Bing launches improved Auto-suggest attached to your personal search history

Posted by Finnian Durkan Categories: Internet, Microsoft

If there is one thing that I hate, it is when technology inconveniences me more than it helps.  We’ve all been there: it’s late, there’s a movie quote or an actor that you can’t get out of your head—you want, nay, NEED to solve this riddle before your body will allow you some restful shut-eye.  What do you do?  You roll over in your bed/futon/inflatable mattress and flip open your ever-present and never shutdown laptop and open a link to your favorite search engine.  As you mindlessly begin to type your parameters, in my case the phrase ‘that hairy guy that dated Carla on Cheers’ (Nick, played by Dan Hedeya incidentally) is my search of choice tonight.  No sooner have you gotten the letters ‘T-H-A..’ into the searchbox then a menu opens up listing more unrelated ‘tha’ phrases than a Wu-Tang song.  After briefly looking at a list of ‘Thai Restaurants’ and ‘Thankless Jobs’ (*ahem*) you quickly close the menu and type out your search terms in their entirety.  Annoying, isn’t it?

Well, Bing has taken that first step to making your oh-so-difficult web-searching easier by integrating your query history into their auto-suggest feature.  Now when you begin to type your search in Bing your previous search queries will be taken into account when serving up auto-suggest keywords.  Not only that, but they will appear in the same color (purple) that your web-browser uses to display already-visited links thus helping to differentiate them from non query-based auto-suggestions.  In my case this means that when I type in ‘T-H-A’ like I previously mentioned about 30 purple-hued links to ‘That so-and-so from such-and-such-movie’ will appear since I am forever referencing pop culture but am blessed with the memory recall of a 2 month-old. At least now I’ll be able to save myself a few keystrokes before Bing directs me to IMDB.  Bing has also allowed this feature to be turned off completely or to be managed with their ‘Manage History’ option if you are paranoid that your boss is going to search your work computer’s internet history and wonder why you keep searching ‘jobs that don’t suck like the one that i have now’.  Either way, it’s progress.

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Aibelive AITALK With iPod Voice Command

Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Misc. Tech, Portable Audio / Video

Aibelive’s portable AITALK can control your iPod with only voice commands. Search for albums, singles and artists and your player will begin immediately after your final selection. With Speaker Independent technology, there is no training required, it supports several languages and music preview when in search mode, and claims up to 90% accuracy. The gadget can also aid those who are driving and the disabled. When released, the AITALK should retail for about $85.00.

Read More | Aiblelive via Aving

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The Internet’s Riskiest Search Terms

Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Google, Internet

Using sources such as Google Zeitgeist and Yahoo 2008 Year in Review, McAfee analyzed search terms to come up with list of the 10 riskiest. Shane Keats and team analyzed over 2,600 items and say that hackers look for “crowds” at sites like MySpace or users who are about to take an online action such as downloading an MP3.

1. Word Unscrambler
2. Lyrics
3. MySpace
4. Free Music Downloads
5. Phelps, Weber-Gale, Jones and Lezak Wins 4x 100m Relay
6. Free Music
7. Game Cheats
8. Printable Fill in Puzzles
9. Free Ringtones
10. Solitaire

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Microsoft Launches Bing Search

Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Internet, Microsoft

Microsoft has launched Bing, a search engine tested under the code name Kumo, that replaces Live Search. Bing will supposedly make purchasing online easier, will be handier for finding medical information, and should facilitate travel arrangements. Besides searching, the engine retrieves and processes data, monitors history and displays it, and should be easier to read. Frankly, we were never all that fond of Microsoft Live Search so anything would be an improvement.

Read More | Bing via Daily Tech

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Wolfram/Alpha Computational Knowledge Engine

Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Internet

After reading about Wolfram/Alpha, we couldn’t wait to try it out, especially since it came up with the same meaning of life as we have. Created by Stephen Wolfram over the past 20 years, you enter a calculation or question and with the help of built-in algorithms and data, you will get an answer. So far the “computational knowledge engine” has over 10 trillion pieces of data, 50,000 plus types of algorithms and models and linguistic capabilities for over a thousand domains.

Read More | Wolfram/Alpha via Neatorama

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Tellme Mobile Voice Service

Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Cell Phones, GPS, Microsoft

When you get tired of answering “What are you doing now?” try Tellme. A subsidiary of Microsoft, the mobile voice service allows users to press a button and say what they want. Due out this fall in Windows Mobile equipped phones, say “text” and a box opens, say “call” and a name and the contact list retrieves it, or search by words like, “pizza in Seattle” or “movie matinees.” By the way, it will only work with GPS-enabled phones and rates may be applied.

Read More | Tellme

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Google Similar Images and News Timeline Searches

Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Google, Internet

Google has two new programs in the works. Similar Images uses pictures for searching instead of text. As an example, click on the word “Paris” and you get Ms. Hilton, the Eiffel Tower and a photo of an old church. You then click to search further. Google News Timeline helps localize your search through a chronological history of articles, videos and images that have been arranged by a year, month, week or single date. Search through mags, newspapers, blogs or Wikipedia.

Read More | BBC

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Microsoft to Discontinue Encarta

Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Corporate News, Internet, Microsoft, Software

Those of us who remember the happiness of finding Encarta included in our early PC purchase are somewhat saddened by the announcement that it will soon no longer be available. The software will cease after June and most sites will shut down by October 2009. Japan will cut theirs off in December. Microsoft commented, “People today seek and consume information in considerably different ways than in years past.”

We know they mean Wikipedia, yet the concept of one disc replacing an entire set of encyclopedias was certainly high tech at the time. And the better images used by Encarta will definitely be missed.

Read More | MSN

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Google My Location and Voice Now on Blackberry

Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Cell Phones, Google, Handhelds

Blackberry users can now search with Google Mobile by My Location and Voice. Tell it you want a hamburger and it will tell you where the closest restaurants are. It will store your location for faster and more relevant results. The application gives quick access to local and Internet news and images. You can test run it on your Blackberry by going to Google. The app will work with Blackberrys running on O/S 4.1+ and with Search by voice on O/S 4.2 and above, and they are working on a version for the Storm.

Read More | Google Mobile Blog

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ebook Price Searches Availability, Best Price

Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories:

Just bought an e-book but not sure where you can get the best deal for content? ebook price.info allows you to search for a book by author, title or ISBN. It will then display results from sites such as ebooks.com, Amazon and ereadable. You can also find what is available by format and the site will suggest other titles by the same author. Some books even feature a synopsis. The site is really simple to use and worth checking out before you purchase.

Read More | ebook Price

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