New Search Engine Geared toward Muslim Web Users

A new search engine called ImHalal.com aims to "create a safe and clean environment for Muslims who search the Web" by filtering out content that is haraam or forbidden by faith. The site will warn people if they enter a search query which might result in explicit content. There is a three layer filter. Words like porn and rape are given a rating of three and are blocked completely. Terms such as beer and pork are given a rating of one so that the user can continue their search if they feel that the results will be appropriate.

Mainstream search engines have come in for criticism in many parts of the world for displaying content that is offensive to local culture, or even against local laws. This site, launched earlier in September, has received over 400,000 unique visitors so far, according the the creators.

Read the complete story from ABC News here.

Bing Gains (a Little) Ground on Google

Bing, Microsoft’s new search engine, is gaining ground on its chief rival, search engine giant Google, reports Art Technica.

Bing was launched in June and quickly picked up 8% of the search engine market share, mostly from Yahoo.com. Google held 78% of the search engine market that month. In July, however, while Bing’s share of the market increased 1%, Google’s dropped by the same amount.

Bing has several interesting features that have prompted people to take a look. Many of them appear to be staying with the Microsoft product.

Along with Yahoo’s 10% market share, and last week’s announcement of a deal between Yahoo and Microsoft that would make Bing the search engine for all of Yahoo's sites, Google’s search engine dominance looks like it might be in for a challenge.

Stay tuned.

(Never tried Bing? Take a blind search test.)

Bing, Microsoft's New Search Engine

Microsoft's search engine, Live Search, has transitioned to a new product called Bing. While it may not be a Google killer anytime soon, it has been making its mark already by overtaking Yahoo's market share during its first week of release. Microsoft has spent considerable time and money developing this new search engine. Let's take a look at the some of the features.

The Look

Bing's layout is quite clean. The main search box is prominently displayed. A brief list of searchable categories is listed on the left side of the page. What is unique about the Bing homepage is the background image. This image, which changes everyday, features clickable hotspots that conduct searches related to the background image. For example, the above Bing screenshot, from June 6, is a picture of Omaha Beach in Normandy, France. The hotspots linked to searches, maps, images, and videos about the D-Day invasion.

Search

Search results are displayed much like Google's, with some results linking directly to content, not just to the homepage. Additionally, many sites feature a preview option. By moving your mouse to the right of the result, content from the site will pop up in a window to give a preview of the site.

Depending on the topic, search results are often returned with an index of related search terms. For example, when searching "diabetes," a menu appears on the left side showing the search term, and beneath there are options for articles, symptoms, diet, prevention, and more. These results depend on your search term. Another interesting feature is that when you search for a medical condition, the first result listed is an article from an authoritative source such as MayoClinic.com or Medlineplus.gov.

Bing also keeps a history that logs all of your searches. While this is helpful for users who want to maintain privacy, this can easily be cleared or turned off.

Special Features

Bing has several other features. One of the most interesting is video preview. When you search for videos, you can hover your mouse over any search result and can watch a brief preview of that video with audio.

Another great feature is the image search. Images by default are displayed as thumbnails. To see the image source, just hover your mouse over the image. And, unlike Google's image search, you don't have to click to go to the next page to see more results. In Bing, just scroll down through the list to see more images. Images are refreshed as you scroll.

While Bing may not replace Google for your everyday web searching, it is an interesting product and it worth a try. For more information about Bing, go here.

Most Dangerous Search Terms on the Web

You are a smart computer user. You don't open suspicious email, you keep your firewall on, and you don't visit sites common knowledge says harbor viruses and spyware. Or do you?

According to a recent study by McAfee, Internet searches for such terms as "lyrics," "myspace," and "free music" often return sites that house malware that can infect your computer. Why do these sites so often house malware? Hackers realize that people consider these sites "safe," so it is more easy to place items that look safe, but in reality download malware to your computer.

You can read the complete study here.

[via Lifehacker]

Find Current Information Using Our New Search Box

Notice something new on The Tech Desk?

To the right, near the top, there is now a "Search Technology" search box. This will make it easier to find technology information in our entire "neighborhood" -- on our site and all the other sites and blogs we read.

