9/15 Google Watch

Monday, September 14, 2009

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Microsoft Bing Visual Search Option Helps Us Become Lazier Searchers
September 14, 2009 at 3:24 pm

Angling to give Web surfers another, easier way to find what they are looking for, Microsoft's Bing search team introduced a visual search option today, Sept. 14.

No, this isn't another take on image search. But it does use images to help users find results.

Bing Visual Search lets users type in a query as usual, but instead of returning the customary blue links as results, Bing returns images associated with books, movies, celebrities, sports teams and so on.

How can you try this? First, you have to download Microsoft's Silverlight plug-in if you haven't already (How's that for a barrier to entry?) Then go here.

See the demo video from Bing here:

I just had to try this to see if it's worth the hype. As a big movie buff, I first searched for "movies in theaters" and saw this:

Bing visual movies.png

Mousing over each image put the title of the film handily in the search box. No typing required! Just mousing. I'm a horror movie fan, so I clicked on "Halloween II" and saw these movie listings and more info:

Bing visual movies 2.png

Bing Visual Search categories at the moment are Entertainment, Famous People, Reference, Shopping and Sports. Read more on this on Techmeme here, though Search Engine Land's review is the most thorough.

Google moved toward a picture-based search with Similar Images from Google Labs in April. Bing's Visual Search even uses many of the same categories as Google Similar Images:

Google similar images.png

However, when you click the pics, Similar Images helps you find more images, not search links, so it's not quite the same.

Bing gets a big kudos for this in my book. Now, what will Google do, particularly now that Bing just notched 10.7 percent of the search queries in August, up from 9 percent in July, according to Nielsen? That's almost 20 percent growth!

However, it wasn't at Google's expense (64.6 percent), but Yahoo's, which tallied only 16 percent of the searches in August, a drop of 4.2 percent in July.

Here comes Bing, gobbling first Yahoo (even before the Microhoo integration). Next up, Google. Brace yourselves for the search war.



How to Search Google in Near Real-Time
September 14, 2009 at 10:48 am

When Google added its search options feature in May, the company made it possible for users to narrow the time parameters of their search down to the past 24 hours.

Of course, some search engine snobs scoffed at this. Why search Google for info in the past 24 hours when you can search real-time search destinations such as Twitter, OneRiot, Collecta, CrowdEye, or Topsy?

The blogosphere is abuzz this morning with the discovery of a neat little hack every user can do to get Google results up to the minute. The discovery was made by Ran Geva, CEO of real-time search startup Omgili.

When users do a search in the past 24 hours, the results come with the code parameter "qdr.d." Geva deduced that this stood for "query data range" and tested his theory by changing the second "d" to "n" for minute and "s" for second. OK, I don't know why we wouldn't type in "m" instead of "n" to signify minute, but Geva's hack worked!

He searched on results for Barack Obama. Since I'm a professional football fan and the NFL kicked off yesterday, I decided to test this with my favorite football team. Here are the results on the New York Giants for the past 24 hours:

Google Giants 1.png

Then I changed the "d" to "n" (where n=minute) and saw results from the past 54 seconds and sooner:

Google Giants 2.png

This is awesome! Now, the second test, which if you looked at Geva's blog you know didn't pan out for him. That means Google search isn't doing real-time, yet, but it's got to be close. If it can do under a minute, or even past 30 seconds as Geva shows, it can do up to the second. Here I swapped out the "n" for an "s" (where s=second):

Google Giants 3.png

To search for results in the past 30 seconds, I added "30" to the end of the "s" to signify 30 seconds. Success!

Google Giants 4.png

So how close to real-time does this hack come? I next tried 10 seconds with this query: http://www.google.com/search?q=New%20York%20Giants&hl=en&rlz=1G1GGLQ_ENUS268&output=search&tbs=qdr:s10&tbo=1 and saw nothing.

How about 20 seconds? http://www.google.com/search?q=New%20York%20Giants&hl=en&rlz=1G1GGLQ_ENUS268&output=search&tbs=qdr:s20&tbo=1. Nothing, but it could just be that there wasn't anything to find for those parameters.

