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May 13, 2008

Microsoft WorldWideTelescope Launches

Microsoft launched WorldWideTelescope, it's downloadable answer to Google Sky, Google Earth and Google Moon, yesterday. Other than being a bit of a memory hog (understandable for the power it provides) and requiring the latest version of DivX and .Net framework to install, WWTelescope is a pretty amazing program. You can aimlessly browse around the solar system and beyond, zooming in with incredible detail on Earth, the moon, other planets or galaxies, or you can download a professional tour of any of the above. Each item you look at comes with various "Imagery" options. You can check out satellite images of Earth, a street view, a hybrid of both or use the incredible cool "Earth at Night" mode. The options for viewing space are too numerous to numerate. For a quick fix, you can browse through various collections of space images, like those taken from the Hubble or Chandra telescopes, and see where in space those images are from.

If anything, WWTelescope is too advanced, offering a slew of advanced and sometimes incomprehensible options aimed at professionals and true hobbyists. You can even hook up your telescope to it. But it's still great, interesting fun for the average user. I just wasted an hour or so "researching" it for this article, and left with the same semi-accomplished feeling I get when I waste time on Wikipedia.

Microsoft products have often fallen behind Google on the coolness factor of their products. This time they definitely have the search giant beat.

Posted by Eli Feldblum at 10:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

May 9, 2008

Microsoft Prefers Flash to Silverlight

Despite all the controversy over Microsoft using Silverlight to take over the rich internet market from Adobe Flash, the software giant seems to be not even trying. In fact, even most Microsoft web sites are using Flash instead of Silverlight.

A quick check through Microsoft properties reveals that only the Microsoft Home Page and the Microsoft Developer Network use Silverlight; MSN Video, Zune.net and the new WWTelescope all use Flash.

Microsoft even appears to be on par with Adobe when it comes to platforms outside of Windows. Silverlight works on Safari for Mac or PC, as well as on Firefox and other Mozilla-based browsers. Silverlight even seems to work "unofficially" on Opera (as long you pretend you're not running Opera).

Silverlight isn't supported in Linux, but as an avid Ubuntu fan, I can tell you that Flash does not work well in Linux either. A host of open-source alternatives, like Gnash, have mostly solved that issue. Former Adobe CEO Bruce Chizen's fears of Microsoft favoring Windows seem incredibly unfounded.

But if Microsoft is playing nice for a change, why are they afraid of promoting their product -- and why are they afraid of even using it? Maybe "nice" is too novel a strategy for Redmond. It may take some getting used to -- for everyone.

Posted by Eli Feldblum at 10:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (25)

October 19, 2007

Microsoft Claims Google Gets Too Much Credit

Brian McAndrews, senior vice president of Microsoft's Advertiser Publisher Solutions Group stated during a panel discussion at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco Thursday that Google is getting too much credit for conversions when they are the last place someone visits before making a purchase etc. - when the person usually visits numerous places before the final search is made.

McAndrews was talking about Microsoft's plan to launch conversion attribution tracking - where the user's previous ad exposure etc. is attached to longer tailed tracking.

"This situation has unfairly benefitted Google because many times someone will see a display ad on a site and go to Google, search for the vendor's name, and then click on the vendor's text ad served by Google," McAndrews said during the conference.

With "conversion attribution" "advertisers get a more complete understanding of how effective their marketing campaigns", he said.

"Along the way, advertisers will get a more balanced view of the value of their ads across a wider trail of Web sites and via a variety of ad formats, not just the last ad displayed by the last publisher, which is often Google", PC World reported.

"We'll introduce conversion attribution to give [more publishers] credit and it will devalue search [advertising]," McAndrews said.

The major drawback I see for this is when does the tracking start? Is all activity cookied? What will the privacy issue people say about this?

The concept is great if you don't mind all activity on the web being monitored. The actuality of being able to really attribute and filter what sparked what will be a huge undertaking.

Posted by Frank Watson at 2:00 PM | Permalink

July 30, 2007

Microsoft Mashup Tool PopFly Examined

John Montgomery, group program manager of Popfly - Microsoft's MashUp application - told eWeek that he thought if he did not start the non-prgrammer development tool no-one at Microsoft would have.

Montgomery is interviewed by eWeek and gives some interesting insights into how the product was developed and what it aims to achieve.

Montgomery describes Popfly as a fun, easy way to build and share mashups, gadgets, Web pages and applications. Popfly consists of two parts: Popfly Creator, which is a set of online visual tools for building Web pages and mashups, and Popfly Space, which is an online community of creators who can host, share, rate, comment and even remix creations from other Popfly users.

