June 17, 2008

iWidgets Launches Public Beta, Makes Widget Development Easier

To compete in social media or with open source search applications, widget development is key. But it can be costly if you don't know what you're doing. iWidgets is demystifying the widget development process by launching their platform into public beta. The service is free to use and brings widget creation to a wider audience.

“Private beta users were so enthusiastic about iWidgets, we knew the market was ready,” said Peter Yared, CEO of iWidgets. “Our robust tools provide an unmatched ability to display personalized content from a source website without requiring experienced programmers. The result is incredibly viral - a fun, interactive application people want to use and share.”

Widgets created through iWidgets can be used on iGoogle, Facebook, MySpace and others.

If you've been holding back on widgets, are you inclined to check out iWidgets? Give us your thoughts in the comments.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 26, 2007

Niched Portals and Vertical Search: The Catch Phrases of 2007

Seems 2007 is going to be the year of niched portals and vertical search.

Microsoft is buying Medstory, a health information search engine, and furthering their move into niched portals and vertical search. In China they have started development on a job search engine.

Yahoo is doing the same thing: business search in China, community portals covering specific audiences like Pontiac owners, investors and health sites.

Yahoo seems to be using the portal, community model with search ads as part of the monetization. Though they are trying to develop a business search engine as their primary perspective for the Chinese market.

Yahoo has created entertainment community pages for the Oscars; car fan sites using the manufacturers as support and advertiser.

This seems to be a repeating theme in the two months so far of 2007. Let's see where this all ends up.

Posted by Frank Watson at 4:56 PM | Permalink

January 31, 2007

Over In NYC: Silicon Valley Cavorts

We're at the AlwaysOn Media conference. If we have to see one more company put up a slide that shows Publishers, Advertisers and Consumers in a triangle, then we are going to start throwing tomatoes. Only kidding.

This conference showcases the online media world. Companies give short presentations, and it's a terrific way to learn what's going on lately in those three triangle points and more. Watch it live through Wednesday.

In this energetic venue, there are good companies talking to each other off-stage. There are bloggers sitting in positions of honor during the sessions, in their very own blogger bullpen. Everyone's feeling generally pumped up.

The highlight? Bill Cleary did a “man on the street” interview. It was a nice commentary on the current state of self-made videos and blogs. He showed a video that accosted San Franciscans about whether the blogosphere concerned them. Most people out there didn't have a clue but wanted to make nice – and agreed that it was a dire matter.

The meta-message was not to take ourselves too seriously. For a show with lots of new companies and important things to announce, I'm glad this set the tone. We need to laugh at ourselves sometimes, even while letting the world know what we do.

Posted by at 6:19 AM | Permalink

August 17, 2006

Google Talk Gains Voicemail, Music Status, Photo & File Sharing Features

Google has announced that its Google Talk instant messaging platform now allows you to share files with other Google Talk users by dropping files or entire folders into the client. Photo files get special treatment, showing up in your client so you can talk about them with someone else, as covered more here. Listening to music? Another new feature, music status, allows other Google Talkers to see what hip (or embarrassing) song you're listening to, if you use one of these supported players. Along with music status comes a new Google Music Trends feature we mentioned earlier, which allows you to see what music is most popular across the entire Google Talk network of users. Finally, want to talk by voice using Google Talk but your contact isn't around? Now you can leave them up to 10 minutes of voicemail, through that new feature. Note that some Google Talk users already got these new features a few weeks ago. Now they are rolling out to everyone.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 6:05 AM | Permalink

August 3, 2006

Lycos Revamps Email Offering

Lycos mail has been revamped. Storage has been increased to 3 gigabytes (up from 5 megabytes) and file attachments of any size are now allowed. The company is keen to encourage users to swop and move large media files around to support moves to focus a comeback (it's currently the 24th most popular website network in the US) on broadband entertainment content. The free version is ad sponsored, but Lycos is also offering two other commercial options to provide users with account preservation and advert removal.

