August 2001 Archive

Threads at Google Groups

The Google Groups have been improved with an enhanced thread view capability that is similar to the thread capability that DejaNews used to have. In addition, the full, original, detailed header information for each posting is available in the original format display option.

New Size Stats

I have updated my Relative Size Showdown and the Total Size Estimate analyses with data from Aug. 14, 2001. Using 25 search terms, and verifying the actual number of hits available for the largest search engines, Google has maintained a solid first place, followed by Fast's All the Web and then the new WiseNut. I also updated the Database Change Over Time page which compares the same 8 searches run on the five largest search engines at various times from May 1999 to Aug. 2001.

New WISEnut Review & Other Showdown Updates

Added a WISEnut review and have added the new WISEnut to the Search Engine Feature Chart, Search Engines by Feature Page, and the Review Page. Those pages were also updated by removing NBCi (now just serving GoTo results) and iWon (primarily serving GoTo results). Excite review updated to note site clustering. Updated case sensitive searching section on AltaVista Review and the Search Engines by Feature Page. Fast Review updated with information about using parentheses for OR: (term1 term2).

AltaVista Launches Trusted Feed

AltaVista announces the launch of its Trusted Feed program. This pay for inclusion program lets companies submit 500 or more URLs via an XML feed and can include dynamically-generated Web content as well as standard HTML pages. It will be refreshed weekly, and companies will pay based on a pay per click model. However, the ranking of results in AltaVista searches will be determined by AltaVista's relevance algorithms, not by participation in the Trusted Feed program.

LexiBot 2.0

BrightPlanet announces the release of version 2.0 of its LexiBot desktop client search tool. Version 2.0 can search among 2,000 databases considered to be part of the invisible Web (or deep Web as BrightPlanet prefers to call it).

New Google CEO

Google announces that Eric Schmidt is their new CEO. In addition to Google's official press release, several news stories, such as a CNET story from Reuters, note that Schmidt states that "We are quite profitable."

Ads at AlltheWeb

Fast has abandoned its no-ads approach at AlltheWeb. Banner ads are now showing up on results pages.