Posted by Frank Watson at 1:15 PM | Permalink

July 23, 2007

Ask Adds AskEraser To Maintain User Privacy, Microsoft Joins Them To Evolve Privacy Procedures

Want to make sure your search history is not being recorded? Ask.com has developed AskEraser a tool that will allow you to wipe your search history and will be launching it in the near future, according to their press release.

"Searchers will have easy access to AskEraser and can change their privacy preference at any time. Once selected, searchers' privacy settings will be clearly indicated on search results pages so they always know the privacy status of their searches," the press release stated.

"As search and other online services progress, it's important for our customers to be able to trust that their information is being used appropriately and in a way that provides value to them," said Peter Cullen, chief privacy strategist at Microsoft. "We hope others in the industry will join us in developing and supporting principles that address these important issues. People should be able to search and surf online without having to navigate a complicated patchwork of privacy policies."

"AskEraser is a great solution for those looking for an additional level of privacy when they search online," said Jim Lanzone, CEO of Ask.com. "Anonymous user data can be very useful to enhance search products for all users, and we're committed to being open and transparent about how such information is used. But we also understand that there are some who are interested in new tools that will help protect their privacy further, and we will give them that control on Ask.com."

"Anonymous user data can be very useful to enhance search products for all users, but people should have access to privacy controls based on their level of comfort around the storage of their search data," said Doug Leeds, vice president of product management at Ask.com. "We're committed to developing new ways to give consumers the control they are entitled to when it comes to searching online, and hope others will join us in engaging in dialogue on these important issues."

Microsoft and Ask.com are proposing that leading search providers, online advertising companies and privacy advocates convene to engage in an active dialogue to discuss privacy considerations posed by the proliferation of online advertising and search. The goal of the dialogue is to determine ways that the industry can work cooperatively to define privacy principles that take these new considerations into account. The companies will provide an update on their progress in September.

Posted by Frank Watson at 1:47 PM | Permalink

April 24, 2007

Microsoft Accused Of Patent Violation In .Net Methodology

Computing.co.uk reported that Microsoft is being sued by Vertical Computer Systems for patent infringement of their SiteFlash product.

According to the suit, Microsoft's .Net framework uses many of the elements of VCS's patented system.

Posted by Frank Watson at 5:08 PM | Permalink

March 28, 2007

Microsoft Eyeing DoubleClick

According to Crain Business, Microsoft may be acquiring online ads serving platform DoubleClick.

"DoubleClick, which hired investment bank Morgan Stanley to work on a possible sale, according to The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the story on Wednesday. DoubleClick has been selling off noncore assets and preparing to cash out since it was taken private in 2005", Crain reported.

UPDATE: Kate Kaye has a look at what this would mean for Microsoft in her ClickZ story, "DoubleClick Sale Could Risk Publisher Exodus."

Posted by Frank Watson at 3:19 PM | Permalink

November 8, 2006

Google's SearchMash Gets Features & Microsoft's Sexy, Experimental Ms. Dewey Search

Google's experimental search engine SearchMash has gained some new features while the sexy Ms. Dewey search engine is now outed as Microsoft's experimental search engine.

Ms. Dewey came to light last month. I spotted it via the Google Operating System blog, checked it out and promptly dissed it as a waste of time at the end of a Daily SearchCast episode on Oct. 16.

The site features an attractive woman who stands above a search box:

She makes funny jokes from a set repertoire. My favorite is when she raps on the glass of monitor to get your attention, if you don't do something after awhile:

If you don't do anything, you eventually find her telling you:

Hello. Type Something Here

If you don't get a move on, another chuckle. But how about the search features? OK. I entered:

who won the elections today

I got told (in words on the screen, not by her):

Ms. Dewey is thinking

Then after literally a minute, I finally got my answers:

The answers come from Windows Live Search. Over there, they come up in three seconds. For the minute Ms. Dewey took, I got nothing special in return. She doesn't read the results to you, nor make them better. She's kind of funny, but not funny enough for me to spend more than a search or two with her. Then the novelty is gone. So go have fun, but I doubt you or anyone will be spending tons of quality time with her.

When I first saw the site, I had no idea who was behind it. Then yesterday, AP had a story, On the Net: Searching With Ms. Dewey, explaining that Microsoft was behind the site and put it out there hoping it gets "discovered."

Discovered, yes. Bemused, yes. Routinely used, I doubt it.

