Google Search Tools to Boost Efficiency
December 27, 2012
MakeUseOf has supplied a handy roundup of Google search mechanisms with “More Free Google Search Tools You Might Not Be Using So Much.” The accounting follows Google’s recent, less cluttered redesign. Filters that used to be on the left are now at the top, and the “More” menu supplies other search services (news, books, etc.) The Search Tools on the right can be used to fine-tune results.
Writer Saikat Basu explains his motivation for the article:
“Google Search alone is a maze and it takes quite something to use it in different ways to call oneself as a ‘power user’. Google Search operators and Advanced Search are just barrels of a multi-barreled canon.
Too confusing? No…look at it this way – each filter and operator on Google Search is designed to be a crosshair on a scope mounted on that ‘canon’. You need to use them appropriately for the relevant search result. So, I am advancing this article with the assumption that you don’t use most of the search tools as much as you should every day. Let’s explore a few neat search tools which we miss in the flurry of typing in the queries.”
Basu tells us how to use Google Search to find free stuff; who doesn’t love free stuff? More to the point, he describes in detail how to use filters to get (and only get) the results we need while saving time. For example, the Sites with Images filter gives information about each site that is not available with the regular Image Search. One feature I am sure to start using immediately is the “Verbatim” filter, which searches for exactly what you type, without consulting your browsing history, similar terms, or even spellcheck. This almost compensates for so brazenly taking away the “+” that I’ve missed since they launched Google+. Almost.
There’s a lot here that most searchers never take advantage of. Like anything else, a few minutes spent learning could repeatedly save time later. Check it out.
Cynthia Murrell, December 27, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
ArnoldIT Post Resurfaces—Three Years Later
December 26, 2012
Talk about putting old wine in new bottles. A fascinating post by our beloved leader, Stephen E. Arnold, has resurfaced—at LowPriceWebHost.com, of all places. The title is “Exorbyte Search Product Highly Scalable and Configurable,” and the original interview ran in November 2009. Hey, it was only three years ago; that’s not so long in the tech world, right?
Well. . . as much as I admire Steve and his insights, even his information becomes outdated eventually. For example, in this article he wrote:
“[Exorbyte’s] Matchmaker software can search millions of records and return results in under 10 milliseconds. Besides its speed, Matchmaker is noted for its unlimited error tolerance, meaning it corrects all spelling and other data errors on the fly or by ‘Did You Mean’ suggestions.”
Is that all still true, or is the rate of return even faster now? Who knows?
Why do outfits recycle content like this? For the hits, of course, but apparently with little concern for the timeliness of the information. Fortunately, there is one part of the article we are sure is still true:
“[ArnoldIT’s] Search Wizards Speak is the single most comprehensive collection of interviews with the movers and shakers in search and content processing.”
Yep. Keep up the good work, Steve.
Cynthia Murrell, December 26, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Relevance Plagues SEO Pros
December 25, 2012
The future of search through SEO sunglasses has been revealed, we learn in “Online Business Expert Predicts Next Search Engine Change Will Be Equivalency Score” at PRWeb. The press release recounts a recent interview with Steve Fitzpatrick from DigitalDomination.com in which the online business consultant explains what he believes will be the next big challenge for players in the search engine optimization game. The press release states:
“Mr. Fitzpatrick revealed [that] since 2010, Google Trends shows that search engine optimisation interest has flat-lined, reaching saturation point.”
That’s great news, at least for those of us concerned with relevancy. Finally! However, for those who make a living or build their businesses by gaming search engine results, this turn of events could spell trouble. The write-up quotes Fitzpatrick:
“Now most commercial business interests are heavily contested in the organic search results, with very little separating the top competitors for the number one spot. . . . This means that if the top four commercial search results are equivalent in nature, Google will show them in a different random order each time the results appear. So no one business will have a monopoly at position number one. A change like this will provide challenges to business and SEO professionals who are ill equipped to deal with them.”
Fitzpatrick’s advice, naturally, is to turn to his company for help navigating these choppy waters. To which I submit this caveat—businesses who have focused on supplying honestly helpful information, rather than on gaming the search engine, never entered those waters in the first place. Google is constantly revising their algorithm to better serve good information to its users. Isn’t it time to realize that the entire SEO field is destined for obsolescence?
Cynthia Murrell, December 25, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
In a Game of Duck Duck Goose, Google is the Goose
December 25, 2012
Google undeniably controls Internet search, but the little guy has not given up yet. DuckDuckGo is the newest competitor in the search engine game and it promises to have “fair search.” News Web sites like The New York Times, Search Engine Land, and PCMag.com hail DuckDuckGo as a “long-term threat to Google search dominance.” The newest Internet star was recently covered in the Search Engine Journal in the article,“DuckDuckGo Vs. Google-The War Get Dirty.”
