December 2002 Archive

File Type Limit Syntax AlltheWeb

In addition to the file type limit on their advanced search page for PDF files, Flash files, and Microsoft Word files there is now syntax which can be used directly in the search box:

• filetype:pdf
• filetype:flash
• filetype:msword

Note the difference from Google which uses filetype:doc for MS Word files as opposed to AlltheWeb's new filetype:msword. AlltheWeb review, search feature chart, and search engines by feature have all been updated. Thanks to Gary Price for this find.

More File Formats from Inktomi

I am starting to see PDFs, Microsoft Word documents, and Excel spreadsheets indexed at some Inktomi partner sites. HotBot now has PDF, doc, and xls files. These records also show up at About, Overture, and Overture-powered sites like Go.com. None of the partners have a specific limit for the new file types, except for the Position Tech form. But THE major Inktomi partner, MSN Search, does not seem to have any of the extra file formats at this point.

Inktomi To Be Bought by Yahoo!

Both Yahoo! and Inktomi announced today that "they have signed a definitive agreement under which Yahoo! will acquire Inktomi for a purchase price of $1.65 per share in cash. The transaction reflects an aggregate purchase price of approximately $235 million." So at last, Yahoo! will finally have their own search engine, even though Yahoo! still is using Google (and has been reported to have a 5% stake in Google). The search engine industry sure sees some strange partnerships. Now we will have Yahoo! providing MSN with its search engine results (Inktomi) and Google providing Yahoo!. We will have to wait and see how this all may change in the future.

HotBot Searches Four

HotBot has relaunched and now can search Inktomi, Google, FAST, and Teoma. Terra-Lycos, the owner of HotBot, says that with the new HotBot, they want to give the users control. It certainly makes it easy to check four of the major Web search engines from one interface. The front page no longer has ads and flashing banners and pop-ups should be gone from other pages. And the advanced features are readily available and properly translated for each of the four search engines, if they are supported. If they are not supported, HotBot will say that "These filters are not yet supported."

However, several advanced features are gone from the previous version of HotBot:

• Boolean option for Inktomi searches
• Name search (listed as "the person" previously)
• Truncation and word stemming
• The ability to choose more than 10 results on the advanced search page is gone (and with the Preferences, it will now only give up to 50 hits but Google and Teoma will not even give that many)
• And the "More results from this site" link does not always show up, meaning that when it does not the searcher can only find one page per site

So while it is a good start, I think more work needs to be done. More improvements should come in January when they implement Teoma's new advanced search features and Inktomi's Web Search 9. For more information see the What's New with HotBot page and for a positive view on the changes, Gary Price's comments.

Froogle: The Google Product Search Engine

And just in time for Christmas, today Google launches Froogle, named with pun firmly in cheek. Froogle contains just products. Sellers can get their products included for free, potentially using a data feed. See the About Froogle and Information for Merchants for more details. Unlike regular Google results, Froogle includes price, store name, and sometimes even a picture.

Scrolling Results & Site Commentary at Google Labs

Google Labs has added two new initiatives. The Google Viewer provides a fancy way to have search results scroll by with views of the pages as well. I find WiseNut's Sneak-a-Peek and the MSN Search Preview easier to view but prefer basic text results to all three.

The second initiative, Google Webquotes, seems to have more information value. Enter a search, and for each of the top ten sites, several quotes from other pages that point to the top ten sites are listed. So a search on 'google' finds "Google sells paid listings. . . " and "If Google were to charge a fee. . . ." Perhaps interesting to play with, but not the most definitive quotations.

Word .doc Files Now at AlltheWeb

AlltheWeb is now indexing Microsoft Word files. The advanced search form has also added Microsoft Word as a File Format limit. It looks like about 1.3 million Word files (those with a .doc extension) are included. Thanks to Gary Price for catching this one.

Daypop Pops Up Again

And it looks like Daypop is back up again. Hopefully this time it will stay available for a while longer.

Google Future Plans

Jeff Dean, Distinguished Engineer at Google, gave a keynote address yesterday at Online Information 2002 in London. He mentioned some of Google's future plans, which include

• More comprehensive and fresher database
• Improved usability (will that be a new user interface?)
• Conceptual understanding (perhaps that Google will try to guess synonyms)
• More personalization

We'll have to wait and see how these actually are implemented. A couple other interesting numbers that he mentioned: only about 3% of searches use the advanced search form so they do not spend much development dollars on it and about 10% of queries have misspellings.