Here's how it works: You remember that we have written on a topic of interest to you, for example, Library electronic resources available to use on your iPod. So you search "iPod" in the search box. The results are displayed, with the first tab showing results from our blog; the second, results on the sites to which we are linked; and the third, results from the blogs we read:


So not only do you find a reference to our posts on the subject -- for instance, More Titles from OverDrive to be iPod Compatible -- but in the second and third tabs you find posts from several other sites we've referenced. This means that you will be able to use The Technology Desk as the starting point for your research on current technology issues.

Try it out and let us know what you think.

Search Options Makes Google Search More Useful

The Google Blog has announced a new set of tools, called Search Options, which allow you to slice and dice your search results to find what you need faster and easier.

Once you have searched Google and have a list of results, click on Show Options, under the search box. This will open Search Options, where you can limit your results by videos, forums, or review; or limit by date, so that you can see results from the past day, week or year. You can change your view, too, so that so that you can see more or less text or more or fewer images in your results. Search Options also includes Wonder Wheel, which gives you related terms for your search topics.

Watch this video from Google to learn more:

Google Continues to Be the Most Popular Search Engine and Video Site in U.S.

comScore, a marketing company that surveys the behavior of digital consumers for businesses looking to expand electronically, has just released the results of several surveys. Two show the dominance of Google on the Internet:

In January 2009, Americans conducted 13.5 billion core searches, a 7% increase over December 2008. Google Sites handled 8.5 billion searches, followed by Yahoo! Sites with 2.8 billion and Microsoft Sites with 1.1 billion. For Google, that amounted to 63% of the market, down slightly from 63.5% in December. The other search engines market shares were equally flat.

December 2008 saw U.S. online video viewing surge 13% in a record-setting month, as Americans viewed 14.3 billion videos as the year closed. Google Sites again ranked as the top U.S. video property with 5.9 billion videos viewed (41% online video market share), with YouTube.com accounting for more than 99% of all videos viewed at the property. Fox Interactive Media ranked second with 445 million videos (3.1%), followed by Yahoo! Sites with 330 million (2.3%) Viacom Digital with 291 million (2%), and Hulu with to 241 million (1.5%).

Google Leads U.S. Search Engines with 9.1 Billion Searches

comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, has released its latest analysis of the U.S. Internet search marketplace.

In March 2009, Americans conducted 14.3 billion searches, 9% more than in February. Over 9.1 billion searches were conducted on Google, increasing the site's share of U.S. search market from 63.3% in February to 63.7% in March. Google was followed by Yahoo! (20.5%), Microsoft (8.3%), Ask Network (3.8%) and AOL (3.7%).

How to Save the News Industry

We have written a lot about the decline of the print newspaper industry as more and more Americans find their news online. The industry seems to have been caught completely off-guard by the rise of the Internet as a vehicle for news.

There are some signs of hope, as a few news outlets and media strategists are trying to create a new business model for the industry.

The British Guardian, for example, will let anyone use the content on its website for free. How does the company plan on making money? Instead of trying to charge for content that can easily be duplicated, the Guardian will let anyone duplicate and use its content and then slap ads on top of everything.

The Financial Times of London has launched Newssift, a semantic search engine that sifts through business news across the Internet. It returns impressive results, especially for bigger companies and broader topics.

Meanwhile, social media strategist and blog author Woody Lewis, writes on five ways newspapers can avoid extinction for Mashable.com.

YouTube as a Search Engine

According to a recent article by Miguel Helft in the New York Times, it appears that the way many users look for information on the Internet is changing.

Instead of using a traditional search engine such as Yahoo or Google that yield mainly text based results, many people are using YouTube as their primary search engine, not only for viral videos, but increasingly for reference.

At First, Funny Videos. Now, a Reference Tool.

The Future of Search Engine Results?

Search engines, since their inception, have followed the same basic design.

A user types in his or her search terms, and a set of results are retrieved and shown as a text-based list. While the algorithms that power search engines have gotten much better over time, users still have to read through a text list to see their results.

Searchme is a search engine that changes all this. After you type in a search term, Searchme displays search results as full-page previews. You can then easily flip through the results. This way, you can see if the content is suitable for your search.

Currently, Searchme does have limitations and it is not as powerful as Google. However, as an alternative to search engines of the past and as a possible glimpse of the future of searching, it is worth a look.