Less sexy but more functional, Google's experimental SearchMash site that we covered last month has gained some new features. Again, a nice catch via Google Operating System.

In Ionut Alex's example over there for a search for magic, a new refinement area shows up at the top of the page suggesting another query (and some related results) to try:

Using the "show details" option, this box can be made bigger. For most queries, I found it doesn't appear at all.

Meanwhile, the main box with search results can be made smaller, condensing the results by using "hide details" option:

Image results now move to the bottom of the page, while two new boxes show up where images used to be on the right hand side. One of these can be expanded to show Wikipedia results:

The other is already open and asks for feedback.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 8:23 AM | Permalink

August 1, 2006

New Search Patent Applications: August 1, 2006 - Microsoft Answers?

There are a number of new patent applications from Yahoo, including one that utilizes concept networks to understand the intention behind a user's query; another describing an addition to a user interface that lets a searcher define the context of a search; an API approach to retrieve information from fast changing dynamic sites such as job listing sites, news site personals, or online auction sites; a way to use the contents of a first set of results from the search engine to find relevant pages from a second set of results, including both paid and organic results; a process of dynamically modifying the layout of a page so that the most important content is likely to be seen by a visitor; and a remote filtering system for filtering spam for client-based email programs.

Microsoft unveils a patent application that could be the inspiration for Windows Live QnA, a process for removing unlinked documents from a search engine's index, an approach for presenting relevant snippets with search results, a means of using cached search results for queries with relevant advertising results, and a query refinement process based upon past user behavior.

IBM provides a linguistic approach to identifying the main body text of a page, and they present that approach as an improvement upon methods such as a VIPS or a Visual Gap Segmentation process.

Yahoo

Systems and methods for managing and using multiple concept networks for assisted search processing Inventors: Shyam Kapur, Jignashu Parikh, and Deepa Joshi Assigned to Yahoo US Patent Application 20060167896 Published July 27, 2006 Filed on December 5, 2005

Abstract

Multiple concept networks are generated from subsets of received queries. These concept networks can be used in various ways to enhance response to subsequent queries. In one embodiment, concept networks can be merged into a larger concept network that can be used to infer a user's likely intent given a query. In another embodiment, suggestions for related searches obtained using different concept networks can be merged or aggregated. Other users for concept networks in query processing, including assisted search, are also described.

Systems and methods for contextual transaction proposals Inventors: Reiner Kraft, Andreas Hartmann, Farzin Maghoul Assigned to Yahoo US Patent Application 20060167857 Published July 27, 2006 Filed on May 12, 2005

Abstract

Context-specific transaction proposals are automatically generated and presented to a user who expresses interest in a particular topic. A user viewing a World Wide Web page or other content item activates an interface to indicate that he or she is interested in additional information related to the subject of the page. A context vector or other representation of the content of the page being viewed is transmitted to an information server, which identifies possible transactions related to the content and proposes one or more of these transactions to the user. Transaction proposals can be presented together with a contextual search interface that allows the user to submit zero or more search terms together with the context vector as a search query.

System and method for improving online search engine results

Inventors: Daniel Patrick Dissett, Arkady Borkovsky, Charles Converse Carson, JR. Assigned to Yahoo! Inc. US Patent Application 20060167852 Published July 27, 2006 Filed on January 28, 2005

July 14, 2006

Microsoft: "Enterprise Search Is Our Business" (It's Not) & Google Can't Have It (They Don't)

Microsoft to Google: Hands off enterprise search from News.com and a similar report from The Register both cite Microsoft Chief Operating Office Kevin Turner declaring "enterprise search is our business, it's our house and Google is not going to take that business."

Gosh -- I though enterprise search was Autonomy's business, Autonomy's house. This recent Investors Business Daily article had Autonomy as the "clear leader" in enterprise search, followed by FAST, IBM and then Google. Microsoft isn't even mentioned -- not once.

Other reports (InformationWeek, InternetWeek) talk about Turner saying Microsoft is strong in the enterprise space overall. Sure. But enterprise search as Microsoft's business? And Google's trying to take it? That doesn't wash.

Google's been providing a dedicated enterprise search product, the Google Search Appliance, since 2002. They also offered hosted site search solutions from before that. Enterprise search isn't something Google's suddenly decided to do, just because Microsoft is doing it. The same is true for other companies that fall under Turner's ire:

Those people are not going to be allowed to take food off of our plate, because that is what they are intending to do.

