Is Ask.com an also-ran in the search wars because it doesn’t know what it is, or does it engage in constant reinvention in hopes of finding the secret of huge success? I’m not sure. All I know is that I can’t think of another site that’s so willing to dump its user interface and start over from scratch.
Tag Archives | Search Engines
Yahoo Japan, Now With Google Search!
Although it may share a name with its US counterpart, Yahoo Japan is all but a separate entity which is 40 percent controlled by cell phone provider Softbank (Yahoo has a 35 percent stake). That may be the reason why it announced Tuesday that it had struck a deal to use Google’s search engine to power searches on the site.
The announcement is a bit odd given that Yahoo just signed a wide ranging partnership with Microsoft last July. It is not clear how much — if any — say that Yahoo, Inc. had over the talks. In addition, it would move to Google’s advertising platform as well, which makes it sound like there really would now not be much Yahoo in Yahoo Japan at all.
The site enjoys a 58 percent share in the country, compared to just 38 percent for Google. However together, these two companies now essentially control the entire search market in Japan.
I have to say I’m shocked by this news, especially considering that Bing will be behind Yahoo’s primary search engine here in the states and in Europe. The quarterly financial report — where this news first surfaced — says that Yahoo, Inc. position as a strategic partner would not be affected.
That seems a bit odd. If you’re building a brand, wouldn’t you want it to be the same across all the markets you’re involved with?
One thing seems certain now: Yahoo as a brand itself seems to be slowly fading away, much like AOL has. The heart of it is now outsourced, and there is not honestly much left. Will the company follow a similar decline? Only time will tell.
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Google Images Improves Its Image
At a press event at its San Francisco offices this morning, Google unveiled a new version of Google Images, with the biggest revision the company has given the image search engine’s interface in a very long time. (Google Images launched in 2001 with an index of 250 million images; today it’s got 10 billion of ’em.)
The new look is a lot more modern and, well…visual than the old one. Here are the highlights:
Bigger pictures, fewer words. Results pages are now all about the images–the thumbnails are bigger, and most of the textual information–such as the link to similar images–isn’t there. (If you hover over an image, you get the information which formerly appeared on the standard results page.)
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Join Us for Google's Tuesday Search Event
Tomorrow at 9:30am, Google is holding a press event at its San Francisco offices. Not surprisingly, it isn’t saying much about the topic other than that it involves search, that it’ll be “brief,” and that it features “a few new things we think you’ll be interested to see.” Marissa Mayer, the company’s VP of Search Products and User Experience, will preside.
I’ll be in the audience and will liveblog the news as it happens, and hope you’ll join me. Visit technologizer.com/google-search-event for our coverage.
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Google and Government
The New York Times thinks that maybe the federal government should have some sort of oversight over Google’s algorithm. Which gave Search Engine Land’s Danny Sullivan an idea that sounds about as sensible.
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Google Can Still Do Business in China
Google’s China gambit is working, at least for the moment: It says that the government there has renewed the company’s license to operate its Web site, which provides a variety of non-search services, plus a link to its uncensored Hong Kong search engine.
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Google Adds Canned Home Page Backgrounds
You’ll like Google–it’s sort of like Bing…
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Google Gets Caffeinated
Google has announced that it’s finished Caffeine, a new version of its search index that the company says finds new stuff on the Web fifty percent faster than its predecessor. The post doesn’t make clear whether Caffeine is now in action at Google.com–wonder how long it’ll take for it to find this post?
In vaguely related news: Google and Pixar have collaborated on a short. Sort of…
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Live Matrix: The Web Gets a Schedule
One of the niftiest things about the Web is the way it lets you consume content on your timetable–such as watching The Daily Show whenever you please rather than when Comedy Central decides to show it. But here’s a dirty little secret: The Web is also rife with stuff that happens on a particular schedule–everything from Webcasts of sporting events to news programs to auctions to chats. And a startup called Live Matrix aims to be the way the world finds out about these real-time, fully Web-based events.
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How to Go Back to the Old Google
When I wrote about Google’s redesign a few days ago, a couple of commenters grumbled that they didn’t like it. Over at Search Engine Land, Danny Sullivan says that there doesn’t seem to be a critical mass of unhappy campers out there, and that Google doesn’t plan to let users override the new version. But he does provide a trick–who knows how long it will last?–that lets you use the old, no-sidebar version.
Oh, and if you’re really nostalgic for earlier versions of Google, try this.