Search
More on the human role in Google page rank
In an earlier post today, I mentioned the report that Google uses human input in its page rankings as well as its algorithms. Search Engine Land says this is old news and Google is just trying to humanize its image:
Google is clearly sensitive that they seem like some Cylon or Borg (pick your favorite [...]
Flight information from Google
Flying is no picnic and anything that can ease the plight of travelers and those who meet them during the holiday crush is welcome. Google says it’s going to help:
The holiday season is upon us, and we know that many amongst you are traveling to be with family and friends. To make sure you spend [...]
Sometimes humans are smarter than computers
Google’s proprietary algorithmic method of ranking Web sites for search is part of what made Google the success that it is. The old style directory done by human editors was slow, expensive, and inconsistent. Exactly how Google ranks pages is a company secret but it seems that human judgment still has a role. Google [...]
Wikipedia and Google “Knol”
Wikipedia is a phenomenon of the Web. It is a reference encyclopedia that doesn’t think much of experts and lets anyone write about a subject who wants to. It relies on the community to edit wrong or misinformed articles. This means that the quality of its articles varies enormously. Some of the articles on [...]
Alternative search engines
Yes, there are search engines besides Google and Yahoo. There is even a Web site about alternatives called Alt Search Engines and Quintura has been picked as the alternate search engine of the year. I stick with Google so I can’t personally give an opinion. However, the critic that I’m married to likes Hakia [...]
Searching for free MP3 files
Lifehacker has posted links to several search facilities for free MP3 files. The latest recommendation is BeeMP3.
Google removes malware sites
As previously posted, crafty hackers were seeding malware sites into the results of searches on the major services. InformationWeek reports that Google has cleaned these out:
In response to a concerted effort by cybercriminals to infect the computers of Google (NSDQ: GOOG) users with malware and make them unwitting partners in crime, Google apparently has [...]
More help with holiday shopping
Steve Bass has a suggestion for getting help with holiday shopping. He recommends Retrevo. I haven’t had time to check the service out personally but Bass writes:
With every search, Retrevo grabs information from blogs, forums, reviewers, and manufacturers, and gives me a quick overview in one easy-to-read panel. At a single glance I can get [...]
Searching for product reviews
Holiday shopping time is here but before you buy that gizmo you might want to see what others think about it. A post at Lockergnome points out a site called Summize that is a search engine just for product reviews.
Whether this narrowly focused search engine is more efficient at finding reviews than a general [...]
Get any song you want from online jukebox
I am an old fuddy-duddy who gets his music from CDs and not online but I ran across a site that might interest the large group of people who use the Internet for music. The AppScout has a report on a new Web jukebox service called Songza:
If you’re into music discovery, there are [...]