web search directory

Web search information

Ed at The Pisstakers — 2007-08-31T06:39:01-04:00

The Pisstakers don their sensible hat and offer webmasters well-informed articles and comments about the options for web search today. From tried and tested Google, to Swickis, to home-rolled Search Engines, they will all be here, eventually! Submit links and articles Compare results. See the latest blog news for each too!

Scroogle

Ed at The Pisstakers — 2007-08-31T06:27:37-04:00

Scrooge by name, and in the matter of data collection, Scrooge by nature, Scroogle claims to intervene on your behalf when you search on Google so the Googloids can't trace you.

Sounds like a reasonable intervention for porn fanatics and anyone from the Columbine area still harboring a fascination for bomb-making or guns. within 48 hours there is no trace of your search, no logs, no IP address, no search info.

If you think this is a piece of desperate marketing, to get an angle, read Blorge.com for a run down of where the paradigm of search data is heading. For instance:

Yahoo created Project Panama, which monitors what internet users do on its portal, and uses that information to build a profile of their interests. The profiles are then used to display ads to the people most likely to be interested in them.

The cynic in me says the critical 48 hour deletion period offered by Scroogle could be plenty of time for a second intervention? Big Brother is watching and only needs a second. But at least in principle you don't contribute to a scary database of personal info when you search via Scroogle, from rare tech guys with a sense of humor.

Did you know, if it all gets too much, you can delete you least favorite blog. Just add "-com"to a Google search

Kartoo

Ed at The Pisstakers — 2007-07-26T20:43:58-04:00

In a grey world, you need an outfit like KartOO to shed some light on the gloom. Put on your sunglasses, this search engine is brilliant.

Content is King

Google have taught us that content is king and present their search results in lists of fairly plain text - pure info, no fluff no intuition required.

Kartoo is a search engine that also generates a default list, but if you have Flash, and 90% of PCs do, KartOO create a graphical alternative to lists. Their search results drew me in like a bear to a honey pot, emotions running hot. So how does it work? Read the bumf.

KartOO maps the search results

At first glance, KartOO offers no readable search results. Instead you have a classy looking map of the sites relevant to the search. From usability point of view, it is already one step behind Google.

Although there is no immediate written answer to your search, I found that the presentation is so powerful, you are drawn in to investigate your search-relevant sites from page one on down to 13,985... This is distinctly different to the Google experience, where only the most committed are happy to click through page after page.

Search results

The bigger and more detailed the thumbnail, the more relevant the info it contains. But how do you get a readable search result? We can't divine everything. All becomes clear very quickly, and in a warm, cozy and effortless way.

Mouse over a site and the traditional text search result appears in the side bar. (I cant take a screenshot of it, but you get a similar presentation to SnapIt - ie thumbnail plus summary text.)

Essentially you get the same info as Google, but you have to say, from a pure usability aspect, it is harder worker mousing and then shifting your attention to the side bar.

Topics

Bridging the gap and focussing more on text than flashy graphics, KartOO gives you a list of "Topics" aka tag words in the sidebar.

But they add panache to this list of keywords too. When you mouse over a topic, eyes right, you get another visual link showing the sites dealing with that topic. Highly useful, if only to give you a look at how the internet links together and where your site fits into the mix.

Let it be a lesson, when you blog, it is essential you link to sites however low their page rank. As long as you link to relevant posts, the internet will flourish and relationships will flourish.

Google doesn't convey the inter-connectivity of the internet. Like kids who have a disconnect between a bottle of milk and a cow, sometimes pure user friendly Google text lists just doesn't do it for the average user.

Various search result categories

Apart from "text-based" graphical results, you can search by photos and videos, both sorted out by Yahoo. And Wikipedia will give you a wiki result.

Not sure this is the final solution, maybe they need time to mash some code to better integrate this aspect?

Conconclusion

A beautifully presented search engine, but more glitzy and slightly less useful than Google, in terms of raw data. From an educational and inquisitive point of view, though, KartOO is streets ahead of the rest and the most enjoyable way to search I have encountered so far.

Mr Daggle doesn't agree. He knows more than me about the history of search, so perhaps he is right when he says that KartOO is just another attempt to break the invincible DOS interface approach. Try it and see.