In reality, Microsoft seems to have no serious enterprise search house at the moment, and if anyone's trying to grab food off the plate, it pretty much sounds like it's Microsoft doing the grabbing.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 9:36 AM | Permalink

Microsoft: "Enterprise Search Is Our Business" (It's Not) & Google Can't Have It (They Don't)

Those people are not going to be allowed to take food off of our plate, because that is what they are intending to do.

In reality, Microsoft seems to have no serious enterprise search house at the moment, and if anyone's trying to grab food off the plate, it pretty much sounds like it's Microsoft doing the grabbing.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 9:36 AM | Permalink

Microsoft: "Enterprise Search Is Our Business" (It's Not) & Google Can't Have It (They Don't)

Those people are not going to be allowed to take food off of our plate, because that is what they are intending to do.

In reality, Microsoft seems to have no serious enterprise search house at the moment, and if anyone's trying to grab food off the plate, it pretty much sounds like it's Microsoft doing the grabbing.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 9:36 AM | Permalink

Microsoft: "Enterprise Search Is Our Business" (It's Not) & Google Can't Have It (They Don't)

Those people are not going to be allowed to take food off of our plate, because that is what they are intending to do.

In reality, Microsoft seems to have no serious enterprise search house at the moment, and if anyone's trying to grab food off the plate, it pretty much sounds like it's Microsoft doing the grabbing.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 9:36 AM | Permalink

January 5, 2006

Bill Gates and Friends Talk and Demo New Products at CES

The 2006 Winter Consumer Electronics Show got underway last night with a keynote address by Bill Gates and if you were hoping for some substantial discussion of MSN Search or insight AdCenter. You will not find it here. While search was noted, very little time was spent talking about it in more than general terms.

You can view an on-demand webcast of the address by Bill Gates here. It lasts about A text transcript is also available.

Gates begins his keynote by saying that he and his wife were thrilled to be named Persons of the Year from Time magazine and "share" it with Bono.

He says that this is the Decade of Digital Lifestyles and Digital Workstyles.

This is the year that [Windows] Vista, Office 12 and many other products will come out, and the realization of [Windows] Media Center as a volume mainstream product will really be clear to everyone in the marketplace. Gates goes on to give a demo that includes location-based info, fingerprint authentication, and conference calls. So, it's a very simple thing to have all these devices working together, and I have that Digital Workstyle, my calendar, the traffic, my contacts, my rich communications done in a very different way.

Software needs to, "make things both simpler and more effective."

If we make them simple, we make them inexpensive and we drive them through a single interface, everything you learn, the concepts for one activity, whether it's gaming or office productivity get applied across these different activities.

He talks about a "single interface" that can make all types of content accessible.

Note: I'll add that I agree 100% with Gates on the single interface when it comes to search. This is the federated search idea that I've been blogging about since I joined the SEW Blog team and before.

Gates adds that software needs to work across many devices.

So it's not just software for the PC or software for the phone or software for the videogame, it's software for the user. So this cross-device approach is a very, very important approach. In fact, that's complemented by the fact that there will be what we call Live services where a lot of your files, your information will actually be stored out in the Internet, and even if you pick somebody else's device up, once you authenticate, all that information becomes available to you. So moving between different PCs can be a very, very easy thing.

Gates concludes and then introduces Aaron Woodman, the group product manager, or Windows Vista. Remember, you can see the new interface and more if you view the on-demand video.

Key Points: + "Fresher" UI + Easier, faster to switch between apps including the new "Flip 3D." Flip 3D moves all of my applications into a 3-D space, allowing me to scroll through them with my arrow keys or quickly with my mouse.

Woodman also talks about the Windows Sidebar and Windows Sideshow. The Sidebar is a space over on the right-hand side of the screen that houses small applications or gadgets that give very specific functionality or information at a glance. There are four in my Sidebar. There's actually a picture window showing some of the pictures that my friends have placed up on MSN Spaces, I have an RSS feed; I even have an egg timer.

Windows Sideshow? "...essentially it's a small LCD screen built right into the side of the laptop. And essentially it gives me some small applications or gadgets, again providing some specific functionality. My favorite is actually the calendar application, meaning that I can look and see where I need to be, when I need to be there, without having even to have me power the laptop on."

Woodman says that search is important to users and Vista delivers.

I can now type the application I'm looking for without having to search through lots of folders and immediately find the information that's important. I can go to the Windows Vista library and search for content that I care about. And it's going to search through all of those documents, no matter where they're stored, what they're called, and bring the relevant information to me, providing me that sense of clarity that I look for.

Sounds like desktop search to me.

Finally, say hello to tabbed browsing "with a twist."

