i-level Search News - February 2008

Google Maps Update

Google has finally got around to updating their Maps listings and along with it, have also changed the layout of these results within the search engine results page (SERPs).

Introducing Wikia Search

Jimmy Wales, of Wikipedia fame, launched a 'human powered' search engine in January called Wikia Search (alpha). After much hype, Wikia Search launched with a dummy index, lacking user data, and none of the human relevancy tools available for use. To put it politely, it was not received well by media pundits.

Google plays politics

Google attempted to conquer a new niche market this month - one that only appears every four years. They opened a 25-person sales office in Washington DC dedicated to political campaigning via its Adwords system on Google.com and its content network.

According to the Guardian, major presidential hopefuls - from McCain, Guiliani and Huckabee on the right, to Clinton, Edwards and Obama on the left - have signed up.

In the Know: Buzzword - "Wugging"

Even by the standards of online jargon, "wugging" is an inelegant word. However the concept is an attractively simple one. "Web-User Giving" harnesses the ad-funded business model that has proved so central to online, but gives it a feel-good twist by diverting part of the ad revenue to charity.

Navigational Search

If you're reading the same media press we are, you'll be aware that the long tail is no longer just something dinosaurs have. It's well known that the tail of search distribution is getting longer as more people come online and search for ever more diverse and sophisticated things. The total number of search terms is going up. But the head is also becoming bigger; so why is this?

Relational search

To find documents and terms relating to your search, add a tilde (~) before your search term. So if you wanted to find out about fitness, your search results would include gym listings, health advice and sports information.

Not great with languages?

Use Google images to identify words. If you were never that great at languages, or have simply forgotten your German, type the mystery word you don't understand into Google images and find out what it means! Simple, but useful.

Block affiliate links

Block affiliate links when searching for a product, by listing the usual suspects in your search. For example, if you want to hunt down a new designer coat, but don't want to see eBay listings or PriceRunner's results, type -site: eBay,site:pricerunner, designer coat.

Quick comparison

Compare items or find alternatives by searching by phrase. For example, use a well-known phrase such as 'better than' in your search to find products and applications users find better than your keyword. You might be looking for a music download application, but you know you don't want to use Limewire; this is a simple way of finding other options.

Need to know the exact time?

Need to know the exact time? To find out the local time, just type the question, 'what time is it?' into Google. If you want to know the time at any other major city, for example, Bangkok, repeat the question as, 'what time is it in Bangkok?'

Ask's Wallpaper

Ask.com has recently taken the user customisation of their search engine to a new level. You are now able to upload your own backgrounds for the main page of Ask - so if you don't like theirs you can change it to your liking. This new feature is simple to use so non-technical users can make the changes. An example of what is easily possible is shown below:

Personality of the month - Jerry Yang

With the hottest topic in the search world being the potential merger of Yahoo! with a number of organisations, this week's personality of the month is one of the founding fathers of the beleaguered search engine - Jerry Yang.