I can't help but think they're a bit late into the game, and feel that they're going to be disappointed if they are hoping this is going to radically increase their user base. Having an account that self destructs in a month if a user doesn't log in also doesn't lead to confidence; old hands are used to this idea, but since Lycos is trying to attract new internet users they're not going to be familiar with this concept and there may be tears before bedtime.

Posted by Phil Bradley at 5:07 AM | Permalink

April 27, 2006

Yahoo To Create Better Portals Globally

Informatics Online reports Yahoo is going to make an international push with their Web portal properties. Currently, Yahoo has been focused on building out features for the US market. David Rice, vice president of product strategy at Yahoo International, said that he wants the global counterparts to be "comparable to the US site." Expect some more international Yahoo press releases in the next 12 months or so.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 10:50 AM | Permalink

April 3, 2006

Review Of Online Feed Reading Services

The State of Online Feed Readers over at TechCrunch has Frank Gruber taking a look at several online feed reading services, along with a big hunking chart o' features. Interestingly, the popular My Yahoo service doesn't get a nod for review, not being robust enough with the features it offers. Top speed honors go to Google Reader and FeedLounge, with Bloglines and Rojo best for feature sets overall. But me, I'm firmly a software-based feed reading person. I'll be sticking with RSS Bandit, which I reviewed on my personal blog here a few weeks ago: Reading Feeds With RSS Bandit. Of course, maybe FeedDemon 2.0 will tempt me away. Niall Kennedy recently gave it a rave review here: FeedDemon 2.0 raises the bar.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 11:56 AM | Permalink

March 30, 2006

The Google Portal

Last week's launch of Google Finance revived the entire "Is Google A Portal" question. I previously wrote in my article on how I saw Google Finance as being closer to Google's search mission than some other products it has launched. Still, Google's got plenty of other things that firmly put them into the "stealth portal" or "Portal 2.0" category for me. But does it matter if Google's a portal? One reader recently asked me this. Maybe not; maybe so, especially given their own denials. Below, a further look at that, plus some related commentary around the web.

Let's start off with revisiting what a portal is. That was a tricky question even back in the days when everyone wanted to be a portal, kind of like people trying to say what's a Web 2.0 site today. Seriously. When portals were hot, everyone ran around saying they were a portal regardless of whatever set of features they offered. It's very similar to how everyone calls themselves Web 2.0 today without there being agreement of what what is Web 2.0.

To me, a portal is a highly trafficked site that offers a core set of features designed to allow a general audience to either start their day at the portal or return to it once if not often during their internet day. Ironically, portals can be both "sticky," in trying to keep users coming back to them, as well as living up to where they get their names, portals through which you flow to other sites.

Search is a core feature of a portal. If you don't offer robust search, you aren't a portal, in my books. Other features, including search, I'd say include:

Search
Email
Personalized Home Page
Instant Messaging / Chat
Free Home Pages / Blogs
Communities / Club Areas / Discussion Lists
Stock Portfolios

I'm not just making this list up because it conveniently itemizes things Google now has, as a way of proving my point that Google's a portal. These are a set of features that evolved in the late 1990s for portals. If you're a Search Engine Watch member, see my archived Portal Features Chart from 1998 which illustrates this for the major players back then.

Here's some more background on the history of portals as they related to search engines, for those trying to rub Web 2.0 dust from their eyes and remember what portals were all about:

Welcome To SearchEngineLand from me in 1997 looks at how search engines started to evolve portal features.
Racing to the start line from News.com in 1998 is a good overview of how these features fell under the "portal" name.
In the Web's 'Portal' Industry, A Search for a Better Word from the Wall Street Journal later in 1998 looks at how some portals tried to get away from that name because they didn't like the impression it gave of people just "passing through" them.
Portals: the new desktop? from News.com in 1999 about how we were getting away from having stuff on our desktops and instead using web apps from portals. So much for that being a 2005ish Web 2.0 thing :)
The End For Search Engines? from me in 2001 on why search engines went the portal route, why it made sense (in short, no paid links back then) and how they managed to survive when paid links allowed their most important feature -- search -- to become a money maker.
Return To The Sad Days Of More Than A Search Engine? from me in 2004 on how search engines were getting back into the portal game.

