SES Chicago - December 7-11, 2009

October 5, 2006

Google Code Search Live, Offers Code Searching For Programmers

Google Code Search is now live, a new service from Google designed to allow computer programmers and others seek out computer code from across the web.

How is it different from regular Google web search? In general, regular web search won't open up executables and other programming files to index what's inside of them. Instead, a regular search would only find code that was explicitly placed on web pages.

Google told me the new service has billions of lines of code indexed and that it supports regular expression searches. The FAQ gives you further details.

Reason for the service? Google said it's a combination of wanting to make an important information type more accessible, especially for the heavy subset of coders that already use Google. In addition, Google said it wants to help further develop a coding community, so offering a good code search engine helps with that.

Google's not the only one in the code search engine space, though it pitches having a bigger collection of code than other existing services. Coders will be the judge in short order. Some other coding search engines to check out:

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 6:09 AM | Permalink

July 18, 2006

Malware Search Engine Powered By Google

H.D. Moore of Metasploit designed a vertical search engine using the Google API to search specifically for malware. The search engine can be found here.

This follows news last week of a private search engine having been developed to do the same thing.

Ryan Naraine at eWeek has an excellent write up on how the engine works, describing that the search engine has been coded with 300 malware signatures with hopes to increase that to 6,000. The engine then searches the web according to Google and finds executable files that match those signatures.

Steven Bryant from Google Watch notes that Metasploit changed the logo to "censored" it after possibly receiving a cease and desist letter from Google. Here is the before and after.

Looks to me that Metasploit is having fun with this. I really don't know if Google complained to Metasploit that he used the colors of the Google logo for this logo. But it is funny, nonetheless.

Now, is this a good thing for the public to have access to? I got other news to report, you can debate that question yourself.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 8:47 AM | Permalink

January 17, 2006

WSJ Profiles Digg News Technology Site

Digging Out the News at the Wall Street Journal gives you some background on Digg, a two year old technology news site that's risen in popularity over the past several months.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 8:14 AM | Permalink

November 2, 2005

Tagging + Online Games: Search that Actually Works!

We're mostly in the "tagging sucks" camp here at SEW, not because we're opposed to metadata (we're not), but rather because the benefits offered by tags are obliterated by spammers or idiots who misuse them. So far, the examples of tagging we've seen are underwhelming, often characterized by poor search.

But in the right circumstances, tagging can be a powerful tool that actually works the way that proponents say it should. I've found a site where tagging seems to deliver on its promise, and have more about it in today's SearchDay article, Where Tagging Works: Searching for a Good Game.

Posted by Chris Sherman at 10:15 AM | Permalink

October 11, 2005

IT.Com Enhances Services With White Paper Search Tool

A brief article in Media Post today about IT.com, a an engine focusing on Info Tech material, notes that this vertical engine how is offering white papers. I've mentioned IT.com on the blog once before when they announced a deal with Forbes. ITPapers.com and bitpipe are two other services (of many) that offer white paper databases.

Posted by Gary Price at 1:38 PM | Permalink

September 28, 2005

BitTorrent Looking To Work With Publishers

Looking for video content? I mean, not just looking but also wanting to download it? BitTorrent is a popular way for many seeking to get the latest television program or film. BitTorrent's Grab at Respectability from BusinessWeek looks at how the service wants to move on by raising capital and turning into a distribution network for publishers, rather than for those sharing published works.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 9:04 AM | Permalink

September 14, 2005

Codase For Seeking Open Source Code

Codase is a new search engine designed to let you seek open source code. It apparently understand code as code, rather than text. If you deal with code, that probably sounds great to you. Check it out, and a few more details below from what they sent:

Codase is a new kind of search service for open source code. Rather than treating code as text, Codase understands programming languages, and treats code as code, the way it's supposed to be. This unique and syntax-aware approach provides the most accurate and detailed search results with fine granularity levels of controls. With Codase, developers can search functions, classes, strings, constants, macros, comments and other programming language constructs.

Codase hosts huge amount of open source codes providing a much better coverage, as it covers codes usually hidden inside compressed files and source control repositories, where general search engines fail to find and index. In addition, Codase only indexes and searches high quality codes with every line of code literally validated and compiled by intelligent and powerful source code analysis engine.

This initial alpha release focuses mainly on Linux C/C++ code. Future releases will address other programming languages and platforms.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 2:52 PM | Permalink

September 12, 2005

Try WSFinder To Find Web Services & APIs

Trying to track down which company is offering an API these days? The new WSFinder service is a search service / wiki that allows this. One of the founders Chris Law tells me they've got about 90 APIs and web services that developers can find and tap into. You can keyword search or browse directory categories such as these related to search: Blog Search, Book Search, Desktop Search, Enterprise Search, Maps and Geography, Product Search, Shopping and Web Search. Have fun!

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 10:49 AM | Permalink

June 9, 2005

Conversation with Co-Founder of Vertical Engine Koders.com

socalTech.com has publsished interview with vertical search engine Koders.com co-founder, Jorn Teutloff.

Koders allows users to search for open source software code. It officially launched a few weeks ago.

