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GOOGLE PREPARES TO LAUNCH 'BIG DADDY' DATACENTER

Search Engine News, 01/31/2006

Big news. Google is revamping its ranking algorithm and putting a new server infrastructure in place in preparation for what it hopes will be significantly improved search results. The expected roll-out-date will be sometime either this month (February '06) or March.

The new algorithm is live right now on a test data center called Big Daddy where you can sample a preview of what's to come. Google's stated goals include increased search relevancy (of course), as well as a more effective approach to the canonical issues Google's been dealing with recently.

From what we've seen, the search results using Big Daddy really are improved. If you want to catch a glimpse of what Google's search results are going to look like in a month or two, you can give BigDaddy a test drive at the following URL: http://66.249.93.104/

MSN ADCENTER TO LAUNCH IN JUNE

Ed Oswald, BetaNews, 01/13/2006

Microsoft's new system for selling advertising within its search results will go live in June, the company announced Friday. MSN adCenter will compete with rival offerings from Google and Yahoo, as well as eventually become a one-stop-shop for advertising across any of Microsoft's online services.

Eventually, a user would be able to buy ad space on services like MSN Spaces or Office Live. The tools to make this happen are not yet complete, Microsoft says, but should be over the next year. The technology would alllow an advertiser to target their campaigns to specific demographics.

These demographics would be culled in an anonymous way from Microsoft's Passport system, giving a company broader control over who sees their ads.

adCenter has been in testing since last spring, and a quarter of the ads on its search engine are being sold through the new service. As the company moves closer to its June deadline, that number will rise to 100 percent.

Microsoft also announced Thursday that it was forming a joint effort between the adCenter team and Microsoft Research Asia in Bejing, China. The two teams will work to bring adCenter to a broader audience, as well as refine the methods which the system pairs advertisers with consumers through the company's various web properties.

"With this long-term applied research, we will continue to help improve advertisers’ return on investment by delivering rich audience intelligence information and enabling simple and complete control over all aspects of the advertising campaigns," adCenter general manager Tarkek Najm said.

Microsoft's MSN Search is ranked third in terms of visitors, behind both Google and Yahoo. The company has admitted that it joined the search engine race late, and has spent a lot of time trying to make up lost ground by differentiating itself through new services.

BLOG BUZZ ON HIGH-TECH START-UPS CAUSES SOME STATIC

Rebecca Buckman, Wall Street Journal, 02/09/2006

When Spanish Internet start-up FON Technology SL tried to generate some buzz this past weekend about new funding it had snared from Google Inc. and eBay Inc.'s Skype Technologies, it pitched stories to traditional media outlets.

But the tiny company also got publicity from another source: influential commentators on the Internet who write blogs -- including some who may be compensated in the future for advising FON about its business.

Most of the nine members of FON's U.S. advisory board, including former newspaper journalist Dan Gillmor, technology author David Weinberger and Internet-law expert Wendy Seltzer, wrote about FON on their blogs late Sunday. That was right after FON founder Martin Varsavsky revealed on his own blog that the closely held company had raised $21.7 million in funding from Google, Skype and others, declaring it "a dream come true."

Messrs. Gillmor and Weinberger disclosed on their blogs that they are advisers to Madrid-based FON and also said they may receive compensation for their services. But Ms. Seltzer and other advisory-board members who talked up FON's prospects online didn't mention they might be paid by the company, though they did note they were FON advisers.

"It's still early in the first quarter," Ms. Seltzer wrote about FON, which is trying to build a global network of wireless hot spots where users in some cases could tap into the Web for free. But since the service has already snared 3,000 users, she said, "who knows how many might join the game as we move forward!"