For even more background, see Portal Features category of Search Topics and older portal articles archived here. Again, these resources are for our Search Engine Watch members.

So let's say I've semi-convinced you that my list above defines a portal. Does Google have all these features? Absolutely. Search is a given as one of its portal features. Here's a rundown on other features, with how I commented about their portal natures when they came out:

Blogger Acquired Feburary 2003 From my story, Google Buys Blogging Company - But Why?

In the 1990s, it was "home pages" that were touted as the easy way for anyone to get a presence on the web. Today, weblogs make it even easier for people to express themselves and share information, plus they are largely seen as more sophisticated than having a "home page."

The comparison to home page-hosting services is critical. When search engines transformed themselves into portals in the late 1990s, offering home page building services was one of the essential features they all grabbed. Yahoo probably made the biggest splash when it bought GeoCities in early 1999, and the move was seen as a way to capture users and keep them associated with Yahoo.

Google has long said it has no intention of becoming a portal, but so far, it's hard not to see the acquisition of Blogger as adding a portal feature in the same way that Yahoo did when it bought GeoCities. We'll almost certainly see an eventual option from the Google home page inviting visitors to create their own weblogs using Blogger. It will be discrete. It won't get in the way of searching at Google. Yet, it will have nothing to do with search, a giant departure for the company.

Note that I called blogs the sophisticated successors to personal home page tools. Nevertheless, three years later in Feb. 2006, Google also launched a Google Page Creator, a dedicated personal home page tool.

Gmail Launched April 2004 From my story, Google Launches Gmail, Free Email Service:

Email, of course, was one of the first "sticky" features that the search engines of old added when they transformed themselves into portals. Excite jumpstarted the move, and Yahoo and Lycos quickly followed. Even AltaVista eventually offered free email in 1998, only to give it up in 2002 when its attempt to be a portal failed.

Isn't becoming a portal something Google vowed never to do? Not exactly. As I reminded recently, Google has never ruled out email or any other feature it thought it could do well.

"I won't say we won't add services, but we wouldn't put free email on our site unless we thought we could do a much better job," Google cofounder Larry Page told me back in 1999, talking then about Google's potential future directions.

That interview is especially telling, as it highlights another reason Google wanted to avoid adding portal-like features. To keep its portal partners from viewing it as a threat.

Today, with two of the three major portals gunning for it, rolling out email is a way for Google to fire back at MSN and Yahoo. Whether that might also upset Google-partner and major portal AOL remains to be seen.

Google Groups Relaunched May 2004 From my story, Google Groups Adds Mailing Lists & Other Features, Competes With Yahoo Groups

The new free mailing list feature, while useful and welcomed, seems like another move to add another sticky portal feature.

Indeed, Yahoo Groups exists because way back in 1998, they were created (and then called Yahoo Clubs) as part of the race to add portal features and capture users. Mailing list capabilities came as part of Yahoo's later acquisition in 2000 of eGroups for $428 million in stock.

Now as Google's competitors are fighting to win users in the current search wars, Google Groups 2, like Gmail and Blogger before it, seems a way for Google to strike back at the portal features that some (see Forrester and Moreover) mistakenly assumed it would be weak on or missed buying.

What's next? I'm betting some type of financial type of service similar to Yahoo Finance. Letting people set up stock portfolios and linking these to information was one of the earliest sticky portal features around. It's a big gap at Google, in the way that the service once had a big gap in term news search.

Google has since filled that news gap, with its 2002 enhancements making it a more compelling place for newshounds to start their day -- and perhaps pulling some of those people away from Yahoo News.

Similarly, a financial service makes competitive sense. It also fits in with Google's mission. In addition, once the company goes public, it might want to offer this if only to avoid the embarrassment of employees seeking financial updates elsewhere such as at Yahoo or MSN. Currently, both are key providers of data that Google's largely unknown stock quote service uses.

