Posted 11/11/09 at 07:39:41 PM by Ryan Whitwam

Google has clearly revolutionized internet search. The Internet being what it is, it isn’t uncommon for Google to pull up some, shall we say, risqué material. That’s why Google created SafeSearch. By changing the search settings, Google will automatically filter out inappropriate results. Now the big G is providing a way to lock SafeSearch on all Google domains.

When SafeSearch is locked, a series of orbs will be in the upper right corner of all search results to confirm that SafeSearch is locked. These settings even remain in place if a user logs out of the Google account in question. A user will need to log in to the original Google account to change these settings.

While it’s better than nothing, it has its flaws. Running a different browser circumvents the system, allowing the settings to be changed. If any parents think their kids aren’t smarter than them when it comes to the internet, they need to think again. This system may still be handy for employers that want to keep workers on task, or for playing pranks on friends. If you want to give it a shot, whatever your reason, hit the story link above for a full walkthrough.

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Posted 11/11/09 at 06:24:42 PM by Ryan Whitwam

Microsoft’s Bing search engine has announced the roll out of a new feature. Now when you search from Bing, you can get access to the Wolfram Alpha computational knowledge engine. The Wolfram Alpha engine was developed by noted scientist Stephen Wolfram. It launched in May of 2009.

Wolfram Alpha tends to be a little on the confusing side. It makes sense to integrate it into a more consumer oriented engine where people might get some use out of it. One possible use scenario highlighted by Microsoft is that of tracking health and nutrition.

Say you need to know the nutritional value of a steak, now Bing can tell you in detail. Already ate it? Bing can also use the Wolfram Alpha algorithms to determine your BMI and compare it to the rest of the population, thus making you sorry you ate the steak. Of course, you can still do all the complex math calculations that Wolfram Alpha is known for, but who really needs that in Bing? So, does any of this sound useful to you?

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Posted 11/11/09 at 07:04:35 AM by Paul Lilly

Microsoft has revamped its Bing Video interface, and over the next few days will be rolling out a new unified online video destination, the software maker announced. The overhauled service, which meshes MSN Video with Bing, promises to be more organized and contain plenty of high-quality content.

"With the New Bing Video you can now access videos from across the web, MSN's array of high-quality videos, and videos from sites such as Hulu, ABC, and YouTube," Microsoft said on its Bing blog. "Bing videos viewing options are nearly endless."

Microsoft said its video portal grants users access to over 900 television shows, all of which it says are organized and easy to sort through, even if the episode you're looking for is from last season. Users will also be able to share videos, and the portal now includes a 'dim the lights' feature. 

Give Bing Videos a peek here, then hit the jump and tell us what you think.

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Posted 11/09/09 at 06:48:48 PM by Ryan Whitwam

Microsoft's Bing and JiWire have a proposition for you. Free WiFi in exchange for using Bing. Interested? The promotion would give users free Internet access at participating hotspots if they do just one search with Bing. In conjunction with JiWire’s advertising network, Microsoft will be extending the offer to various hotels and airports.

The campaign was started in September at several thousand locations. It managed to attract between 30 and 40 percent of visitors to the hotspots. This is extremely high, as most ads only get interaction from 0.1 to 0.2 percent of people. Microsoft reportedly plans to continue with the promotion, which is a part of JiWire’s Ads for Access campaign. The campaign allows companies to give customers something in exchange for their time. This can be taking a survey, watching a video ad, or (in this case) using the Bing search engine.

The next time you’re in an airport, keep an eye out for these ads. It could get you free access courtesy of a certain Redmond software giant.

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Posted 11/04/09 at 06:00:15 PM by Ryan Whitwam

Google has risen to become a behemoth in the tech world in just a bit over a decade. Even in that short time, enough weird tidbits of information resulted that it makes an entertaining read. Perusing this list of ten interesting facts about Google will make you chuckle and scratch your head.

For instance, did you know that the original name for Google’s PageRank algorithm was “BackRub"?  PageRank is probably better and less creepy. Have you ever used Google’s “I’m Feeling Lucky” button? Well, that button costs Google about $110 million per year, because it skips past the ads on the results page. Hit the story link for the full list.

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Posted 10/29/09 at 08:26:58 AM by Paul Lilly

In a filing with the SEC, Yahoo said more time is needed to complete the search and advertising deal with Microsoft. The two sides had agreed in late July to have everything squared away by October 27, but hammering out the details of a long term deal is taking longer than expected.

"The parties are working diligently finalizing the agreements, have made good progress to date, and have agreed to execute the agreements as expeditiously as possible," Yahoo wrote.

Assuming the two sides can get this done -- and both sides said they are committed to doing so -- Microsoft's Bing will power Yahoo's search results in exchange for those all important advertising dollars. In a joint statement, Microsoft said the companies are "optimistic" they'll be able to close the deal by early 2010, but did not specify a new deadline.

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Posted 10/27/09 at 09:25:26 AM by Paul Lilly

Up until Bing, it was pretty much unfathomable that Google would ever see any kind of real competition in the search market, and perhaps Bing's early success has been a wake up call. It seems Google has been aggressively trying to improve the search experience as of late, including a bunch of just-released updates to its customizable search service.

Google Custom Search now comes with six additional themes to play with, all of which can be customized by changing fonts, colors, backgrounds, promotion settings, and various interactive features like tabbing and mouseovers, Google said. Even the search box and results placement are tweakable.

In addition to cosmetic tweaks, Google also launched a new Custom Search feature called Structured Search. With Structured Search, end users can look up information based on specific attributes instead of general terms. For example, if a Web publisher includes an author's name as an attribute in the app's metadata, users can ping the Internet for just a specific author and only get results that match the query.

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Posted 10/18/09 at 10:12:41 AM by Justin Kerr

Google poured some much needed optimism into the markets last week by announcing some stellar third quarter earnings, giving hope that advertising markets around the world might finally be on the mend. Google turned in a Q3 profit of $1.64 billion, with a very respectable earnings per share of $5.13, a 27 percent boost from the same period last year. During the conference call Google CEO Eric Schmidt also declared that the search engine giant would be on the prowl for new acquisition targets, and would consider any company be it large or small.

News like this usually gets analysts all fired up trying to figure out where they will strike first, but Schmidt clarified that Google is primarily interested in search engines that target specific verticals, or could help them refine how search is performed. Google apparently is also on the lookout for companies that can help them improve their display ad business, or with the development of Chrome. "We have historically done an acquisition, perhaps, one a month or so, and those are typically small, they're typically a complete offering, they're typically technology-intensive," said Schmidt on the call. "They're not very expensive in the scheme of things, and they bring some specific technology."

Schmidt also confirmed that Chrome OS is on track for a beta release later this year, claiming that internal demos have proven it to be a superior offering for netbooks, and far beyond anything offered by either the Microsoft, or Linux camps in both “speed and efficiency”.

So who do you think Google should buy?

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