MyJeeves requires Internet Explorer 5.5 and higher or the Firefox browser. Opera is unfortunately not supported.

AskJeeves is powered by Teoma, which the company owns and operates. The new AskJeeves is using version 3.0 of the search engine, which now has a database containing some 2 billion English language pages.

Search Engine Watch reports that selected sites are now spidered several times a day, to ensure that the database stays fresh and up to date.

Teoma will now index PDF and Flash files. Shortly Teoma will also supply links to cashed versions of webpages, much in the way Google and Yahoo! do now.

MyJeeves FAQ

Using hyperlinks as a search engine optimization tool

(September 16 2004) Hyperlinks in text paragraphs: are they distracting or SEO-enhancing?

Pandia Guest Writer Jennifer Dennis takes a look at the use of hyperlinks in search engine optimization.

Spammers hijack web site listings in Google

(September 13 2004) A large number of web masters are facing their search engine nightmare: Their Google listings have been taken over by another site.

Pandia takes a look at this search engine hijacking phenomena and wonders why Google isn't doing anything to stop it.

Wotbox goes local

(September 5 2004) Last year we presented the new search engine Wotbot. The search engine is still going strong, although under a new name: Wotbox.

Wotbox has been known for its ability to pinpoint a site's country of origin. "The logical next step on from this was to create a fully localized version of Wotbox for each country." says Director Mike Nott, "We're trying to give international users more choice by providing another local search option for them. We also wanted the interface for non-english sites to be in the native language, making it easier for local users."

Hence there are now country-specific sites for Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, Spain, United States and the UK .

Copernic gives away desktop search tool for free

(September 1 2004) Today Copernic has released a free desktop search tool that searches Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files, Acrobat PDFs, Outlook emails, and all popular music, picture and video formats. Copernic also searches your browser history, favorites, and contacts.

Pandia has more on the Copernic Desktop Search tool.

Nextaris -- smart search related web application from SurfWax

(September 1 2004) The company behind the advanced metasearch service SurfWax has released a free web based search and information management tool called Nextaris.

Lars Våge has tried out the online new search tool and information manager.

New discussion search engine from Lycos

(August 27 2004) Lycos has launched a new search engine for online discussion forums.

Lycos Discussion Search-- which is in its beta test stage -- allows you to search and retrieve information from millions of discussion threads and conversations taking place on the World Wide Web.

Pandia has more on the new Lycos search engine for discussion forums.