"But that twist I talked about is Quick Tabs. This gives me the opportunity to see all those tabs, the state that they're in, and make quick, fast decisions, really taking the clutter out of the concern in deciding, oh, I don't want that tab, not really that one either, that's the one I was looking for; a great way to give tools that consumers are looking for, give them the information that they expect from the next generation of Windows PCs.

Finally, Woodman speaks on improved search for imagery.

We've given you a couple of new tools to find the images. We give you dates so you can quickly find things by date, by tags, by keywords. I can search by keyword. It's a great way to put consumers back in control and easily find the memories that are important to them.

The presentation continues with the introduction of a new MTV Networks/Microsoft venture called URGE.

Van Toffler, the president of MTV Networks, says:

...with URGE we're bringing to market a unique approach to digital music, one focused on the emotional connection to music. URGE will offer a customized relationship with music, a sense of musical discovery, along with access to millions of songs from major labs and indies, an opportunity to listen to over a hundred radio stations, a chance to learn about the roots of songs and lyrics, plus interaction with hundreds of artists and access to their playlists of must-haves.You can also take URGE and make it your own and personalize your own soundtrack and make it for any mood or event.

Wake the kids and phone the neighbors, Justin Timberlake appears onstage during the demo!!!

The presentation goes on to discuss Microsoft Media Center PC.

+ DIRECTTV content and BSkyB (UK) content will soon be available and be portable.

+ MS is working on a recommendation service that will help users find shows.

The presentation ends with Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates boxing using Windows XBox and then "after the fight," Gates concludes with a few final remarks.

What's Old is New Again Two quick thoughts. First, tools that help users customize their music choices by theme, genre, etc. is not new to Microsoft. Back in 2001 they offered a service that allowed users to help find similar songs. They called it "sounds-like" search technology. Here's a page from The Wayback Machine to give you an idea of what the interface looked like. Today, other services like Pandora use technology and people to help create a personalized music experience.

Second, the Sidebar concept also sounds somewhat familiar. Remember "MSN My Stuff"? This post from the MicrosoftGadgets.com offers a great overview. That doesn't mean the Sidebar s not a good idea. Things change quickly technology improves and users get more sophisticated. Perhaps these concepts are now ready to take hold.

Posted by Gary Price at 12:41 PM | Permalink

Bill Gates and Friends Talk and Demo New Products at CES

You can view an on-demand webcast of the address by Bill Gates here. It lasts about A text transcript is also available.

Gates begins his keynote by saying that he and his wife were thrilled to be named Persons of the Year from Time magazine and "share" it with Bono.

He says that this is the Decade of Digital Lifestyles and Digital Workstyles.

Software needs to, "make things both simpler and more effective."

He talks about a "single interface" that can make all types of content accessible.

Gates adds that software needs to work across many devices.

Gates concludes and then introduces Aaron Woodman, the group product manager, or Windows Vista. Remember, you can see the new interface and more if you view the on-demand video.

Woodman says that search is important to users and Vista delivers.

Sounds like desktop search to me.

Finally, say hello to tabbed browsing "with a twist."

Finally, Woodman speaks on improved search for imagery.

The presentation continues with the introduction of a new MTV Networks/Microsoft venture called URGE.

Van Toffler, the president of MTV Networks, says:

Wake the kids and phone the neighbors, Justin Timberlake appears onstage during the demo!!!

The presentation goes on to discuss Microsoft Media Center PC.

+ DIRECTTV content and BSkyB (UK) content will soon be available and be portable.

+ MS is working on a recommendation service that will help users find shows.

The presentation ends with Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates boxing using Windows XBox and then "after the fight," Gates concludes with a few final remarks.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 12:41 PM | Permalink

Bill Gates and Friends Talk and Demo New Products at CES

You can view an on-demand webcast of the address by Bill Gates here. It lasts about A text transcript is also available.

Gates begins his keynote by saying that he and his wife were thrilled to be named Persons of the Year from Time magazine and "share" it with Bono.

He says that this is the Decade of Digital Lifestyles and Digital Workstyles.

Software needs to, "make things both simpler and more effective."

He talks about a "single interface" that can make all types of content accessible.

Gates adds that software needs to work across many devices.

Gates concludes and then introduces Aaron Woodman, the group product manager, or Windows Vista. Remember, you can see the new interface and more if you view the on-demand video.

Woodman says that search is important to users and Vista delivers.

Sounds like desktop search to me.

Finally, say hello to tabbed browsing "with a twist."

Finally, Woodman speaks on improved search for imagery.