Google Mini Familiarity breeds contentment

Ed at The Pisstakers — 2007-04-19T10:53:42-04:00

When you think web search or search engine you normally think software, but if you can think outside the box once in a while, you may come up with a different perspective. In this case, Google thought of web search inside the box and came up with Google mini - some web search hardware.

The Google mini, according to Small Business Computing, is a garish blue and loud-as-hell server that slips into a server rack. After some jiggery pokery, the mini will index your website or intranet. Voila, thanks to Google, you have the perfect in-house search engine capability.
How perfect?

The Mini can index the content of 220 types of files, including HTML, PDF, Microsoft Office, Microsoft PowerPoint, WordPerfect, Lotus Domino, Lotus 1-2-3, compressed archives, all common e-mail formats and many more. But with convenience comes risk.

Maybe the web search engine's power is too perfect for some sensitive flowers. If you aren't careful at set up time, it is likely to expose some of your company's most secret info. So let's expect Google searches for "Microsoft internal memo" to rise at a rate commensurate with sales of Google Minis wrongly configured?

Google Mini searches at a price

About $2000 gets 50,000 pages indexed, $3k gets you 100k documents in the search parameter, up to 9k for 300,000 pages. And then you have to pay $995 a year for support. Or rather, you have the option to pay up, but if you choose to be a cheap skate, carry on with your Google Mini, but without any support. Seems fair enough, if you are in that league.

Is the Google Mini for you?

Obviously this isn't for the lightweights of the internet, and to be honest, as a grade A lightweight with about 650 articles, I am really happy with the search results that Google Co-op delivers for The Pisstakers. However, one day everyone may be considering one of these babies. Just make sure you have ear defenders and air con to compensate for the big hitting Google Mini whirring away 24-7 in the corner of your bedroom.

Rollyo

Ed at The Pisstakers — 2007-04-07T19:20:07-04:00

Rollyo is a browser bar-based web search tool that helps you focus on results from sites you trust.

You may be interested in doing web search the Rollyo way ie search in a focussed, targeted and personalised manner?

Rollyo search rolls - a list of trusted sites

The aim is to cut through the search scenario that turns up 345600000 results for a topic covered by everyone on the internet. Instead, Rollyo helps you focus on results from sites you trust.

First step - the browser bar widget

Drag the widget at the end of this article into your browser bar.

Second step - create custom search rolls

When you come across a website that you like, click on the Rollbar widget. A window pops up.

Either create a new search roll, name it and add the site to it, or add the site to an existing search roll listed in the widget.

For heavy users, you could create 10 or 20 search rolls and populate them with sites you encounter on your travels. - for instance, create a search roll called serious search engines, and go add Google and all that jazz to it. Eventually you have a useful Search engine search roll, or a humor search roll with The Pisstakers at the top! a car search roll...

To do a web search

You can do a search at any time, of course, straight from the browser. As an example, I typed in RSS as a search word, and chose the search to take place in sites limited to Pisstakers funny search roll. Rollyo obediently searched my fave humor sites ONLY and I got results from authors who interested me - not the 3 million who don't. Great for researching topics in your clique, don't you think.

Rollyo targets search perfectly

I could have tapped into the serious search engines search roll to get general results on RSS from google and more mainstream search sites. Or if I wanted results limited to a search of cool car sites I visit often, I could have targeted a ferrari search roll... although, I wonder what RSS has to do with cars?

Bottom line, whenever you do a search, the results need only include info from the sites you trust! Cool huh!!! And it is free, and indexing is comprehensive and it all looks pretty..

If it made any sense, drag this Rollyo Rollbar link to your Bookmark Bar and see what funny stuff brings up in the web search results.

RollBar

BlogNetNews Search

Ed at The Pisstakers — 2007-04-07T17:06:34-04:00

This in-house search tool provides quick access to articles in the Blog Net News aggregator. BNN is a nationwide network tweaked for individual states.

How does Blog Net News search work?

Type a word and press the button?

And what is Blog Net News again?

Bloggers write their opinion, link to other articles that they think are relevant, and then publish on the internet. The readership local to each writer or the writer's topic, then leave comments reflecting if they agree/disagree with the views expressed.

On the good side, it is a grass roots news aggregator that is reacting against the press moguls currently force-feeding party lines to the prols. On the downside, it could be a platform for bar room lawyers and pool hall politicians airing their personal grievances.