What makes DuckDuckGo a “fair search” is that it does not track your search history or IP, have your questions answered by more official Web sites than Wikipedia, and the ability to search Facebook, Amazon, YouTube, and many other Web pages.
Google has problems with its rival, though, asserts Gabriel Weinberg—DuckDuckGo’s founder. In the Chrome browser, it is difficult to make DuckDuckGo the default search engine and to override some of Google’s presets the newbie had to create a Chrome plug-in. The reality is that while Google always wants to be number one, it is not going to hinder the competition:
“Manually setting DuckDuckGo as the default search engine for Chrome is quick, and it can be done in Google Chrome settings. …It is really not that complicated, and it’s a matter of seconds to set up. No unfair treatment from Google against DuckDuckGo – any new search engine would need to go through the same process.
Saying that Google purposely harms a competitor’s search engine, in a time when the search giant is being investigated by the FTC for ‘using its power in the market to smother competitors’, is misleading and unfair. It’s fighting dirty – and bad PR.”
DuckDuckGo just might be a little jealous of Google. Weinberg also might be having startup problems, so blaming it on Google is a way out for him.
Whitney Grace, December 25, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Google Breaks Its Own Record
December 23, 2012
Google has beaten the odds again! In October, the Google broke its own search engine market share record, claiming a total of 66.9% of the total searches made in the US. Bing had its own record with a 16% of the total, but nothing that can compare to Google. Search Engine Watch details this extraordinary event in “Google Smashes US Search Market Search Record, Closes In On 70%.”
Google keeps increasing its percentage of the total market shares, but Bing manages to do grow as well. Bing, the little search engine that could, is not even close to creeping up the high Google numbers. Bing went from 15.9% in September to a solid 16% in November, bumping them up from last tear. Organic searches for Google are close to the 70% mark at 69.5% for October, up 0.1% point from the previous month.
Core searches also saw a record growth:
“After a noteworthy dip in the number of September searches (to 16.3 billion), “explicit core” searches grew 8 percent to 17.6 billion in October. Google led the way with 11.8 billion searches (up from 10.9 billion in September); Bing was second with 2.8 billion searches (up from 2.6 billion); Yahoo was third with 2.1 billion searches (up from 2 billion); Ask was fourth with 560 million searches (down from 565 million); and AOL came in fifth with 309 million searches (up from 287 million).”
Google is eating away at the competition, but in a free market one company cannot monopolize one sector. The same goes for the free Web. Google may be big and mighty, but they are not cause to be afraid.
Whitney Grace, December 23, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Elasticsearch 2013 Training Schedule
December 21, 2012
Elasticsearch is a Big Data search and analytics company. Their 2013 training schedule has been publicized and aims to equip users to solve Big Data challenges with Elasticsearch. Read more in MarketWatch’s full report, “Elasticsearch Selling Out Training Classes Worldwide; Announces 2013 Training Schedule.”
The article begins:
“Elasticsearch is open source search and analytics software that has emerged as one of the most popular open source projects in the big data market and is already being used by thousands of companies all over the world. The Elasticsearch training course provides a solid foundation in search and information retrieval, starting with basic fundamental Elasticsearch concepts, best-practices, key features and distributed search application development. The sessions are interactive with time built in for discussions and case-study presentations.”
Elasticsearch appears to be doing well, but there are more established companies who offer specialized enterprise software based on open source technology. LucidWorks has been in the field for several years, with industry-vetted software solutions based on Apache Lucene and Solr. While they may seem like two equal options, LucidWorks offers Solr training and commercial support. However, LucidWorks is truly invested in the open source community, employing one quarter of the committers on the Apache Lucene/Solr project and creating SearchHub, an online meeting place for open source developers.
Emily Rae Aldridge, December 21, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Coveo and Sitecore Combine
December 19, 2012
MarketWire hosts a very interesting announcement: “Coveo and Sitecore Offer a More Personalized, Relevant Approach to Enterprise Search.” It sounds a lot like what you would get if you combined Endeca and Vivisimo. The press release tells us:
“Coveo integrates seamlessly with Sitecore’s Customer Engagement Platform to provide the extensibility and scalability to enable more personalized website searches. Coveo accomplishes this by enabling unified information access from an unlimited number of disparate data sources, directly within an organization’s website, as well as UI configurability and other advanced search and navigation functionalities. . . . Using Coveo and Sitecore to power customer self-service sites enables customers to solve even complex challenges online, reducing customer support costs and increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty.”
