Real Time Tweets in Search Engine Results

The revolution is finally upon us - the search engines are recognising the power of social media and at present Bing is winning the race.

Mashable (always up there with breaking news for us geeks) today revealed that Microsoft has agreed a deal with Twitter and Facebook to feature their real-time tweets and status updates in their SERPs.  This is big news and one of the most exciting developments I've seen in the world of search recently.

Hopefully this move will encourage those businesses which don't have a presence on such networks to pull their socks up and give us struggling social media junkies the thumbs up for action.  On that note, I best have a word with the boss!

**UPDATE** Less than 24 hours later Google has joined the race and officially confirmed that they too have struck a deal with Twitter to showcase their real-time results in Google's SERPs in the "coming months".  See Google's Blog for all the info.

Free favicon hosting sites - ones to avoid!

Today's mission was to find a new free host for my blog's favicon.  As iconj seems to have disappeared off the face of the WWW after recently being hacked, an alternative solution was needed - a job evidently easier said than done.

After typing a myriad of keyword alternatives in to Google a trend was beginning to appear.  All of the sites claiming to offer free hosting, or blogs containing links to sites that offer it, either didn't actually offer hosting at all, or the links pointed to sites that were now defunct.

Here's a list of sites not to use.  WARNING: clicking on some results in porn, escort services or random gambling offers popping up.

• http://www.oogletoogle.com/
• http://www.shokimages.com/
• http://www.picpanda.com/
• http://www.imageboo.com/
• http://cdmazika.com/
• http://www.myfavatar.com/
• http://www.iconj.com

And here's some sites that may initially claim to support .ico formats, but don't.

• http://www.my-image-host.com/
• http://www.myupload.org/
• http://www.qfqy.com/
• http://www.freeimagehosting.in/
• http://www.imageboo.com/

But then finally, through the mists came a site that would actually do as I asked: provide free hosting; let me simply upload my favicon and then provide the code - hurrah!

• http://www.1pixelhost.com/ - I salute you.

Now I'm sure there's plenty more sites out there (that aren't as easy to find - clearly!) which offer the same service, but once you've found what you're looking for, you don't carry on looking...

Lou_geek

Microsoft's "New" Search Engine, Bing. New Name, Old Engine?

From today until the end of next week Microsoft will be rolling out its new search engine, Bing, in an attempt to claw back some of the monopoly Google currently holds in the world of search.

The Guardian, Times and Twitter are all a flutter over this "new" search engine, care of Bill Gates' empire. But how new is this?


Microsoft already has a number of search engine identities out there, of which MSN Search features as one of the big 3 in the UK, aside from Google and Yahoo!. However, currently it still retains active domains for the other names of its engine, Windows Live Search and Live Search. So now if there's a fourth domain name/identity for what is simply another (or the same) Microsoft search engine, are we going to see any added value this time around?

Apparently:

"...it will be powered by semantic search engine Powerset, which the company bought last year.

This means that whatever you type into the search engine, you will get a number of related queries in response.

Type in a band's name, and you should bet biographical details, lists of songs, alongside links to their official website and the likes of Wikipedia."

Source: MSN UK, Tech and Gadgets, Daily News, 28.05.09

Sounds nifty, but isn't Google's new 'show options' feature already pretty much doing this...?

According to The Guardian, Microsoft's CEO, Steve Ballmer claims the engine will offer:

"Guided search, which categorises searches and attempts to get users to useful information speedily. The system also integrates with a number of other technologies, bringing news and maps straight to searchers, as well as linking in to the company's Cashback scheme – which effectively pays users a small dividend every time they buy a product through the site."

Funny, isn't that what Live Search already offers?

To be fair though, MSN is my favourite engine out of the top 3 so far as it's visual design, usability and crawling capabilities go, so I shouldn't poke fun. Good luck Bill, may the best search engine win.

Lou_geek

Is Wolfram Alpha already flawed?

After spending two days away from a computer, visiting friends in Bournemouth, I feel that this post may already be a little dated; but, I'll continue on regardless.

As most of you are aware by now, Google has a new rival going by the name of Wolfram Alpha (WA). However, to date I'm sure Google hasn't much to worry about in the short term.


Since returning from soggy Dorset I've attempted to put WA through its paces by typing in a myriad of search terms, questions, etc. including, "When was wolfram alpha established?", and I only ever seem to get one response - an error message referring to me as 'Dave'. Now the engine is quite close - my Dad's name is Dave, but he lives 150 miles away, so not close enough. By using this laid-back approach to error messaging I understand it's trying to 'connect' with me, but I must admit, calling me Dave doesn't make me feel warm and fuzzy.

Now on top of its error messaging being slightly obscure, I've also come across a few other factors which may flaw its impending success:

1. The name 'Wolfram Alpha' - not really memorable, is it? You wouldn't really replace "Let's Google it" with "Let's Wolfram Alpha it". I even had to look up the name again to type this point!
   
   
2. When it does show you the Dave error message, the continued journey is a link to a video of the WA employees (which I don't have the patience to watch). I wasn't looking for a video of a dark room with monitors...
   
   
3. When clicking on their help forum I was taken straight back to their homepage. Odd.
   

Hmm, good start WA... or am I just using it incorrectly?

What does go in WA's favour however, is a PageRank of 7 (thanks to their PR, I've no doubt) and a staggering 40 DMOZ entries, along with 10 Yahoo! Directory categories - not an easy achievement when you've only been live for 3 days.

So like an earlier post I wrote about Twitter; I'm yet to be convinced, but I'm sure in time I will be. Twitter certainly proved itself.

Lou_geek