Google Personalized Home Page Launched May 2005 From my story, Google Launches Personalized Home Page:

The new personalized home page service will no doubt make many people scream "Portal!" That's because despite the name, it is essentially a "My Google" feature, similar to the My Yahoo, My MSN and other My Whatever pages that portals created so their users could access the many features they offer.

Well, Google's already been a stealth portal as I've called it for some time, offering standard portal features such as email, search and the home pages of today, blogs. The new personalized home page is merely a visible acknowledgement of this.

But the feature is also welcomed. It makes sense for Google to offer a unified page for many of its services, and the page does this without impacting the regular Google site nor getting far away from the general Google feel at all.

Google Talk Launched August 2005. From my story, New Google Talk Offers Instant Messaging & Voice Chat:

The entry sees Google directly competing against the much more mature clients and established user bases of competitors Yahoo and MSN, not to mention its own partner AOL. The move also opens Google up to accusations that it is way off its mission of "to organize the world's information." Heck, Google Talk doesn't even feature a box to let you search for things, as rival products from AOL, MSN and Yahoo do.

Of course, the failure to launch an instant messaging product would leave Google at a competitive disadvantage. In the end, while the company may not like the P word, but a portal Google effectively is.

Google Finance Launched March 2006 From my story, Google Launches Google Finance

Finance areas are a staple of portals, one of the first features they all introduced to help attract and keep searchers. After all, if you've established a portfolio with a service, you're less likely to depart to someone new.

Google is allowing people to save a portfolio, a further extension of the stock tracking it already introduced for its personal home page service back in May. So this move definitely gives Google another portal feature to notch on its belt buckle -- and a feature that may help keep searchers sticking with it (though at the moment, there's no import portfolio feature to better ensure this).

But Google Finance is not just a sticky portal feature. Many searches are financial in nature. Offering a finance area is actually firmly within Google's core mission of organizing the world's information. In fact, not having offered some type of financial search was something I wrote in article for SEW members as being a big gap back in 2004:

As you can see, by the time Google Finance rolled around, whether Google was a portal or not no longer seemed a matter of debate. I felt earlier moves already made this a self-evident fact.

Still, the popular media revisited the issue. Google Finance: A Portal Play? is a recap of notable blog commentators calling Google out for a portal play. Google Evolves Into All-Purpose Web Site from the AP is another look at this (I'm quoted in that, but my comment on Google Finance being within the search mission didn't make it).

The AP article gets into how the Google mission has changed, how things it promised not to offer such as chat, horoscopes or financial advice were removed from its philosophy page not too long ago (and all of which you now get, including horoscopes). That change actually happened last August, but the latest portal addition is attracting new changes.

So is Google a portal from its official view? Back to the AP story, we're told:

The company remains committed to guiding its visitors to other Web sites with useful information. "Our motivation isn't to provide sticky services."

Are you kidding me? Or course Google's offering sticky features! What planet is this coming from, Google Mars? How can you say sending people to Gmail each day isn't sticky? How can you say offering them their own personalized home page isn't sticky? Why are you telling them to personalize it, if you aren't expecting them to come back often? Geez -- offering good web search is sticky.

Let's step higher on the Google food chain, say up to CEO Eric Schmidt. He told John Battelle back in December:

Battelle: OK, so does that mean Google?s a portal? Because if you think of it that way, as Terry Semel recently pointed out, it ranks as one of the smaller ones.

Schmidt: Well, if I can be obnoxious --

Battelle: Please.

Schmidt: You?re using a tired model of looking at corporate behavior. You?re looking at us based on market share for technologies and ideas that were invented 10 years ago. A much better way to ask that is to say, Are the things that we?re doing consistent with the mission of the company? We?re not in the portal business, we?re in the business of making all the world?s information accessible and useful.

So Google's not in the portal business. Got it? Except, with respect Eric, you are. And by the way, Google Finance is now your eighth most popular service, Hitwise says (though seeing Google America Samoa at 11th does give me pause).

Finally, who gives a darn anyway? So what if Google's a portal. One of my readers loves getting portal things from Google. Isn't it a smart business move for it to be making?