Coveo taps into meta-data to bring contextually-relevant, faceted search to Sitecore’s platform. The companies are renewing the partnership after successfully pursuing a number of joint projects. Sitecore’s Amar Patel praised Coveo’s ability to deliver relevance; J.P. Provencal of Coveo admires Sitecore’s passion for innovation.
Sitecore combines web content management with customer intelligence in their Customer Engagement Platform. Sitecore serves several big-name companies, like American Express, Microsoft, and Nestle. Established in 2001, the company now maintains offices around the world.
Coveo was founded in 2005 by some members of the team which developed Copernic Desktop Search. The company serves organizations large, medium, and small with solutions that aim to be agile and easy to use yet scalable, fast, and efficient.
Cynthia Murrell, December 19, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
EasyAsk Teams Up With Consulting Firm to Extend Fusion Beads
December 19, 2012
Explore Consulting recently published, “EasyAsk Partners with Explore Consulting to Help Fusion Beads – a NetSuite e-Commerce Site- to Improve Search and Navigation,” a news release announcing a new partnership offering e-retail customers an improved shopping experience.
According to the article, EasyAsk, a provider of natural language solutions technology, and Explore Consulting have partnered to deliver natural language e-commerce solutions to retailers using the NetSuite e-commerce platform. This platform ensures that all page content is search friendly and maintains centralized data.
The article states:
“After selecting NetSuite as a new e-commerce platform, Fusion Beads turned to Explore Consulting and EasyAsk because they wanted to make it easier for their customers to navigate the wide range of products offered through their website – more than 50,000 items. Not only does Fusion Beads offer a lot of products, but they also catalog a tremendous amount of product and project data to ensure their customers are getting what they need. With the EasyAsk solution, Fusion Beads can now configure down to the item level the product attributes that should be used for search and navigation from over 600 custom item fields they currently use.”
This new partnership allows Fusion Beads and other companies the ability to maintain website information automatically with improved search and navigation.
Jasmine Ashton, December 19, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
HP Autonomy and SEO
December 18, 2012
Online Media Daily recently reported on the use of Autonomy’s Optimost Campaign platform by Omnicom’s search division, Resolution Media, in the article, “Resolution Media Gains Autonomy, May Extend New Search Platform to All Omnicom Clients.”
According to the article, Hewlett Packard and Omnicom have been working together for years and in February 2009 Omnicom took over HP’s marketing efforts. Since Autonomy was acquired by HP last year, the company is incorporating its SEM campaign with the Optimost platform. This technology has been found to improve cost per clicks and conversion rates.
The article states:
“A case study with Braun Corp. earlier this year documented improved SEM returns, based on Autonomy’s search platform. The campaign generated a 42% increase in conversions, 64% decrease in year-over-year cost-per-acquisition, and 17% decrease in year-over-year cost-per-click. Other Autonomy customers include Avis, Discover Financial, Hilton Hotels, Macy’s and Target.
HP’s Software business includes two units: Autonomy and the legacy HP software business. Autonomy, which HP acquired in October 2011, focuses on supporting a product suite, rather than marketing services. Rivals IBM and Adobe support clients through software and Web-based products, but also a full suite of services.”
Interesting approach from the struggling HP which seems to be moving from its comfort zone into some new territories. How will the HP way match up with the SEO way?
Jasmine Ashton, December 18, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Search Framed as Iterative Discovery
December 17, 2012
Finally, we come across an article that puts search at the forefront of big data. The post “Big Data or Big Noise?” from Chilliad discusses a “new” approach to the process of search.
Relevancy has always been an issue in search and this article is nothing short of correct to point that out. This post also points to the idea that irrelevant results can become big noise and it would be a waste of time for users to read that noise.
Chilliad humbly suggests that users do not need to know what we are looking for, where to find it, or how to figure that out:
“In fact, reading is not the next thing I want to do, reading is the last thing I want to do. That is why we approach Big Data as an exploration and provide software that supports an approach we call Iterative Discovery. Iterative Discovery is exactly what it sounds like — I start with a hunch or hypothesis that I wish to validate and that requires exploration and iteration through massive amounts of data.”
The problem we have with this concept is that it does not need as much of an explanation as Chilliad gives it. Iterative discovery is a way of framing search, but it is nothing innovative or out of the box.
Megan Feil, December 17, 2012
Sponsored by Arnold IT.com, developer of Augmentext
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