google search
Microsoft and Yahoo Finally Strike A Search Engine Deal
August 7, 2009
It’s been nearly two years in the making, and Yahoo have gone through a CEO and have had their shares suffer horribly, but finally Yahoo have been able to come to some sort of agreement with Microsoft in their attempts to fight of the growing global power of Google.
Having said that it’s not so much of a combination of resources as a shifting of them towards Microsoft’s pride and joy (and admittedly fairy impressive) Bing – Yahoo will move their searches to Microsoft and they will concentrate on the sales of ‘billboard style advertising’ to attract people towards their already fairly popular sites.
Continue reading »Wolfram Alpha Released! But Is It Useful?
May 18, 2009
Back in March we brought you news of Wolfram Alpha’s impending release and labelled as ‘the British take on Google’ it promised a whole new type of search engine, and one that could revolutionise the way we think about searching; so now its release has come does it live up to the hype? Could it beat Google at its own game?
Well the first thing to make clear is that it isn’t a ‘Google’ – it doesn’t search for web pages and it doesn’t merely redirect you to the information (although Google is doing more of its own data representation). What it does do it find the answers for you, which is something we haven’t seen before mainly due to limitations in our computation skills.
So what’s Wolfram Alpha like? Well much akin to Google it has a simple layout with a search bar at the top (note the ‘equals’ sign rather than a ‘search’ button which hints towards a more mathematical outlook) but when you search you are presented with information on your input, or an answer to your question (if it could interpret it).
Continue reading »Google Labs Adds Similar Images and News Timeline Search
April 21, 2009
Just yesterday Ask.com brought back Jeeves in an attempt to fight back against Google, so it is very apt that today Google released two new experimental products that will hopefully change the way we search – and in the meantime add nails to the coffin the likes of Ask.com and Yahoo.
The two new ideas in question are ‘Similar Images’ and ‘Timeline’ both of which are very different from what we’ve seen before, and both of which should not only boost Google’s popularity but also raise awareness of the ‘Labs’ section of Google which has been given a little bit of a makeover.
Continue reading »Microsoft and Yahoo In Talks…Again!
April 11, 2009
You will remember that just under a year ago Microsoft launched a takeover bid of around £22 billion for the internet company Yahoo, which after a lengthy three month debacle resulted in the deal falling through and making many shareholders pretty unhappy. But less than a year on, and a new person in charge at Yahoo, they have started talking again.
This time around though they aren’t talking about any kind of takeover (directly anyway) – the main objective is to pool their resources in the aim of halting Google’s growing dominance on the internet market, something that will benefit both parties greatly.
Continue reading »Wolfram Alpha – The British Take On Google!
March 9, 2009
“A search engine with a relatively basic PageRank algorithm, bi-chromatic colour scheme, basic layout and a misspelt name? Yeah sure we can beat it; I mean it’s only Google.” The thoughts of many, but despite the attempts of numerous companies (Yahoo, AOL and AskJeeves spring to mind) Google is still the number one search engine by a country mile.
However it is noticeable that as of yet there hasn’t been a significant attempt from us British, but thanks to Stephen Wolfram – winner of the MacArthur genius grant (no, I am not joking!) in 1981 – we may have a serious competitor in the shape of Wolfram Alpha.
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