Sure, I agree. Some of these portal features are smart things to offer. There's no reason why Google shouldn't be a portal and ALSO a good search engine. My reader and I explore this more in a thread at our Search Engine Watch Forums, Who Cares If Google's A Portal? I'll quote my two main points as to why being a portal might be bad:

Why care? Two reasons: 1) You're pretending that you aren't, and that's just annoying. Be proud! Say yes, we are a portal, a portal that doesn't forget about search and one that knows we're stronger in search for our users if we stay closer to them with portal features. This pseudo "I never had portal relations with those users" just feels like you think we're stupid. 2) If they slip on search, even a little bit, they leave themselves open for accusations they've lost focus, that they've forgotten their roots. Those are my two reasons why people might care. They can easily solve the first. The second really depends on whether they can indeed juggle all the balls well. Time will tell on that front. There's a strong argument as I've said that if they don't go in some of these directions, they might be making business mistakes that eventually could hurt them on the search front.

Agree, disagree, have comments of your own. Please share in our forum thread, Who Cares If Google's A Portal?

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 6:07 AM | Permalink

December 29, 2005

The Big Stories in Search, 2005

Danny wraps up our look back at the year in search in today's SearchDay article, 2005 in Review: The Top Search Industry Stories of the Year.

Posted by Chris Sherman at 11:24 AM | Permalink

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 30, 2005

Yahoo Mail Beta Gains RSS Reading Feature

The new Yahoo Mail that's in beta has gained a new way to add RSS feeds into your mail folder. For me, it's nothing shocking. I already pull RSS feeds into Outlook folders and read them in exactly this way. But it's nice for those who want this feature in a web-based email system.

By default, if you click the Add button next to your All RSS Feeds folder, a window pops-up where you're offered to enter feeds from places like the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, News.com, Salon, Digital Photography Review and -- of course -- the Search Engine Watch Blog.

OK, I joke about that last one. We don't make that cut. But if you want us or anything not listed, you can paste the feed into the Address box at the bottom of the Add window.

What's very, very nice is that if you already have a My Yahoo account with feeds added, Yahoo Mail automatically lists those feeds within your All RSS Feeds folder. Great foresight on that, Yahoo!

Have multiple feeds? Each feed gets its own subfolder within the All RSS Feeds folder. You can click on a subfolder and read posts just for that feed.

Sadly, clicking on the main All RSS Feeds folder doesn't show you a view of everything, all feeds combined into one. That might just be a glitch for me, however. SiliconBeat says this type of "river of news" view should be working.

It's also too bad you can't do what NewsGator allows, create multiple folders and put feeds inside of those, to read subsets of feeds.

Someday I'll explain more how this works in more depth with NewsGator. But in short, I have a folder called Search:Hot where I have feeds from 10 or so different blogs that are places always on top of search news. If I'm in a hurry and want to see if anything new is going on, I hit that folder. Rather than important news on search perhaps being drowned out by other stuff, I get a concentrated yet combined view. When I have more time, I look at other folders that group feeds such as Search:Medium and Search:Cool. And non-search feeds that I take go into different folders.

The system works well for me. Obviously, it's not for everyone. But it would be nice to see Yahoo add this as the beta matures.

How about the ability to import all your feeds from another reader via OPML? My Yahoo has an old feature for this, which should in turn bring feeds into Yahoo Mail. But when I tried, it didn't work. Yahoo says it's an old import version and that a new one is promised soon.

Yahoo Mail?s full post RSS reader from Yahoo's Scott Gatz gives you some nice screenshots illustrating the service more, helpful for those not in the beta who can't play with it now.

While Scott calls the system a "full post" reader, remember that this is only true if the feed itself puts out the full post content. If the feed only carries summaries or partial posts, that's all you'll get. Scott and Yahoo Mail's Ethan Diamond are also interviewed on the new system over here at PodTech.

Want the new Yahoo Mail service now? It is pretty slick. My wife was a regular Yahoo Mail user and loved that, and she loves the new service even more. Scott kindly points to a form where you can ask to be included.