To be fair, although it could be the result of a good idea abused, Blog Net News does seem to rely on the judgement and support of people from a post 14 year-old demographic. Therefore they should be trusted to spot a good story from a mile off, and smell a rotten one too. It is probably justified in claiming itself a true libertarian reflection of what is best in the local blogosphere.

They just need to get rid of the Editor, and they have their fully democratic nirvana. And I would be interested to know what the Google search brings up as opposed to the Net News search. After all, a broad church is the best way to arrive at a balanced outcome. No Georgian is going to be too hard on their own state, are they?

Blingo

Ed at The Pisstakers — 2007-04-07T14:05:44-04:00

A simple-to-use web search engine, Blingo is based on Google. Sponsored ads pay for the prizes. Latest prize winners are displayed in colorful real-time tickers.

Hundreds of prizes

Blingo is using good marketing techniques to keep people coming back for more. They claim to give away thousands of prizes. It isn't a scam, because I guess they do give away something. Just look at the banner!

However, victory is invariably yours in the form of an entry to a cinema. A pass to a movie, smashing.

Others have received an iTunes cerificate

Blingo Blog

The blog is a good source of info on the Blingo paid-to-search web phenomenon. For instance, the "your name needs" meme was quite a successful way of proving that you can get proper results out of a Blingo search.

We input Ed needs and the answer was: Ed needs a Hummer! Well, I can say I would be too embarrassed to drive one of those monstrosities, but at least it is an idea of what to ask for Christmas. And as for the Ed, he has a long wait till Hummer day.

Younanimous or Aftervote

Ed at The Pisstakers — 2007-04-05T23:29:02-04:00

Younanimous is a composite of Google, MSN and Yahoo! web search results, which are then prioritised for usefulness based on each person's use of the search results.

Update

No sooner did we write up some info on the new meta search engine, Younanimous, than the developers unanimously decide that you need to know it henceforth as Aftervote. In this case, I dunno, calling a spade a spade sort of explains better what the search engine does, but Younanimous is so cool and so evocative. We blogged about naming Aftervote.

What does Aftervote / Younanimous do again?

It is something like a major web search engine aggregator meets Digg.

To piss off Mac users with Panther, it doesn't appear to work in Safari, but when you search a word or phrase with Firefox or IE7, it will return a couple of pages of results. Admittedly a little slower than if you hit on Google direct, but still pretty nifty. With the results page up, the social side of ~~Younanimous~~ Aftervote kicks in.

If you click on result 1 but it isn't what you want, you would backspace to the search results. ~~Younanimous~~ Aftervote makes a note of that. If you follow through with search result number 2, or 5 or whatever, in the list, ~~Younanimous~~ Aftervote remembers that. As a social search engine with a brain, it then applies your search dynamic to the results of the next person searching the same keyword you just did. In this way, it is constantly modifying the returned results to be as useful and valid as possible (assuming users aren't mental and seek crap results for their queries!)

I must say I am quite impressed, especially as it does seem to produce a different result, (a more valid result?) as you re-search a term. A shame the logo is the wishy washiest yellow of all time, but to be fair, it is in Beta, so maybe it will get beefed up along with the search engine code.

A potted history in no particular order!

Thought Mechanics bring you information on Younanimous straight from the horse's mouth.

I am really excited to be talking about the release of this. Younanimous is a totally new search engine I have helped to develop. It has so many features and actually doesnt suck like most spin off engines. To read all of it, check the About Page. Some quick highlights:
Searches google, msn and yahoo
Mixes robot rankings with social rankings.
Has alexa, Pagerank and stumbleupon plugins
Much more..

John Chow review

Younanimous was reviewed in quite a lot of detail on the popular on-line money-making tech blog, a lot more detail than I just did. But then, there was $200 or so in the pot to espouse all the good, bad and different points, so I suggest you go for a look see at the minutiae! It is well written by a tech guru, but the quality of my screen shots pisses all over theirs!

Technorati

Ed at The Pisstakers — 2007-04-02T22:06:02-04:00

This is a web search engine from Technorati, the social bookmarking giant. They modestly call it a searchlet, but it taps into a huge database.

Technorati are beta testing this powerful web search tool, a little search box that is acting as a window on a huge database of social networked data. Try it out. Funny stuff or Pisstakers!!