The presentation continues with the introduction of a new MTV Networks/Microsoft venture called URGE.

Van Toffler, the president of MTV Networks, says:

Wake the kids and phone the neighbors, Justin Timberlake appears onstage during the demo!!!

The presentation goes on to discuss Microsoft Media Center PC.

+ DIRECTTV content and BSkyB (UK) content will soon be available and be portable.

+ MS is working on a recommendation service that will help users find shows.

The presentation ends with Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates boxing using Windows XBox and then "after the fight," Gates concludes with a few final remarks.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 12:41 PM | Permalink

Bill Gates and Friends Talk and Demo New Products at CES

You can view an on-demand webcast of the address by Bill Gates here. It lasts about A text transcript is also available.

Gates begins his keynote by saying that he and his wife were thrilled to be named Persons of the Year from Time magazine and "share" it with Bono.

He says that this is the Decade of Digital Lifestyles and Digital Workstyles.

Software needs to, "make things both simpler and more effective."

He talks about a "single interface" that can make all types of content accessible.

Gates adds that software needs to work across many devices.

Gates concludes and then introduces Aaron Woodman, the group product manager, or Windows Vista. Remember, you can see the new interface and more if you view the on-demand video.

Woodman says that search is important to users and Vista delivers.

Sounds like desktop search to me.

Finally, say hello to tabbed browsing "with a twist."

Finally, Woodman speaks on improved search for imagery.

The presentation continues with the introduction of a new MTV Networks/Microsoft venture called URGE.

Van Toffler, the president of MTV Networks, says:

Wake the kids and phone the neighbors, Justin Timberlake appears onstage during the demo!!!

The presentation goes on to discuss Microsoft Media Center PC.

+ DIRECTTV content and BSkyB (UK) content will soon be available and be portable.

+ MS is working on a recommendation service that will help users find shows.

The presentation ends with Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates boxing using Windows XBox and then "after the fight," Gates concludes with a few final remarks.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 12:41 PM | Permalink

November 29, 2005

Microsoft's "Google Base" is Code Named Fremont & MS Receives Patent For Semi-Auto Annotation of Multimedia Objects

Two items from Redmond today, Microsoft with a classified ads listing service in the works pegged as a rival to Google Base and Microsoft getting a patent on semi-automatic annotation of multimedia objects.

One of the pluses of being "first" is that from then on your service is compared to what may others might have in the works. That's just the case in this eWeek article by Ben Charny titled: Microsoft Testing Its Own 'Google Base'.

Microsoft Corp. said it is readying an online marketplace, code-named Fremont, which is apparently in response to a similar feature that rival Google Inc. introduced a few weeks ago.

Charny points out that a Freemont.live.com is up but can only be accessed and used by MS employees. Michael Arrington has a bit more on TechCrunch. He says to look for a public test in the next few weeks. Before TechCrunch, Greg Sterling posted about the system being an online classifieds move. More in Coming Soon: Windows Live Classifieds.

And while we're reporting on news from Redmond...

The US Patent and Trademark Office awarded a patent (not a patent app) to Microsoft today titled: Semi-automatic annotation of multimedia objects. It was first filed for in 2000 and is an interesting read, as patents go.

From the abstract: A multimedia object retrieval and annotation system integrates an annotation process with object retrieval and relevance feedback processes. The annotation process annotates multimedia objects, such as digital images, with semantically relevant keywords. The annotation process is performed in background, hidden from the user, as the user conducts normal searches. The annotation process is "semi-automatic" in that it utilizes both keyword-based information retrieval and content-based image retrieval techniques to automatically search for multimedia objects, and then encourages users to provide feedback on the retrieved objects. The user identifies objects as either relevant or irrelevant to the query keywords and based on this feedback, the system automatically annotates the objects with semantically relevant keywords and/or updates associations between the keywords and objects. As the retrieval-feedback-annotation cycle is repeated, the annotation coverage and accuracy of future searches continues to improve.

And from the summary: The user interface allows the user to identify multimedia objects that are more relevant to the query, as well as objects that are less or not relevant. The system monitors the user feedback using a combination of feature-based relevance feedback and semantic-based relevance feedback...During the retrieval-feedback-annotation cycle, the system adjusts the weights according to the user feedback, thereby strengthening associations between keywords and objects identified as more relevant and weakening the associations between keywords and objects identified as less relevant. If the association becomes sufficiently weak, the system removes the keyword from the multimedia object. Accordingly, the semi-automatic annotation process captures the efficiency of automatic annotation and the accuracy of manual annotation. As the retrieval-feedback-annotation cycle is repeated, both annotation coverage and annotation quality of the object database is improved.