So where's the Add To Yahoo Mail button for feed publishers? None that I can see yet, and somewhat of a problem for Yahoo. They have the long-standing Add To My Yahoo button that many use. Will people who use the new Yahoo Mail understand that these buttons are a way to add to Yahoo Mail as well? Or will an entirely new user-friendly button for Yahoo Mail users have to come along. I'll check with Scott on this and postscript on Yahoo's plans.

Submitting RSS Feeds To Yahoo for Search Engine Watch members goes into more depth about getting your feeds into My Yahoo and in front of potential feed searchers, so check that out. Yahoo Feed Search & Web Search Feeds Update covers how searchers can seek and add content into My Yahoo itself, if you want some further assistance on that. Getting Add To & Subscribe Buttons For Feeds for Search Engine Watch members also runs down some popular Add To buttons that marketers may want to consider using to encourage subscriptions.

Postscript: Scott tells me...

Viewing the top-level All RSS Feeds folder should indeed show a compilation of all your feeds, so they're looking into why it doesn't work for me.
The OPML import feature I mentioned is an old version, which is why it probably wasn't working well. I've removed the link, because he promises a new improved OPML version that does work and better is to come.
The ability to group feeds into subfolders as I describe is on the top of the to do list.
For the time being, it remains a single Add to My Yahoo button for publishers to use to encourage subscriptions to both My Yahoo and Yahoo Mail -- but upgrades are coming to that.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 9:38 AM | Permalink

November 14, 2005

Yahoo To Have Podcast Creation & Hosting Service

Via Scripting News, Podcasts Help Drive Demand for High-Volume Hosting has Yahoo saying it wants to go beyond podcast search with a service to allow people to create and host podcasts at Yahoo. Google is rumored to have a similar plan in the works. Goodness knows it's overdue to have anything on the podcast front.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 10:51 AM | Permalink

November 9, 2005

Search & Portal Features Charted

Reading the Google Tea Leaves has Tristan Louis doing a nice job charting various search and portal features that the major services offer, reminding me exactly what I used to do back in the late 90s. But maintaining those charts is a nightmare! If you need a quick rundown, definitely check it out. Tristan also uses the charts to speculate on what products Google might offer. No real revelations there, however.

Audio search? Sure, that's kind of obvious without the charts and overdue, especially with Yahoo's continued expansion.

An encyclopedia partnership? Google kind of has that already with the existing Answers.com deal, which sometimes brings up encyclopedia info along with dictionary definitions, including that from Wikipedia. Plus, it's hard to do a search these days it seems and not run into Wikipedia on the first page of Google results.

Google also talked with Wikipedia about a hosting deal, though I don't recall seeing anything further on that. FYI, Yahoo did do a partnership with Wikipedia, but looking today, that seems to have ended, with the Columbia Encyclopedia being used instead.

Clustered results? Google's got the technology already, just not the desire to use it nor really a pressing need since clustering's hardly been a category killer (Ask Jeeves used to offer it. So did FAST. Clusty still does. None of them have seriously rivaled Google for traffic).

Calendar? Again, obvious portal feature, especially for a company with a mission of helping people organize information. So much info is calendar driven that this is a necessity. Jeremy Zawodny asked for one earlier this year, and we've had recent signs one may be coming.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 6:34 AM | Permalink

August 24, 2005

Google Launches "Google Talk" IM Client With Voice Calls

No longer rumor, the Google Talk instant messaging service from Google debuted today. Got a Gmail account? Then you can begin instant messaging via Google -- or do voice conversations, as well. Don't have Gmail? There's a new signup via text message system in place to help you along.

New Google Talk Offers Instant Messaging & Voice Chat from me and Gary is today's SearchDay article that delves into the new service, looking at how it takes Google further down the portal path but a path it pretty much needs to walk to stay competitive with rivals. We also look at how the new tool isn't in the "blow you away" style of some past Google offerings, unless you feel the voice quality of calls is as good as billed. We haven't done enough testing to put a stamp of approval on that.

There's also a handy comparison chart on how the tool stacks up against some of the competition in terms of features, along with more information. Check out the story!

Want to discuss or comment? Visit our forum thread, Google Talk Instant Messaging Live!

