A while back I did a piece on Blingo, the paid-to-search search engine. The latest info I can share with you is that, so far this month, I have had one reader referred from Blingo, which means [sarcasm ][i] all the research I did for that article was worth it [/i] [/sarcasm].

As an eternal optimist, I think however that this glimmer of hope can only mean one thing - I am going to win one of the Blingo prizes one of these fine days. I am not a greedy person, so I am bracing myself for a couple of entry level fandango movie tickets. And with my luck, the choice of films that week will be so dire, I won't even use them.

To be honest I am scared of winning a major prize, because that would infer change. No word of a depressed lie, I am happy living in one room counting down time. Free yachts and luxury watches and a flotilla of dolly birds would just make life too complicated and fun. So, on current performance, I feel I am safe from any meaningful life-style disruption with Blingo as my preferred source of free prizes.

Blingo aren't the only guys luring you to search Google via a sexy prize-riddled front page. In the side bar to your right you will see several mammoths of the search world vying for attention in a looping display box. Check them out, make them your browser homepage. That is the end of this little hint to make search more edgy!

I thought that I understood the basic set-up at the natural language search engine, Powerset, but then again!

However clever the developers might be, I don't know if their publicity machine is working. Is the search engine called Powerset as per the clip below from the Powerset website?




Or is the search engine due for release in September called Powerlab and is part of a Powerlabs.posse of products already out in the wild?

I offer the second option which is in contradiction to the above banner but in accordance with press releases and other bloggings by Powerset company members.ie The latest press release states that Powerlab is coming out in September. Doubly weird when I am already a Powerlabber!

SCREAM SCREAM. Name please!

So wtf is the enthusiasm for natural language when the geniuses changing the way we search create such ambiguous weirdness with their naming scheme?? Since having errors in my basic research pointed out by their product manager, I have tried to be a good little thoroughly reliable Power whatever it is researcher, but I am getting really confused.

One theory is that the keyword searches I have been doing to find out about them in Google is the proof that they are onto something with a radical natural search engine that would clearly answer the question, So whichis it, please, the powerset or the powerlab natural language search tool??

Smoke and mirrors

Their naming protocol is so arcane and confusing it makes me still wonder what natural language they are going to be using at the core of their search program. And if there is such mental exertion required to grasp the name of the search engine, I wonder what they are doing involving the general public at this Beta stage? Are we being lined up for the blame for any final failure. It is the beta testers' lack of linguistic analysis abilities that has ruined this natural search engine!

Maybe I am illiterate and don't really merit a role in this exercise? I thought I was quite good at linguistics at University though. Should I get Noam Chomsky's ape to explain it all to me?

Google v Powerset

As I said in a past Powerset post, these guys are deserving of support. When you put their aims in the context of producing the search equivalent of a Babel fish that acts in a human way, good luck to them. I also think Google need a kick up the ass, but are these Power hungry guys the ones to topple Larry, Sergy and co from their lofty search perch? Dunno.

It is all about positioning these days and multi billion Gooogle have the clout to park right up Powerset's ass if they want, engines running, waving blank checks to make sure they get what they want. .

My money is indeed on Powerset becoming Powerdoodle, a part of the Google division, taking this AI style search onward to a final conclusion and inclusion in Goooooogle search. The founders are hoping otherwise, because no way are Google share options going to go up as much as Powerset's might. But please give yourselves a chance and get the Power*.* branding right first.

I have been hovering on the edge of my seat for a web search engine called Powerset. It is a natural search engine which could be a Google killer if it works. But the company seems to be getting more bad press than good.

This morning I wrote People don't like that they are teasing us with sideshows, holding back the main show for release, perhaps in September. To add insult to injury, the background to the search page is black! Just a couple of obvious issues that have planted seeds of doubt in another start-up company.

No wonder it made people doubt the credibility of these rocket scientists, because someone called Ed, plus a fair few others, got the wrong end of the stick when reading a press release this morning. To clarify in words of one syllable:

The search engine is called Powerset. It isn't released yet.

The pictures above are of Powerlab, which is like a preliminary exercise or run-out for the technology that is going to be used in the finished search engine.

Powerset just launched Powerlab. Got it? Good.

This clarification also means the people who can't stand black can probably be guaranteed that the final search page will not have a background color: 000000.

I had another more cerebral doubt. Is this really a natural and intuitive system for finding info, or are the owners just spinning?

Powerset is intuitive?

Working on the basis that software is a reflection of the owner (Google and the Google owners have a certain snug fit symmetry, I think) what is really going on with Powerset's intuitive and natural search engine?

The About blurb on the CEO's blog site raised my hackles about "intuitive" straight away and made me wonder at what level the intuitive idea starts to permeate the software, because intuitive sure doesn't start with PR from the top! To show you what I mean, join me if you will in reading this:

Powerset is a San Francisco company building a transformative consumer search engine based on natural language processing. By making search more natural and intuitive, powerset is fundamentally changing how we search the web, and delivering higher quality results.

