December 26, 2005

New Microsoft Patent Apps Discusses the Building of Personalized Portals

About two weeks ago, Microsoft, had an interesting patent application published descibing a system that assists users in building personalized "portals" was published. As patent apps go, this is a very interesting read. The patent app is titled:

System and methods for constructing personalized context-sensitive portal pages or views by analyzing patterns of users' information access activities. It also includes a discussion of automatic topic classification.

The application lists Eric Horvitz*, Senior Researcher and Research Area Manager of the Adaptive Systems & Interaction Group as a co-inventor. It was originally filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office in July 2005.

From the abstract: The present invention relates to a system and methodology to assist users with data access activities and that includes such activities as routine web browsing and/or data access applications. A coalesced display or montage of aggregated information is provided that is focused from a plurality of sources to achieve substantially one-button access to user's desired web or data source information/destinations in order to mitigate efforts in retrieving and viewing such information. Past web or other type data access patterns can be mined to predict future browsing sites or desired access locations. A system is provided that builds personalized web portals for associated users based on models mined from past data access patterns. The portals can provide links to web resources as well as embed content from distal (remote) pages or sites producing a montage of web or other type data content. Automated topic classification is employed to create multiple topic-centric views that can be invoked by a user.

Full Text of patent application here.

* If you have an interest in artificial intelligence, adpative systems, question and answering systems, and related areas, Dr. Horvitz's site is a treasure chest of interesting reading and links.

Postscript: Someone who I'm always learning about personalization from, Findory CEO, Greg Linden, has recently posted a list with some of his favorite research papers on the topic.

Finally, in 2005 Eric Horvitz co-authored: Personalizing Search via Automated Analysis of Interests and Activities. Greg Linden comments here.

Posted by Gary Price at 5:40 PM | Permalink

December 23, 2005

MSN Getting Cleaner Look In The Microsoft Three Portal Strategy

I want Microsoft to pick a portal brand and go with it. We've had MSN. Then this year, we got the new Start.com, which seems to be a pared down alternative to the flagship MSN. Then we got Windows Live after that, which seems like a Windows-branded portal. I can't see anything over there at all, by the way -- but info here and a blog about it from Microsoft here. Now Barry spots a WebmasterWorld thread noticing that MSN is getting a new pared down look, as this beta site shows. You almost want MSN to stay cluttered so there's some reason to consider the other two choices.

Postscript from Gary: I've been tracking the new MSN home page beta since August 2005 with posts here and another post from October.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 11:16 AM | Permalink

November 13, 2005

MSN 's Live.com and Start.com Offer "Feed" Only Search Tab

It looks like MSN continues to slowly release its feed search tool. In August, Danny and others posted about two "undocumented"* pieces of MSN Search syntax that allowed you to limit your search to only material that comes from feeds.

Well, that was 2 months ago and now via either the new Live.com or the Start.com sites you'll find a tab that allows you to see only material coming from feeds. Needless to say, this is still early (very) beta stuff and lots of work needs to be done.

To keyword search only "feeds," enter your terms in the main search box (duh!) and then click the "Feeds" tab. You can also search feeds by selecting the "Add Content" link in the left column.

What's Available + Option to click and subscribe to feed on Start.com or Live.com page + Cache of each post, in some cases a date is provided + It seems that some of MSN's advanced syntax (ie: intitle, language, etc.) works

What's Not Available + Sort by date + At this point I was only able to find posts about two days old

* Those pieces of syntax are not documented on this MSN help page.

Postscript: MS's Live.com now works with Firefox.

Posted by Gary Price at 3:13 PM | Permalink

November 1, 2005

On Microsoft Live, Live.com and Start.com Personalized Portals

Plenty of coverage of Microsoft's new Windows Live services today:

The early Windows Live beta is here and more MS live services (also beta) are listed here including Windows Live Search beta-mobile (not yet available) and the Windows Live Favorites beta. I'm sure more services are coming. (-:

We can save discussion on the entire project for another time but what is interesting (IMHO) is that Windows Live beta (not available for Firefox by the way) looks, acts, and feels just like Microsoft's nearly year old "incubation experiment" Start.com (it works with Firefox) personalized portal that we've been posting about for some time.