For more on Content-Based Image Retrieval, this post might be of interest.

Postscript: Microsoft tries classifieds from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (spotted via Greg Linden) has nice details on the project with comments from Microsoft.

Posted by Gary Price at 5:11 PM | Permalink

Microsoft's "Google Base" is Code Named Fremont & MS Receives Patent For Semi-Auto Annotation of Multimedia Objects

Microsoft Corp. said it is readying an online marketplace, code-named Fremont, which is apparently in response to a similar feature that rival Google Inc. introduced a few weeks ago.

And while we're reporting on news from Redmond...

For more on Content-Based Image Retrieval, this post might be of interest.

Postscript: Microsoft tries classifieds from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (spotted via Greg Linden) has nice details on the project with comments from Microsoft.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 5:11 PM | Permalink

Microsoft's "Google Base" is Code Named Fremont & MS Receives Patent For Semi-Auto Annotation of Multimedia Objects

Microsoft Corp. said it is readying an online marketplace, code-named Fremont, which is apparently in response to a similar feature that rival Google Inc. introduced a few weeks ago.

And while we're reporting on news from Redmond...

For more on Content-Based Image Retrieval, this post might be of interest.

Postscript: Microsoft tries classifieds from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (spotted via Greg Linden) has nice details on the project with comments from Microsoft.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 5:11 PM | Permalink

Microsoft's "Google Base" is Code Named Fremont & MS Receives Patent For Semi-Auto Annotation of Multimedia Objects

Microsoft Corp. said it is readying an online marketplace, code-named Fremont, which is apparently in response to a similar feature that rival Google Inc. introduced a few weeks ago.

And while we're reporting on news from Redmond...

For more on Content-Based Image Retrieval, this post might be of interest.

Postscript: Microsoft tries classifieds from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (spotted via Greg Linden) has nice details on the project with comments from Microsoft.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 5:11 PM | Permalink

November 12, 2005

Your Life, Your Database: MyLifeBits Developer Gordon Bell Profiled in New Article

Total Recall, an article in the November issue of IEEE's Spectrum magazine offers a five page profile of Gordon Bell and his MyLifeBits project at Microsoft Research.

His project, MyLifeBits, is the digital distillation of, almost literally, his every waking minute. It started out as an offhand experiment, but today its goal is nothing short of changing the way we use computers, and by extension, the way we live. At its heart, MyLifeBits is a big database on a personal computer, into which go the correspondence, keyboard-based chores, and even the sights and sounds of everyday life. It automatically swallows up and indexes e-mails, keystrokes, recorded phone calls, images, video, and every Web page that graces its user's computer's screen.

Like many articles about MyLifeBits, this one includes a mention of the 1945 Vannevar Bush article, "As We May Think." In fact, the project's page on the MS Research site calls MyLifeBits, the fulfillment of Vannevar Bush's 1945 Memex vision including full-text search, text & audio annotations, and hyperlinks." If you've never read Bush's paper, by all means, do so.

Posted by Gary Price at 10:33 PM | Permalink

Your Life, Your Database: MyLifeBits Developer Gordon Bell Profiled in New Article

Total Recall, an article in the November issue of IEEE's Spectrum magazine offers a five page profile of Gordon Bell and his MyLifeBits project at Microsoft Research.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 10:33 PM | Permalink

Your Life, Your Database: MyLifeBits Developer Gordon Bell Profiled in New Article

Total Recall, an article in the November issue of IEEE's Spectrum magazine offers a five page profile of Gordon Bell and his MyLifeBits project at Microsoft Research.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 10:33 PM | Permalink

Your Life, Your Database: MyLifeBits Developer Gordon Bell Profiled in New Article

Total Recall, an article in the November issue of IEEE's Spectrum magazine offers a five page profile of Gordon Bell and his MyLifeBits project at Microsoft Research.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 10:33 PM | Permalink

April 5, 2005

MSN Chooses WhitePages For Phone Listings

MSN Replaces InfoSpace With WhitePages.com covers MSN dropping InfoSpace as its white pages provider in the US and shifting instead to WhitePages.com. MSN partners by linking out via the Look It Up section in the left-hand navigation of its home page.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 10:51 AM | Permalink | TrackBack

MSN Chooses WhitePages For Phone Listings

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 10:51 AM | Permalink | TrackBack

MSN Chooses WhitePages For Phone Listings

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 10:51 AM | Permalink | TrackBack

MSN Chooses WhitePages For Phone Listings

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 10:51 AM | Permalink | TrackBack

March 7, 2005

Are VoIP Services on the Horizon for Search Providers?

