News aggregator
Firefox, uTorrent, and PowerPoint hit by Windows DLL bug
A day after Microsoft confirmed a vulnerability in Windows applications that executes malicious code on end-user PCs, the first exploits have been released targeting programs including the Firefox browser, uTorrent BitTorrent client, and Microsoft PowerPoint.…
Afternoon Buzz — August 24, 2010
Whee! Someone at Yahoo Answers likes okra as much as I do. Of course my favorite way is fried, but pickled and roast okra are also excellent.
Germans don’t want Google Street View. This article explores why.
From MIT: “The MIT roots of Google’s new software”.
The state of Montana has launched its first mobile app.
Speaking of Montana, the state also has a new site to assist hunters.
Google has launched a developer’s preview of its Chrome Web Store.
Harvard launched last week an online William James exhibit.
Congrats to iTunes U for topping 300 million downloads. Good afternoon, Internet…
You might also like:Google Now Providing Many More Domain Results
I’ve been hearing rumblings about this from various points on the Internet since last week, but now we have official information from Google. Google announced last week that search results would now show multiple results from the same domain. It used to be that the most results you would get from one domain would be two. Now you’ll get as many as Google thinks are appropriate.
This won’t be for all queries, of course. Google will only roll out the multiple results for queries that seem to indicate an interest in a single domain. For example,
say I was interested in digital cameras on Amazon. I can do the query digital cameras Amazon (note that I don’t have to specify on Amazon or at Amazon or anything like that) and get the following page of results.
There is a sponsored link at the top of the results, and a pointer to shopping options, but aside from a few results at the very bottom of the page everything comes
from Amazon.com.
Now this is going to be very handy if you are in fact looking for results from one place, but I was worried about doing actual company research. Would Google make it difficult to find company-related information that wasn’t on that particular company’s domain?
I did an experiment, searching for Target pharmacy. The first eight of the results were on the Target.com domain, Google’s new feature working as you’d expect.
Then I tweaked the search, adding one word, so the query was now Target pharmacy sucks. (NOTE: This was for an experiment only. I’ve used a Target pharmacy once to buy Sudafed and it was a perfectly acceptable experience.) This time none of the results were from Target, most were from discussions and surprisingly one result was pro-Target (the post was complaining a different pharmacy sucks.) I tried using softer words instead of sucks — bad, problem, and trouble — and only trouble brought me several results from the Target.com domain.
Does Google’s change mean that we’ll never see “two results from a domain” again in search results? Absolutely not. I wondered about that and found results in the old fashion in just a few minutes. I did a search for facebook researchbuzz and found two sets of two results from, well, Facebook and ResearchBuzz.
As a searcher, the lesson I’m going to take away from this change is to avoid using company and domain names in searches unless I really want to slant my results that way. And if I do have to use these names in a search, I’ll counterbalance them with descriptive terms that hopefully keep the results from being limited to one domain. But I don’t think this adjustment is going to radically change the way I do searching.
You might also like:Skeletal scanner would ID terrorists from 50 meters
Scientists are developing an identity verification system that would spot terrorists and pedophiles by scanning their skeletal features and comparing them against a database of stored images.…
Firefox 4 beta gets Sync and <strike>Tab Candy</strike> Tab Panorama
Mozilla has released a fourth Firefox 4 beta, adding in its seasoned bookmark-syncing service, Firefox Sync, and its new tab-sorting interface, originally dubbed Tab Candy and now known as Tab Panorama.…
Yahoo! search Bingified in US and Canada
Yahoo! has completed its transition from an in-house search infrastructure to Microsoft Bing platform in the US and Canada.…
Microsoft ID guru slams 'duplicitous' Apple
Microsoft chief architect of identity Kim Cameron has insisted that the "non-personal information" collected by Apple can be used to personally identify you – despite angry counterarguments from at least one Jobsian fanboi.…
Morning Buzz — August 21, 2010
Do you have a Twitter Tale?
Kodak’s OnFilm Campaign is getting a digital archive: “Beginning in 1988, OnFilm ads were conceived as a way for Kodak to highlight the art of filmmaking through philosophical and inspirational remarks from cinematographers…. Today, the archive goes back to 2005 with plans to eventually include everyone featured in the campaign.”
Yahoo has made a bunch of API changes.
There’s a new tool available to find clinical trials for Alzheimer’s Disease.
New Mexico State newspaper archives to be digitized.
Check out these companies that Presented at Betaspring. I like the idea behind Catapulter.
Esther Dyson looks at the future of Internet search.
There’s a New Google Analytics Management API.
The Nebraska History Museum has put its doll database online (over 800 of ‘em!) Good morning, Internet…
You might also like:Morning Buzz — August 20, 2010
(Cartoon brought to you by Mimi and Eunice. And that’s only the first panel!)
Want to know how transit-friendly your home is? There’s a site for that.
Optimizing compressed video signals for sign language by cell phone. So much cool!
A nice writeup from Search Engine Land about Swingly.
Google employees, a net neutrality petition, and an attempt to get to the bottom of things.
Connie Crosby takes a look at 5 sources for stock video.
SEO By the Sea has some interesting thoughts on how Google is handling searching for “entities”.
Thanks to HS for the heads up, but the news is unpleasant. Movie search engine Speedcine, about which I wrote just over a year ago, has apparently gone defunct. The barest minimum of details here. Good morning, Internet…
You might also like:Morning Buzz — August 17, 2010
The NEA has given the University of New Mexico a grant to digitize New Mexican newspapers dating between 1860 and 1922.
Scientists are going to make a 3-D map of the Titanic site.
New archives coming from the Harvard Square Business Association.
Korean genealogy gets a boost and some new archives.
South Auckland has a new online photo archive.
Slideshare has just announced new pro accounts.
“ICRC Launches Online Database of Customary International Humanitarian Law”.
ebrary has launched a free collection of ebooks on the subject of cyberbullying.
NARA has a new feature, “NARA Coast to Coast,” and kicks it off with Native American records across the country. Good morning, Internet…
You might also like:
