Yahoo! BOSS’ openness allows it to run on Google App Engine

Vik Singh the project manager of BOSS introduced a simple Q&A engine (link: http://bossy.appspot.com/). The goal is not to provide an accurate platform, but more to demonstrate the efforts Yahoo! invested in opening up the access to its search results. Many bloggers seem to agree that “out-opening” Google is the only viable competitive move. By allowing users to personalize the display of their results, adapting the ergonomics, filtering results or even reinventing the results; Yahoo! offers the users accurate results displayed in the way they want to imagine it (as long as they know Python). The real feat was that Vik Singh only used 25 lines of code to complete his Q&A. The combination of simplicity and openness is one innovative (and only?) way to compete with Google.

Sources:

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/08/04/yahoo-boss-is-so-open
-it-runs-on-googles-app-engine/
http://www.guyrintoul.com/2008/08/04/opening-up-search/
http://vik.singh.googlepages.com/whenqa.htm

A Cuil search engine clone with Yahoo! results

During Cuil’s failed launch, an engine hit the web parodying the over-hyped “Google-killer”. The engine was named Yuil and imitated every detail of Tom Costello’s product, from the design to the display of the results. The only difference was that results were more accurate because they were provided by Yahoo! However the person behind Yuil was none other than Sam Pullara, a Yahoo! executive, his website was exposed to legal complications due to its similarities to the nascent competitor. This engine was again a demonstration of BOSS’s capability to set up platforms rapidly. This clever move allowed Yuil to surf on Cuil’s buzz. Today Yuil is reborn with different colors under the name “4hoursearch”, this name highlights the time it took the executive to code the interface.

Sources:

http://www.javarants.com/2008/08/01/yuil-is-dead-4hoursearch-is-now-online/
http://www.4hoursearch.com/

Google Trends evolves into Google Insights for Search

The leader in search would not let Yahoo! Get all the buzz this week. It decided to release a sleeker version of Google Trends. The new features are not that numerous. Besides the change in design where countries and regions of large countries can now be identified on a map, the innovation lies in the use of categories to filter results. The statistics available are the same Google Trends offered, but displayed in a more visually exiting way. Is Google trying to reach out to advertisers and a larger general audience? The only problem with this product is probably the name, it is too long and harder to remember than most Google Apps. In the end this new version is closer to Google Analytics; webmasters will be able to compare general trends to the evolution of visits on their own websites.

Sources:

http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2008-08-06-n11.html

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Le Google Trends affiche deux courbes, l’une représentant le volume de
recherches effectuées sur le mot clé saisi et l’autre le nombre de news
contenant le mot clé saisi au cours du temps.

L’intérêt de cet outil est de pouvoir comparer le nombre de recherches de plusieurs mots clés, par exemple grippe aviaire et CPE :

On voit que le CPE a remplacé la grippe aviaire …

Autre exemple, qui montre la saisonnalité des recherches (été contre hiver) :

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