Social bookmarking gives valued results

When people read about a topic or specific post that they like, they tell their friends at Technorati. Bloggers also link to posts and link to Technorati. Yadda yadda. Like a snowball in winter, as more people pick up on a topic, the more people roll with it and recommend it to internauters in ever greater numbers. The more votes a topic gets, the higher up the rankings it goes. (Like a snowball in hell, crap content gets burned too!)

Now the Technorati searchlet, by definition, produces search results that reflect the most read and valued content on the internet. This approach is entirely different from traditional searching with Google, Yahoo etc. Those guys churn out results after their robots have crunched through good, bad and crap content plus factored in sponsorship monies, and who knows what other random mathematical options.

If you have any views or info on Technorati, let me know and I will post it here

K Fed search

Ed at The Pisstakers — 2007-04-02T16:03:46-04:00

Kevin spoon fed Federline has joined the paying web search game. Just like Meatloaf and countless other stars of the stage and scream, the dancing buffoon is tapping into the Prodégé experience.

The Prodege business model is quite simple - with famous people involved, it is easy to work / milk any half decent idea! So what they do is to enlist a star who can tempt their fans and the fans' families to undertake paid web search. They don't mind how they do it, just do it!!

(Please support your idol!! or Kev is revving, and you can too - search his engine! Just a couple of desparado lines that went through the marketers' minds.)

Kev, for his part, gets an old tee-shirt and a scratchy old CD out the cupboard and puts them in the prize bin - along with a handful of sweepstake tickets for a birthday party! He is for real.

And Protege provide the technology and the permanent supply of cash flow to float their and Kev's boat.

Prodege earn the money to run the show by selling sponsored ads at the top of the search results. They charge rates commensurate with the value, in the sponsors' eyes. of madly searching, madly clicking fans. So in Kev's case, a spot on his web search results pages is a good deal for any company selling stuff for 13 year old, slightly chubby, fashion-conscious single mothers.

Win with Kevin web search engine. Is there any sentiment more sickly sweet?

Others' opinions

It is always good to hear different views, if only to give you a perspective on the correctness of your opinion!

One blogger, The Kevin, is 17 years old and bright. So brainy in fact that his left testicle is smarter than the other Kev's whole being - ie him combined with the full contents of bald Britney's head. He has taken a look at the deal from afar and is not too impressed by the Prodégé team. He says:

Prodege, on their site, claims, "PRODÉGÉ is the first socially-conscious search engine." Huh?

Essentially, he doesn't like the fact that the Protege portal and the other Kev, are making money off of Yahoo's search engine. Shoddy Web 2.0ism at work.

Fair enough deduction, but, oh well, mash-ups are the name of the game these days, ask Yahoo!

If you have any views or info on Win with Kev, let me know and I will post it here

Google Co-op

Ed at The Pisstakers — 2007-03-31T19:35:17-04:00

This über fast personal blog / web search option harnesses the rampant power of the number one robots on the planet and Googloid Adsense!

It's free and easy to create a custom Google Co-op robot and install it on your site or link to it in your Google account. The Pisstakers' account password is YOUMUSTBEJOKING21.

Swicki

Ed at The Pisstakers — 2007-03-31T17:40:18-04:00

Swickis are a combination of search engine & wicki. Create tag clouds and customise search results, earn some adsense income...The Pisstakers like the look and ethos of the swicki and use it as a primary search tool to discover the internet. It is worth over $1000 (theoretical) too, which may have something to do with us liking it!!

Meatloaf

Ed at The Pisstakers — 2007-03-31T17:11:34-04:00

Joke shop gift search

Ed at The Pisstakers — 2007-03-31T16:30:04-04:00

Disclaimer!!!! The Pisstakers are an affiliate of the Joke and Party Shop. We do recommend bloggers go searching for the latest greatest wierdest products. It has inspired us a couple of times with material for posts! Namely Blair in Iraq masks

Input item to search

Free find

Ed at The Pisstakers — 2007-03-31T15:06:28-04:00

The beauty of this Australian web search engine is it is easy to install & everything is hosted on servers at Free Finder. Yes, no script knowledge required, it is free, and a finder. Excellent convenience. Of course, The Pisstakers suggest you pony up for extras in order to support their excellent work.