In January, Danny blogged about speculation (at a fever pitch for a few days) about Google launching a VoIP telephone service. Today, Jim Hu at News.com calmly discusses what Google, Yahoo, and MSN are or are not up to in the article: Search giants hear voices.

+ Google has not announced plans to offer VoIP service, and declined to comment for this story.

+ "We are definitely looking at the space closely," Yahoo spokeswoman Terrell Karlsten said. "We're figuring out how to enhance and expand into the voice space by leveraging those properties." Yahoo has already launched a PC-based voice service in the United Kingdom. Microsoft plans to embed voice calling into its enterprise instant-messaging software.

+ AOL plans to launch an Internet phone service this month.

Postscritpt: See also Google window-shops for VoIP.

Posted by Gary Price at 9:06 AM | Permalink | TrackBack

Are VoIP Services on the Horizon for Search Providers?

+ Google has not announced plans to offer VoIP service, and declined to comment for this story.

+ AOL plans to launch an Internet phone service this month.

Postscritpt: See also Google window-shops for VoIP.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 9:06 AM | Permalink | TrackBack

Are VoIP Services on the Horizon for Search Providers?

+ Google has not announced plans to offer VoIP service, and declined to comment for this story.

+ AOL plans to launch an Internet phone service this month.

Postscritpt: See also Google window-shops for VoIP.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 9:06 AM | Permalink | TrackBack

Are VoIP Services on the Horizon for Search Providers?

+ Google has not announced plans to offer VoIP service, and declined to comment for this story.

+ AOL plans to launch an Internet phone service this month.

Postscritpt: See also Google window-shops for VoIP.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 9:06 AM | Permalink | TrackBack

January 11, 2005

Web Search Clustering from Microsoft (and other Clustering Tools)

Yesterday, we blogged about a discovery that allows you to receive MSN Search Beta results via RSS. It will be interesting to see what Bill G. and company does with this feature in the future.

Today, even more MS search news. An excellent post on the SQL Full Text Search blog (thanks John!) alerts us to a few clustering tools, including a demo from Microsoft Research Asia.

+ Microsoft Research Asia (MSRA) Cluster Demo and Toolbar You can either cluster results from MSN, MSN Beta, or MSN Newsbot using a web interface. Browsing inside of a clusters seems to work better with IE compared to when I tried using Firefox. A toolbar from MS Research Asia that offers direct access to the MSRA clustering technology is also available. It's also very easy to toggle the clustering on and off. Techies might find a paper by the MSR Asia team worth a look: Learning To Cluster Web Search Results. The research was presented at a conference last summer.

+ Dowser An app (Windows, Mac, Linux, Unix) that not only clusters results but also locally caches every page viewed in your browser and offers change tracking. I'm looking forward to testing this one.

+ Top Gist An app (download required, Windows only) that allows you to cluster results from several engines including Google.

OK, we've all got plenty to take a look at. I'm looking forward to testing these tools out and reporting back.

Final Comments As web databases grow larger and larger and search habits stay pretty much the same, I believe clustering will become an even more important tool to help the searcher find what they're looking for since we all know that good results can exist after the first 10 (what most people look at). Clustering can also be an excellent knowledge discovery tool that can help you quickly "see" things that would be difficult, if not impossible to quickly piece together looking at one result at a time. In 2004, both Chris and I had positive things to say about Vivisimo's release of Clusty. At the Web 2.0 conference Google demonstrated some of the clustering work their doing.

I was also happy to see that the SQL Full Text Search post includes a link to Vivisimo's excellent paper: Needed: A More Selective Ignorance. It does an excellent job (IMHO) to succinctly explain the importance of clustering.

Ok, that's it. Go forth a cluster!

Posted by Gary Price at 11:58 AM | Permalink | TrackBack

Web Search Clustering from Microsoft (and other Clustering Tools)

Yesterday, we blogged about a discovery that allows you to receive MSN Search Beta results via RSS. It will be interesting to see what Bill G. and company does with this feature in the future.

Today, even more MS search news. An excellent post on the SQL Full Text Search blog (thanks John!) alerts us to a few clustering tools, including a demo from Microsoft Research Asia.

+ Top Gist An app (download required, Windows only) that allows you to cluster results from several engines including Google.

OK, we've all got plenty to take a look at. I'm looking forward to testing these tools out and reporting back.

Final Comments As