I had to read it three times to work out that I understand everything except transformative. Not being a smart ass, but I have a pretty good vocabulary, and sorry, but this member of the masses hasn't got a clue what the hell you are talking about with transformative. However, my intuition tells me it probably isn't that big a deal of a term, probably some cyber geek terminology.

Let's not get too nit picky, though, this is a start up. Just assume the PR wording is a minor geeky detail, of interest to a tiny minority only.

And let's not get too irate at the idea of drip feeding a product launch to the press, and just accept that in this day and age it was a dodgy tactic that is simply unintuitive not illegal.

And let's embrace the idea that something deep in my subconscious tells me black is not welcoming but it still works. And now we know that the black screenshot isn't even the search engine, we can totally relax!

In fact I won't get too hung up on the train of thought that intuitive and About Powerset don't quite gel. I will be kind and assume that the CEO got carried away with the use of transformative, and that he didn't write the software, and the developers are more the intuitive type and they have a search mind set that has been intuitive from the start?

Let's hope so - and if this guy is to be believed, the people building Powerset do indeed have 2 brains and think in the 5th dimension, so it should all work swimmingly.

This is a product to watch, and I for one look forward to trying it out and I will of course start with a search for The Pisstakers web search, Funny Quotes of the day, and roger my uncle. Powersetting should be an interesting exercise, but whether it is more natural and intuitive than Googling, only time will tell.

Powerset is a natural search engine?

There was a bigger alarm bell this morning , however, about whether this Powerset deal is more spin than revolution when a sharp-eyed geek commenting on Tech Crunch wondered why could he see a category on the screenshot called Porn?

As has been mentioned, however, the PORNOGRAPHY crisis is over. That screenshot isn't the search engine and the Porn category, pah, it's a joke that all you sex industry tourists hoping for good deals for Thailand can just wipe from your sleazy minds. So I too can strike the words that tumbled out my irrelevant mind.

As I understand it, Porn is short for pornography . Soft porn is an unnatural representation of a natural act. Hard core porn can be a graphic representation of some pretty unnatural acts. This reference to porn in the promo screenshot therefore seems to go directly against what the Powerset guys are trying to achieve right out the box - natural search for the masses.Or does the term transformative explain away these criticisms , and Powersets is natural, intuitive and for the masses who struggle to read a black background?

Never has so much confusion reigned over natural language! But thanks to Powerset Product manager Mark Johnson for calling my attention to this confused state of mind. And I guess that judging by the way he mainly referred to "PORN" on the blog as the P word, the PTakers won't get a mention in our entirety!

The search from Swicki just keeps on accumulating interest. Compared to Google searches, it is miniscule, but it seems to appeal to a fair few users every day and over time, I am sure it will actually have some tradable value. Hell, if you can sell old postcards...

The key feature of a Swicki is that it is very web 2.0, user-modifiable search engine. So you can search your blog name for instance, and then add in your own description, proper and informative for future searchers' benefit. I suppose it is a bit like the Technorati WTF feature where you can go to town expounding/expanding on a topic to your heart's content.

To be honest it makes me wonder why people got to The Pisstakers to search. And for pantone? Maybe they want to know the colors of the website to rip it off!!!

It is all happening over at Web Analytics World, the hotbed for anything web and analytical.

Manoj is running a competition / carnival / interesting series of articles entitled The Future of Web Search marketing. The topic is set but the content and angle of articles is as open as the future of search itself.

The challenge seems to have loosened up a few writers, whose average post looks long. Interesting and thought provoking, to say the least.

The Thinking Blog

Ilker Yoldas has come up with an expansive look at the application of search in the future. Web 3.0 is not too far around the corner and it had better not be too similar to Web 2.0, unless the developers and driving forces behind it want to be labeled opportunist marketers.

The problem is, we users already need a lot of help making sense of the welter of data out there, and as the digital mayhem spreads, data search isn't going to get any easier over time. In fact it is going to get ugly, which means an increase in opportunities for search marketers. Solutions will require some out-the-box and novel approaches to web search - not more of the same, and although AI is not round the next corner, it isn't too many bends away. His article

The Idea Is

Shay Rosen looks deep, and I mean deep into the crux of search - algorithms. In his article entitled, The future of search marketing LSA on Search History he says algorithms are a bit dumb at the moment and are missing out on millions of opportunities. For the sake of a little more imagination and less rigidity, he argues that engines could propose ads and links to encourage users into a click or purchase when they least expect it.

He is not saying spam or trick users into buying what they don't want. It is cleverer than that. The search engines should be able to remind users about products they have been thinking about in general, but weren't thinking about right at that particular moment. Shane explains it well, I think. His article

SEO Space

Jody Nimetz runs through the A to Z of web search in the future. This is very indepth and although a little bit contrived, there are loads of smart observations and predictions. From ASK online communities, to blogging as the mainstay of search engine ranking, to Firefox as dominant browser (easy prediction!) he moves onto G for Google of course. He predicts they will be forever dominant, joining Yahoo to protect themselves from a monopolies law suit (which sounds the reverse of what would have to happen?) And then we see an idea that Joost will be the Google conduit for consumer-driven TV programing, before the article whizzes through the alphabet to Z, several Z's in fact.

