Archive: March, 2006

On Friday March 18, US District Judge James Ware denied the US government access to Google’s private search records. The lesser of two evils prevails…for now anyway. This is good news.

If you’re out of the loop on this issue, here is some background info: late last year the US Justice Department subpoenaed the major search engines to hand over thousands of private search records. The government’s ‘reason’ had to do with protecting children online. Google was the only engine that refused the government’s demands, stating it was a major invasion of user privacy. They were right.

The US government has been slowly closing the gap on its people’s freedoms. From a conspiracy point of view, there are accusations of alleged phone tapings, innocent people being held for government questioning, and citizens missing because they supposedly had some sort of conflict with the government. Yes, perhaps this is blown way out of proportion. But there is the very real Patriot Act, which gives the government the right to search your US residence without question. Then there’s Bush’s newly proposed law under the Patriot Act, which, if passed, will make protesting at major events, or protesting near the President, illegal. Violators will be jailed as “disruptors.” How about the new Internet “annoy” law, which will see Internet users fined or jailed for harassing or annoying others while using monikers? CNET sums this law up with:

It’s always nice to see new competitors rise up and try to sneak a piece of the market pie, no matter how insignificant the initial slice may seem. In a world where four search engines currently dominate, with one holding a significant share above the rest, there is always a chance that an unseen newcomer will sneak in thru the shadows, and leap up to topple one of the giants when they least expect it…

Ok that’s a little dramatic. But it’s good to hear about new search engines springing up in this Google dominated world.

Accoona (name derived from the Swahili phrase Hakuna Matata, which means “don’t worry be happy”) is one of the latest engines to announce its presence in the search engine market. Although it was founded in 2004, Accoona has been refining itself over the last year. The engine officially introduced its enhanced AI technologies on March 8th, 2006.

Accoona at a Glance:
Accoona offers a clean and simple interface with plenty of white space, a design obviously borrowed from Google. That’s a good start, since this clutter free model is a proven winner amongst users. There are three ways to search Accoona. These fall under News, Business or Web. From the main page you can select to sort by relevance or date.

I had a question or two come in about my last post, and the coffee break drop off. Somebody said – is it like “Google’s Sandbox” – you know it’s there, but show me how to prove it. So I’ve pulled out a chart showing the traffic. This is page loads with each spike representing 5 minute increments. It represents data from 100+ sites, and up to 11,000 page requests / second. Not insignificant.

I still can’t quite figure out the drop off, but it’s been obvious over the last few days.

BTW – 0 is midnight, PST, 12 is Noon, PST

Kind of looks like a nice mountain to climb or ski on :-)

Thoughts / ideas?

Richard

Baidu , China’s largest search engine, and cell phone company Nokia, are teaming up to provide mobile search for Chinese markets. The collaboration between the two companies will see a Baidu search button implemented on some Nokia wireless devices, targeted at mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

“We have chosen to collaborate with the leading Chinese language search provider to connect our Chinese users to information and to each other with the touch of a button,” said Dan Wong, vice president of Multimedia Sales and Channels at Nokia, China. “We are confident that this cooperation will strengthen both Nokia and Baidu’s position as leaders in mobile search in China.”

Specific Nokia phones will be fitted with a Baidu search button, giving mobile users access to Baidu’s Web Search, News Search, Image Search and Post Bar. No specific dates have been given as to when the new phones will be released. However, mainland China users can download a pilot application at http://www.nokia.com/mobilesearch.