From the Interview BK: What's the revenue model behind Koders.com, and how do you make money?

JT (Koders Co-Founder): Our revenue model has three dimensions; first, there is the revenue generated through banner advertising on the Koders.com search results pages. Second, we are working on an Enterprise Edition of the search engine to be released this Fall. The Enterprise Edition, which indexes the code base within and outside of the firewall of an organization, is currently in beta with a select few customers. Third, we are planning to syndicate data and analyses generated from the Koders.com search traffic. These reports will provide analysts, the media, even application developers, with trends and insights into most common searches, most popular projects, most popular languages, etc. In essence, we are able to identify what's happening in the OSS community and pinpoint areas of opportunity.

Posted by Gary Price at 12:45 PM | Permalink

June 3, 2005

Forbes Announces Deal With Search Vertical IT.com

Media Post has a short article today about Forbes.com users now having access to search vertical IT.com directly from search boxes located on the Forbes site.

IT.com uses a targeted crawler to build a database focusing only on information technology solutions for the enterprise.

Although placing search boxes to specialty/vertical databases on non-search sites like Forbes is not a new concept, it's still a good one since it can help get the word out about these types of search tools.

In an email to me, Mark Conover the IT.com CEOwrote:

The top priority [for IT.com] is to provide the most relevant results for PARTICULAR audience being served.

He added:

It just so happens that the algorithm is "ungamable".

As I touched on earlier this week, just because content can be crawled and searched doesn't mean the searcher will see it. Use of a vertical/focused database can often help the user get the most relevant results in the shortest amount of time. Said in different words, the biggest database (in terms of overall size) doesn't mean it's the best database for every search. Conover is also correct in pointing out that verticals can also offer quality results by focusing on the needs of a specific user group.

With the increasing interest in verticals, I think more and more people are realizing that specialty engines are valuable and useful resources.

Posted by Gary Price at 9:24 AM | Permalink

May 23, 2005

BitTorrent Plans to Launch Search Engine & Carry Ask Jeeves Ads

While several earch tools exist to find BitTorrent material (movies, music, software and other files), the service itself has not offered its own search tool. That's about to change as BitTorrent launches its own advertising-supported search engine in the next two weeks.

Sponsored links will come from Ask Jeeves (apparently the Premier Listings that Ask sells directly, rather than the paid listing that it carries from Google).

BitTorrent speeds internet file transfers by shifting the bandwidth burden off the publisher, and distributing it among users downloading the file: Everyone downloading a file over BitTorrent is unobtrusively uploading it to other users at the same time so that large, popular files actually move at a faster rate than obscure ones.

The new search engine takes that dynamic into account. It resembles Google in operation, with a simple interface and results ranked by an automated process. But unlike a general web search, the BitTorrent web crawler interacts with each torrent behind the scenes to determine the number of nodes downloading and uploading through it. That lets the search engine order its results by the throughput of each torrent.

More in the Wired News article: Next for BitTorrent: Search. It also discusses the many copyright issues that BitTorrent might face as the service becomes more well-known and material becomes even easier to access.

"I think the search engine itself shouldn't be illegal, but I think [founder Bram](Cohen) will find himself inundated with notices of infringing material," says [Stanford Law School Professor Mark] Lemley. "He may find over time that his full-time job is turning off links." Moreover, being right might not be enough to keep Cohen and BitTorrent clear of the working end of a lawsuit. "I would be very surprised if he didn't get sued, because they've gone after a number of people who have much less connection to infringement," says Lemley.

Postscript: Prospect of Search Ads on P2P Site Rattle SEMs from ClickZ has a few more details from Ask and comments from search marketers on source exclusion.

Posted by Gary Price at 11:34 AM | Permalink

May 12, 2005

Koders Offers Search For Open Source Code

Currently in beta, Koders will be formally launching on Monday as a way to search for open source software. The site claims to have indexed more than 190 million lines of code from leading universities, consortiums and organizations. You can search by keyword, language and license.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 11:11 AM | Permalink

April 5, 2005

Searching For WiFi Hotspots

Heading off on that big trip and need to locate the nearest WiFi hot spot? WiFi Search Sites Offer Spring Freedom from Jennifer Laycock at Search Engine Guide has a rundown on resources to try. Also bookmark Geektels, a directory to hotels offering high speed acccess. Chris Sherman did a review of the service back in 2002:  Searching for High Speed Hotels, and it still looks to be going.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 10:44 AM | Permalink

April 4, 2005

Decoding Cryptic Windows Processes

Chances are good that you've had to resort to rebooting a Windows computer from time to time. In the old days, this was easy—just press Control-ALT-Delete. These days, that key combination calls up a window with lots of info and options beyond a simple hard reboot. Problem is, unless you're fluent in geekspeak, it's virtually impossible to know what's going on with the dozens of "processes" running on your computer. What the bleep is scvhost.exe, anyway?

Today's SearchDay article, What the lsass.exe? Searching for Windows Processes, reviews several searchable resources dedicated to providing information about Windows processes, including valuable tips about the nasty varieties such as viruses, Trojans and spyware.

Posted by Chris Sherman at 10:21 AM | Permalink

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