Ms. Seltzer says her comments weren't influenced by any compensation she could receive from FON. She adds, however, that she "should probably add that [disclosure] at some point." On their blogs, Messrs. Gillmor and Weinberger said they weren't motivated by making money from FON. Mr. Gillmor added in an e-mail message that FON advisors are "among the most honorable people I know." Mr. Weinberger, who wrote on his blog that "the advisors are being financially compensated, but we haven't discussed the terms," said the advisers were genuinely enthused about FON's community-oriented plans. Mr. Varsavsky says no compensation agreements are in place yet between his company and the advisory-board members, though he plans to "make a proposal" that they get paid in some way.

The avalanche of blogging about FON, much of it from people now tied to the four-month-old company, highlights the rising influence of blogs in shaping opinions about tech start-ups, particularly in Silicon Valley. It also reveals the possible conflicts of interest such complicated relationships can dredge up.

Some lawyers and academics with expertise in the Internet said the disclosures by the FON advisers were adequate and appropriate. But Bob Steele, an ethics specialist with the Poynter Institute, a journalism organization in St. Petersburg, Fla., says bloggers with financial ties to companies -- disclosed or not -- have "competing loyalties" that could taint their independence as writers. "It's still a problem," he says. While many bloggers don't consider themselves journalists, anyone putting information into the public domain about people or companies has certain ethical responsibilities, Mr. Steele says.

That can be a murky issue in today's clubby blogosphere, where many people including venture capitalists, lawyers and journalists write about Web issues and companies -- and often, each other -- with little editing. The rebound in Silicon Valley's economy, coupled with the popularity of cheap, easy-to-use blogging tools, means there are more aspiring commentators than ever opining about start-ups and tech trends on the Web. And increasingly, it is difficult to discern their allegiances.

One popular blog that often writes positively about young tech companies, TechCrunch, is run by a lawyer and entrepreneur, Michael Arrington, who occasionally serves as an adviser to companies he has written about. He sometimes receives stock in those small companies, he says. But Mr. Arrington says he generally doesn't write about start-ups he's advising after he becomes affiliated with them -- and "if I did, I would put a disclaimer up" on the blog, he says.

And venture capitalist Bill Burnham, who writes a blog called Burnham's Beat, says he was criticized last year for blogging about a networking company called DataPower Technology Inc. in which he had invested. He calls such criticism unwarranted, since his blog at the time plainly listed his portfolio companies, and he wrote that he was "heavily biased" about the start-up. DataPower is now owned by International Business Machines Corp. Overall, blogs contain "lots of rumor-mongering," Mr. Burnham says, and many readers probably don't expect them to adhere to journalistic standards.

The possible conflicts associated with bloggers may be more nuanced than outright pay-for-commentary scandals, such as the Bush administration's payments to conservative columnist and radio host Armstrong Williams, disclosed last year, to promote its "No Child Left Behind" policy. Similarly, a high-profile former aide to presidential candidate Howard Dean alleged last year that Mr. Dean's campaign hired two political bloggers as consultants in the hopes they would say positive things about the candidate.

Glenn Fleishman, a blogger and free-lance journalist unaffiliated with FON, says the company's move to make so many prominent Internet commentators official FON advisers means that few of those bloggers might be moved to "poke holes in [the company's] business model." Mr. Fleishman, who says he was initially blown away by the "immediate, friendly blog coverage" he saw of FON late Sunday, is more skeptical about the company's prospects in part because the technology FON is relying on may not be up to the challenge.

Mr. Varsavsky, FON's founder and chief executive, says none of the board members who publicized FON did so "because they're going to get paid. ... These are people who love what FON is about." He says the advisers weren't even sure FON would be a for-profit company when some signed up.

But University of Minnesota journalism professor Jane Kirtley says that "even if it's prospective money, it seems to me the prudent thing" for advisers would be to disclose that relationship on their blogs. Ms. Kirtley directs the Minneapolis school's Silha Center for the Study of Media Ethics and Law.

David Isenberg, one FON advisory-board member with his own blog, says he expects to eventually receive some payment from FON, such as stock options or warrants. Though Mr. Isenberg didn't disclose that on his blog on Sunday -- his posting about FON was titled "Everybody have FON tonight!" -- he said he serves on the advisory board. "Usually, that means there's a business interest" in a company, he says. Mr. Isenberg also notes his blog post expressed some skepticism about whether FON's business was ready to be embraced by the general public.