Officially, this is what Microsoft has to say about Start.com, "[The] site is not an officially supported site. it is an incubation experiment and doesn't represent any particular strategy or policy."

Well, it should look and feel similar. Why?

In fact, the Live.com Blog points out that the same development team has been working on both projects. Well, it looks like the incubator has been turned off and we now know something about a particular strategy. Btw, the Live.com Blog also explains how you can move some of your Start.com feeds to Live.com.

Btw, the search portion of Live.com includes inline answers and spelling correction. Unlike Start.com it also offers access to Hotmail and the new Windows Live mail service (not yet available). The mail service will offer 2GB of space. Surprised? Not!

Postscript: It appears that the MSN Home Page Beta that I blogged about a few months ago (then went away) and offers many personalization features is back online (IE only). Here's a screen cap taken at about 9:30 PST.

Posted by Gary Price at 9:54 PM | Permalink

October 16, 2005

MSN Shopping Search Now Available on Start.com Portal

If you follow shopping search and/or personalized portal scene closely, you might be interested to learn that MS's "incubation experiment" Start.com has just added a module (what they call a "gadget") for MSN Shopping. MSN Shopping's Cristina Colby has more including a screen cap on the MSN Shopping Insider blog.

Posted by Gary Price at 6:47 PM | Permalink

September 21, 2005

Microsoft's Start.com Portal Expands with New Non-English Versions

Well, one post about international expansion (see below) deserves another. (-: We've mentioned Microsoft's experimental Start.com customizable portal several times on the SEW Blog. Earlier today we learned that the Start.com is now available in several languages. You'll find a link on the upper-right side of the Start.com to change the default language. Start.com will also respect your browser language/locale setting.

Start.com is now available in these languages:

English--Australian
English--US
English--UK
French
German
Italian
Japanese
Spanish
Spanish--US

Posted by Gary Price at 11:17 AM | Permalink

August 25, 2005

MSN Beta Testing Redesigned Home Page

While doing some work this afternoon I noticed that MSN has started to beta test a redesigned homepage at beta.msn.com. In case it's unavailable when you check (things like this tend to come and go quickly), I've posted a screen cap here. The page incorporates the same type of customization "modules" currently seen at Start.com. One module (not working when I tested) allows you to add local news headlines to the page by entering a Zip Code or city name. A search box is still found at the top of the page with a link to click to select either web, news, images, Encarta, or local search. Another search box, located on the left side of the page, searches MSN Entertainment. Btw, I had better luck looking and using the page with IE than with Firefox. (-:

Posted by Gary Price at 4:08 PM | Permalink

July 20, 2005

MSN Updates Start.com Site with New Features

Yesterday, MSN's experimental Start.com customizable homepage received a few updates and bug fixes that you can read about on the Start.com blog.

The most noticeable change comes in the way search results are displayed. Start.com results pages now allow you to quickly move between web results, news results, and RSS results via tab links at the top of the page. RSS results come from feed directory that's powered by Moreover and also used at My MSN.. Also, Start.com now allows you to subscribe to feeds via a link next to each RSS result.

Ok, MSN has a searchable directory of RSS feeds. However, you've got to think that it will be sooner rather than later when MS releases their own fully functioning and standalone RSS engine. We've mentioned that MSN was developing an RSS engine a couple of times on SEW. Once, last November in Chris's original review of MSN Search and again a few weeks later in a blog post by Danny.

Posted by Gary Price at 2:01 PM | Permalink

June 4, 2005

Now Available: New Version of Start.com, Microsoft's Customizable Home Page

Over on MSN Search's WebLog you'll read news that Microsoft has released (IE only) a new version of their Start.com customizable home page.

Want to try it? This URL will get you in without having to take the annoying "test" discussed below. Don't try to go to http://www.start.com, as that currently comes up with a "Page Not Found" error.

Greg Linden has some comments about the service on his blog.

Microsoft is trying to use this release to promote their "Instant Answers" feature at MSN Search. Officially, to get access to the Start.com page, you first need to visit this page for Start, then answer five questions by searching for the instant answer on MSN Search. I agree with Greg, this is both bizarre and annoying.