Now the important question: How soon before Google moves this from a cheap hack to a part of Google search for good, and down to the real-time one second goodness?

Read more coverage about this on TechMeme here.


 

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9/15 NYT > Sports

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Straight Sets: Del Potro Stuns Federer and Wins Open
September 14, 2009 at 9:33 pm

Sixth-seeded Juan Martín Del Potro stunned Roger Federer, 3-6, 7-6 (5), 4-6, 7-6 (4), 6-2, and claimed the men's singles title, which Federer won the past five years.



Mets Find Horrors Behind Every Door This Season
September 14, 2009 at 8:20 pm

The Mets' 2009 season has resembled a haunted house, with the team encountering one nightmare after another.



Straight Sets: Live Analysis: the Men's Final
September 14, 2009 at 5:03 pm

Commentary on the U.S. Open men's final between Roger Federer and Juan Martin Del Potro.



Clijsters Returns to the Rankings as Well, at No. 19
September 14, 2009 at 4:43 pm

Tennis has had a surplus of comebacks, but Kim Clijsters's run to victory at the United States Open as an unranked wild card would make any list of the best ones.



N.F.L. Fast Forward: After Spinning Wheels, Some Teams Gain Traction
September 14, 2009 at 2:50 pm

The early returns on the purge of offensive coordinators during training camp — three were shown the door — were two losses, but quite a bit of hope.



Big City: Telling Tennis Moments, and Timeouts, for Women at Work
September 14, 2009 at 12:26 pm

Kim Clijsters, a mother, and Serena Williams, a businesswoman, met in the United States Open semifinals, where their tennis was not the only thing being judged.



Clijsters Wins U.S. Open Women's Title
September 14, 2009 at 2:50 am

Kim Clijsters capped a remarkable comeback by winning the women's title over Caroline Wozniacki.



Serena Williams Fined; Suspension Is Possible
September 14, 2009 at 1:37 am

Serena Williams was fined $10,000 on Sunday for her tirade against a line judge at the conclusion of her semifinals loss. Friends and allies hope she will apologize on Monday.



Freshmen Quarterbacks Forcier and Barkley Pass Major Tests
September 14, 2009 at 1:33 am

Michigan and Southern California received major boosts from their freshman quarterbacks in important victories on Saturday.



Sports of The Times: For Colts, There Is Life After Dungy
September 14, 2009 at 1:19 am

Jim Caldwell recorded a victory in his debut as coach of the Indianapolis Colts. His predecessor was Tony Dungy, who led the team to a Super Bowl victory.



N.F.L. Roundup: Stokley and Broncos Pluck a Win Out of the Air
September 14, 2009 at 12:29 am

Brandon Stokley pulled a deflected pass out of the air and ran 87 yards for the winning touchdown to give the Broncos a 12-7 win over the Bengals.



Tiger Woods Wins Easily, but Day Isn't Without Drama
September 14, 2009 at 12:27 am

The struggles of Brandt Snedeker, the arrival of Marc Leishman and the redemption of John Senden were also part of the BMW Championship, which Tiger Woods won.



Liberty 86, Mystics 65: In Finale, Liberty Shows What It Lacked
September 13, 2009 at 11:52 pm

The Liberty began the season with championship thoughts but ended it Sunday at the Garden at 13-21 and out of the playoffs.



Paes and Dlouhy Take U.S. Open Doubles Title
September 13, 2009 at 11:44 pm

Leander Paes and Lukas Dlouhy beat the No. 3 seeds, Mahesh Bhupathi and Mark Knowles, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, in the United States Open doubles final.



Without Big Team's Help, Vickers Climbs Into Chase
September 13, 2009 at 11:09 pm

Brian Vickers, who walked away from a dream job at the end of 2006 to join a new team, grabbed the final spot in the Chase for the Sprint Cup.



Francis Betters, Noted Fly Fisherman, Dies at 78
September 13, 2009 at 10:49 pm

Mr. Betters was the owner of a well-known fishing shop and a man called "the ambassador for the Adirondack waters."


 

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