Another adviser, Ethan Zuckerman, says he disclosed his potential financial tie to FON on his blog in January when he first wrote about the company, but not on his post Sunday. In his more recent comments, he called the FON funding announcement "amazing news," though he added, "I'm not exactly objective about the topic of FON." Ms. Seltzer, a visiting professor at Brooklyn Law School in New York, says that by stating on her blog that she was an advisory-board member, she also felt she was "telling people that there was a relationship" with the company.

SEARCH OVERHAUL FOR U.S. FIRSTGOV GOVERNMENT PORTAL

Gary Price, Search Engine Watch, 01/31/2006

FirstGov's new, sparse search page is just the tip of the iceberg for a number of powerful, useful new features unveiled by the U.S. government information portal.

The new FirstGov.gov search page offers access to content from U.S. federal, state, local tribal and territorial sources. An advanced search interface with added functionality is also available along with a Spanish-language version of the interface that offers quick access to material in Espanol.

Back in September we posted that Vivisimo the company and technology that powers Clusty had won the government contract to power the new FirstGov search engine.

This marked the third change in underlying search technology for the portal. From 2002 until this year, FirstGov's search capabilities were powered by Fast Search and Transfer and managed by AT&T. At its inception, FirstGov search was powered with technology provided by Inktomi founder Eric Brewer.

The feel, look, and organization of the actual FirstGov portal remains the same. What's new is FirstGov's search functionality.

What's New

Unsurprisingly, many of the new features are similar to those found in Clusty, Vivisimo's flagship search service. The new features include:

Larger Database. The database of searchable content has been expanded from about 8 million to 40 million "government related" web pages.

Dynamic Clustering. In addition to traditional search results, results are also sorted into automatically generated categories appearing in links on the left side of the result page.

Preview Function. Click the link labeled "preview" included in each result "snippet" and view a live version of the result page (not a static image) opens up, embedded directly within the result page.

Metasearch from Various U.S. Government Databases. Material comes from not only the open web but from specialty government databases like MyMoney.gov, Forms.gov (government forms), and Fueleconomy.gov.

Within the first couple of searches I quickly noticed the improvements that the new FirstGov.gov search provides.

For example, the new FirstGov.gov search offers a plethora of options on results pages. Here's a simple search for the phrase "student loans". There are several things to take note of on the result page generated by this query.

The first result is a guide direct from the Dept. of Education, an excellent pick.

At the top of the page next to the web search totals you'll see a link labeled "Details." Click this to find out what sources were queried and how many results came from each one.

Directly below the search box are tabs. You'll find links to questions and answers about student loans (a great use of the FirstGov FAQ knowledge base), along with tabs to find results from MyMoney.gov and a few student loan related forms from Forms.gov. These tabs are dynamically generated, and change based on your query. Another query, produced a tab that lists government podcasts.

Note the first result for a search for "navy ships" and next to the url in the first result is a link that reads "more from the Navy." Clicking this link runs a site specific search of the US Naval Vessel Register web site. You can see the results here.

Here's another search, this time for "trade statistics." In this case no tabs are available but numerous clusters appear in the left column. Click on the link and see the new results and/or click on the plus sign (+) to see sub-clusters.

Also at the top of the cluster section notice the tabs that allow you to cluster results by topic (default), government agency (very useful), and source. It would be great if they would also offer a tab that allowed you to quickly see clusters by U.S. State when running a general search.

Again, don't forget that these clusters, tabs, etc. are all produced dynamically for each search. Tabs and clusters shown for one query may not appear in results for another query.

The Bottom Line

This marks mighty impressive beginning for the new FirstGov.gov search. I'm looking forward to seeing not only what other features they might offer in future releases but also the specialty databases and tools they include in the metasearch portion of the service.