January 2005 Archive

Updated Help File at Google

Gary notes a few changes that have appeared on Google's Advanced Search help page (not on the Advanced Search page itself). It has added more instructions and a section on search operators, changed the "~ search" heading to "Synonym Search," and renamed "Domain Restrict" to "Domain Search."

Definition Switch at Google

The definition links offered by Google that used to point to Dictionary.com entries now go to Answers.com instead.

Visual, Virtual Yellow Pages at A9

Amazon and their A9.com has introduced a fascinating "Find it on the Block" ability to browse pictures of business store fronts in select U.S. markets. With millions of photos, this allows users to browse streets in the ten cities currently available. For a searcher, this offer a very different kind of search database. Read more in Chris' extensive review and the company's own description of how they did it.

TV Searching at Google Video

Google has added a video search tool, Unlike the recently unveiled Yahoo! video search which looks for available video files on the Web, Google's video search is more of a television search since it searches TV closed captioning from CSPAN and San Francisco TV stations. It does not provide access to either the transcripts or the video of the shows "at this time" but only includes some screen shots and KWIC text. Still, this could be useful for finding text occurrences within broadcast TV shows.

More Query Words at Google

Google has finally upped its 10 word query limit to 32. As Tara reports, Google News retains the 10 word limit.

Yahoo! Search Page Redesign

The Yahoo! Search page (probably far less used than their main page) had been introduced as a very simple, clutter-free access to their search engine. Now it has been expanded to offer more information includingnews headlines, Yahoo! Mail login (or new message information if already logged in), and a link to Yahoo Finance and market averages. If you'd prefer not to have the additional information, clicking a small X will close them.

Exalead Claims 1 Billion

The new search engine Exalead now claims over a billion pages indexed. According to Gary's post, they plan to get to two billion in the near future and introduce a desktop search tool as well.

Desktop Search from Yahoo!

Now in addition to Copernic, Google, HotBot, MSN, Ask Jeeves, and others, Yahoo! offers a desktop search tool as well. It is based on the X1 technology. It indexes over 200 file types that might be found on a computer including Microsoft Office files, Outlook email, Adobe Acrobat and Photoshop, HTML, WordPerfect, and image, audio, and video files. It requires Windows 2000 SP3+ or XP along with 128MB RAM and at least 50MB free hard disk space.

One Billion at Gigablast

From 640 million pages up to 1,014,363,952, Gigablast continues to grow and push at increasing its database size and scope.

XML Search Feeds from Gigablast

Gigablast announces the availability of XML search feeds. This is likely most useful when combined with their Site Search or Custom Topic Search options. For the XML wizards, see the full instructions on how to create and customize these feeds.