BTW, some one should tell Microsoft that the answer to one of the questions needed to get access, Who said "he is able who thinks he is able," doesn't even appear as an "Instant Answer" on the results page.

As said, you can skip the test and get direct access by going here.

Posted by Gary Price at 7:59 PM | Permalink

January 25, 2005

My MSN Adds Feed Discovery Support

As rumored to come, MSN has now added added feed discovery and subscription services for those using its My MSN service.

A new feed search tool is offered at the top of the My MSN home page or you can also find it here, if you are signed in. It allows you to search for feeds that contain the words you are looking for in automatically-created descriptions.

Note that this is not the same as searching through the full-text of feeds themselves. As a result, individual postings put out in feed format and blogs are not searchable, in the way a service like Feedster allows.

In addition, this is not a blog search engine. That's because any site may have feeds, so a feed search includes more than blogs. In addition, some blogs don't have feeds and so wouldn't be included in a feed search service.

MSN is working on actual blog search engine that is supposed to come in the future to its main MSN Search site that's open to the public without registration. To date, no major search engine yet offers blog search. My MSN's Third Portal To Gain Blogs; Where's The Blog Search? article looks at this more.

In the meantime, the feed discovery tool on My MSN is powered by Moreover. This isn't disclosed with a "powered by" disclaimer when you do a search, but after subscribing to a feed, Moreover clickthrough redirection is used. In addition, the company is named a partner in the following articles spotted via Greg Linden's blog:

MyMSN introduces RSS aggregation (SiliconBeat)
MSN tests new blog, search features (News.com)

Once a feed has been found, My MSN users can then subscribe to it and read posts via boxes added to their My MSN home page. MSN also provides the ability to quickly select from small list of major site -- what it calls Recommended Sources -- via an All Content.

Yahoo has offered feed discovery and subscription for several months, as the Yahoo, How About A Feed Search Tab? explores more. Google remains lacking in this area.

Via the MSN Search Blog, news also that MSN has launched a new MSN Syndicated Content page. That page lists all the feeds that come from MSN itself. The company also sticks with the RSS name for feeds despite some debate on what RSS stands, different flavors of RSS and a rival format for feeds called Atom (note that most feedreaders can handle any format).

Interestingly, MSN itself doesn't find the name that descriptive or user-friendly. Hey MSN, "syndicated content" isn't that descriptive to a person new to feeds, either. Nevertheless, it went forward with RSS as this SiliconBeat article describes for lack of anything better.

As a result, the acronym will likely continue as the def acto term for describing feeds. Meanwhile, Dave Winer takes a swing that My MSN will be making use of its own subscription buttons to promote signing up via My MSN, as described here. Others like Yahoo also have their own buttons.

For more on the issue of various feed promotion buttons and discovery difficulties, see my past post, More On Making Feed Discovery & Subscription Easier.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 9:31 AM | Permalink

January 12, 2005

My MSN To Gain Feed Reading & Blog Search Features

John Battelle mentioned news that the My MSN service will gain feed reading features and blog search functions, and SiliconBeat provides even more details in MyMSN introduces RSS aggregation.

I've looked and seen no sign of the features yet. I did try the "Add Content" window with My MSN but couldn't find Search Engine Watch or a few other sites with RSS feeds listed. A search for RSS itself, however, did bring back 17 matches from major news sites, such as the Washington Post.

It sounds like the new blog search engine that MSN has promised may take over to provide better matches from across the web sometime this week. Moreover is cited in the SiliconBeat story as powering the blog search.

Yahoo already provides feed reading capabilities and a feed discovery service -- though a full-blown, dedicated blog search service there hasn't yet happened. As said, MSN has promised it would do this. If it materializes on the MSN Search site itself, it will be a new chapter for search engines.

Google's also promised long ago that a blog search service would emerge, but that has yet to materialize. My past post, MSN's Third Portal To Gain Blogs; Where's The Blog Search?, summarizes past promises and capabilities from all of them.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 9:21 AM | Permalink

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