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 12:01 AM | Permalink

August 22, 2005

Google Desktop Search 2 Offers New Sidebar Widgets, Outlook Integration & More

Google has released a new version of its desktop search tool. Now in beta, Google Desktop Search 2 offers features such as integration with Outlook, indexing of email at Gmail, a sidebar with nifty widgets to display photos, headlines, RSS feed and a virtual scratch pad. The changes will likely have folks at Microsoft and Yahoo nervous but Google users pleased. Some of the changes will also no doubt kick off another round of speculation that a Google OS may be coming.

Everything Google Desktop Search has offered -- the ability to find and locate things on your computer -- remains. Here's a closer look at what's new in the latest release.

Installation

If you're already a user of Google Desktop Search, you're going to have to download the application and reindex your hard drive. Your current version of GDS will not automatically update with this beta release. If you want an auto-update, it's likely you'll have to wait until the program leaves beta. Also, another question you might be asking, is if GDS 2 available for Mac users? The answer is no. Also, at this point its is only available in English.

The download is still very small and installation is point, check, and click. After beginning the installation process you'll see a page asking you to set your preferences (which can be changed at any time). By the way, note the option to change the default search engine in IE to Google. (-:

Options include being able to search your desktop and Google's Gmail with the Google Deskbar, a floating deskbar, or the new Google Sidebar that stays on desktop when minimized. It provides quick access to not only a search box but to other services from Google and on your hard drive.

Google Sidebar

The Google Sidebar is is the most important "new" part of this beta release and will not only get people talking but also get developers developing.

The Google Sidebar can be placed anywhere on your desktop and offers several new widget/tools within easy virtual reach. However, Google Desktop Search must be running for the sidebar to work. You can't just have only the sidebar part if you want, unfortunately. Google says the sidebar is too dependent on personalizing itself based on GDS activity for this.

The sidebar remains visible unless you minimize it in most Windows applications. Just like we've seen with the Google Deskbar, you can now Google from just about anywhere in Windows.

The Google Sidebar I used last week came pre-loaded with eight panes or panels, each customizable. All eight panels can also be minimized or removed. They also automatically update with new info. The 8 panels offer access to:

E-Mail: This option allows you to see and read new Gmail without having to go to the Gmail site. Your Gmail is also indexed and made searchable via GDS2. The email "window" of the Google Sidebar will also works with Outlook. Take that Microsoft.
News: News headlines from a variety of sources. If you allow Google to know what stories you're clicking on your news headlines headlines will be personalized over time based on what articles you've looked at in the past.
Web Clips: Web Clips is the Google name for RSS feeds. In other words, the sidebar can also function as an RSS or ATOM aggregator. Web Clips also offers an autodiscover function. Say you visit a bunch of sites that have feeds but can't find the feed. Simply click and add them to your list of feeds. Note to Google: It would be nice to have an option to view full text feeds directly from the sidebar.
Scratch Pad: Type and save quick notes.
Photos: Images from whatever folder(s) you store images in are accessible. In fact, you can also view all/some of your photos as a slide show. You can also display photos from an online photo album.
Quick View: Provides access to frequently used web pages and files. The sidebar also offers a new feature called QuickFind that allows you the chance to open any program by just typing a few keystrokes into the search box. For example, you can type the letters WOR to open MS Word. Also, all of the custom search shortcuts that you might have created with Google Desktop Search 1 will be available here.
What's Hot: A combination of different sources to let you know what people are talking about. How something makes the "hot" box is unknown but Google did tell us that presently material comes from blog/RSS engines Technorati and DayPop. I'm wondering if some day certain advertisers or products might make it into the "hot" panel.
Stocks: Current stock prices, customizable
Weather: Current temperatures and a one day forecast for places you set.
Search: At the very bottom of the default sidebar is a search box. By the way, sidebar boxes can be reordered by simply dragging and dropping.

Are sidebars and similar tools a new idea? No. IE has had an "Explorer" bar for years and Firefox offers numerous sidebar plugins like the PubSub sidebar I use regularly. Of course, don't forget the very popular Mac Dashboard. Nevertheless, since Google is now releasing one, the whole sidebar "concept" will likely gain a new audience.