He ends with quite a poignant remark, that Man will be searching long after Google fizzles and dies. Search is in our nature. Amen to that. His article

The Pisstakers

And somehow, Ed got in by donning his sensible, slightly ranty hat and proposed that Google will be the main tool of search, regardless of what people like, think, or want. As main search engine to the internet, the Googloids will also be the thread throughout web search marketing. Live with it, they aren't all bad, you know. Google have environmentally friendly power for their servers, they are creative and they aren't called Microsoft.

(And it just occurred to me, that the search marketing world needs a main dominant player. Just look at the mess that is free-for-all US internet service provision, compared to say, Japan, where central bodies make sure that internet service provision stays focussed. In the US you are lucky to get above 2Mb/sec, in Japan, they are uploading at 50Mb/sec!

Working on that analogy, the world doesn't need Google to have too many competitors, unless we want to hobble search marketing on the basis of some outdated principle that believes that competition, no matter how damaging, is good.) The article

What has search got to do with humor? Nothing per se, but it has lots to with visitors to a humor blog, and bloggers too.

As the complexity and sheer volume of the internet develops, info bogs down blogs and search becomes an ever important button. Your visitors will often be asking themselves these questions. Where the hell was that post on Indian restaurant hijackers? Do they have a post on Mongoose DNA? And you probably ask the same questions too when writing. How do you find out quickly? You go and search.

Search beyond Google

Once you get past Google, which is still The Pisstakers best in-house search tool, a whole new world opens up. However, rather than re-hash the wonders of Winzy, Swicki and Technorati, take a look at a series of quite sensible posts on web search that I have been developing away from readers but in sight of search engines. There are plenty of options for speedy, focussed or paying search tools that can be incorporated into a blog and hopefully I make a bit of sense of what is out there..

As it happens, this post was prompted by a trip through The Pisstakers Swicki where I am reminded every morning of search keywords that I could write a new definition for. Unlike Bobbarama who would have a field day adding to his DictioWary, Swicki request sensible definitions from me. I can't stoop so low, but if you want to beautify the web with a few words on the following, be my guest.

Dirty jokes and pics, convert Pantone ral 1925c and boring old clean jokes - just a sample from yesterday's 40 keyword searches on The Pisstakers Swicki!

We offer you a bean counter's view of our Swicki account. If you add this to that and multiply by a factor of your shoe size, lo and behold, you end up with a Swicki worth $1400 and change. Adds a bit of spice to web searches, don't you think!!

Judging by this latest graphical extravaganza from the (PTAKER) Swicki, even us little people could have a valuable web search engine asset - one day. If you don't believe me, scan the stock market numbers for (GOOG) - there is money in search.

Swicki search fun

And there is even more fun to be had, searching with Swicki. The Google-meets-Wiki model lets you, the user, modify the content of search engine results. ie You can edit the summary that comes with a search result. Go on, you know you want to write something creative about your site - or compliment someone else's. Spread the love and tart up someone else's tag line (responsibly!!!!)

Swicki awaits. Easy to integrate into your site. Take a look in the side bar of our web search section. And if you know anything about these terms, feel free to contribute!

To learn about web search the Rollyo way ie search in a focussed, targeted and personalised manner, check out our Web search section.

Search is an important part of a blog, and in an effort to be good webmasters, we have a swicki option and Google search incorporated in the Pisstakers Search. The human mind is a curious entity, though. judge larry, satire essay, mums, ass linking, and mobog are just a few of the the latest search queries. Wow. How diverse, or is it perverse?

Judge Larry

We post 6 or 7 new articles every day, and so it is easy to forget some of the old posts, but Judge Larry? Who the hell is he? Looking at the Google search result for Judge Larry Pisstakers, the law man seems to be a composite character, like something out of those kids books where you can mix and match heads, torsos and legs. That is quite an achievement for Google - they spend hundreds of millions on search algorithms to invent entities like a Judge called Larry (Page)?

Ass-linking

We do have a Lazy Ass links page, our satirical stab at blog rolls, but I really don't know that I ever wrote an indepth study of how to co-join anuses. And why would you want to know about that sort of thing anyway? Is there a group of office workers somewhere trying to dream up the weirdest search term, and the winner gets to sneak off work an hour early? If so, the winner deserves their medal for ass linking.

What is the most bizarre search term you have sitting in your statistics?

Looking for inspiration for a techy post, I had a scan through the statistics and found the external pages that had linked to The Pisstakers this month. It is quite a role of honor and made me realise what a diverse world of tech bloggers lies out there. It is also quite daunting to realise just how "fierce" the competition is. Thank god we aren't serious and don't go head to head with real experts. Take SEO...

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