No doubt the Google Sidebar will appeal to Google fans and tech geeks (see below) alike. However, I wonder if all of these bells and whistles, although potentially useful, are just too much for the typical user. Do they really want or need all of these cool services? Of course, one wonders if the typical user knows about or uses a desktop search app in the first place? Sorry for being just a bit cynical. I wish Google and others would spend 1/10 of the time they spend developing new services and use it to teach people how to become better searchers and better consumers of information.

What else does the Google Sidebar do? It gives Google some serious real estate on the desktop. Although there presently isn't a panel that shows keyword advertising, it's easy to envision panels with contextual and local advertising in them. What about sponsored panels for new movies, TV programs, new products, etc. For the record, Google says it has "no plans" on the advertising front.

Google Sidebar API

Google is also opening up the sidebar to developers with an API. I'm sure developers will have a field day developing new panels. The sidebar and the panels available today and those likely be available soon, remind me of what Yahoo now offers with their acquisition Konfabulator and Apple offers with their application. Not familiar with Yaho Konfabulator? Check out Chris Sherman's recent article that looks at all the widgets that Konfabulator brings to Yahoo: Why Yahoo Bought Konfabulator.

Will today's release start a war for who offers the most sidebar apps or Konfabulator widgets? My guess is yes, it will. I'm looking forward to seeing the plug-ins that combine the sidebar with Google Maps and satellite imagery. Kind of killing two birds with one stone for the Google developer.

New File Types

Along with the 14 file types indexed with GDS, GDS2 will now index:

Gmail
MSN Messenger Chats
Outlook Contacts
Outlook Appointments
Outlook Tasks
Outlook Notes
Outlook Journal

Outlook Integration

Here's another one for that I'm sure Microsofto will love -- not. Yes, it's the debut of the Google Toolbar for Outlook. If you're an MS Outlook user, look for this box that points you to where the Google's Toolbar for Outlook was placed. On my computer, the toolbar sits next to the MSN Toolbar! In addition to searching your Outlook email, you can also use it to search Outlook You can Outlook Contacts, Appointments, Tasks, Notes, and Journal.

Other Features

Along with what I've mentioned above, the GDS2 beta also offers:

Password Protection / Index Encryption (available on the GDS2 preferences page)
Improved Filtering of Results (depending on document type)
One new feature allows you to see a timeline of everything that Google Desktop Searched cached. In other words, at 8:23 PM cached MS Word Doc xxx, at 7:31 cached AIM Chat. Got to tell you, this is very useful.
Options to Search Network Drives

Bottom Line?

For Google Desktop Search fans, it's Christmas (or choose other holiday) in August! This is some cool stuff and yes, Virginia, Google now has an RSS aggregator. I'm sure developers will also be busy building new ones. By the way, if you don't want to use Google Desktop Search to search your desktop, the sidebar is still completely usable. For developers? More Google toys to play with.

Finally, if you're a GDS fanatic and want to let others know about your fanaticism, the GoogleStore began selling a Google Desktop Search Baseball Jersey last week.

Posted by Gary Price at 7:04 AM | Permalink

January 28, 2005

Q&A With Head Of Yahoo Media Group

Gary wrote earlier about Yahoo forming a new Yahoo Media Group. Spotted via Gary Stein, here a Hollywood Reporter article TV vet Braun reveals what's next for content at Yahoo providing a Q&A with the new head of the group Lloyd Braun.

He discusses generally plans to develop internet content for Yahoo's vertical properties or what he says in the interview that he calls "channels." That's not a new name for these areas, of course. Portals have been calling their vertical areas "channels" for years, stretching back to Excite's formerly exciting days (see Welcome To SearchEngineLand).

Google comes up with this brief comment from Braun:

Google is now for me NBC, CBS and Fox all rolled into one.

Well, Google's more like one of those television channels. Yahoo's another, and MSN and AOL are others as well.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 1:36 PM | Permalink

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