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Palo Alto coffee
The results are even better in Google's direction. It's amazing how much better Google is here.
Simplicity wins!
I don't remember the last time I did a local search and had issues.
Of course, I can still remember when having a US Robotics HST was the **** for file transfer. When Fido ruled the world, gateways everywhere.
Now I can't live without my cable modem, always on, always fast (mostly) and still at the same price as an additional POTS line and dial-up ISP.
Yes, I'm an old fart. (Google or Yahoo, that's me in the first position)
Lafayette notary
It even picked the right state, Colorado, which is impressive.
And everything was about notaries for me, I got three maps and all ads were about notaries. Actually, it does seem to be Palo Alto, because after trying several other cities all of them came back with correct maps and ads.
Google is good as it has integrated local (yellow page) info and understands search contextually far better than any other engine.
I think the trick is that google somewhat preparses the query, and feed the splitted query into the local search. Basically, google splits the "Palo Alto notary" into something like "notary near: Palo Alto, CA". If you search "notary" using local.live.com, then enter "Palo Alto, CA" into the address, you will see the great results, too:
http://local.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&ss=y...
In summary, Google does a very little trick, and then offers much better impression. I was wondering why MS, Yahoo, ASK and others are not doing so. It will only take a couple of hrs to make it to work.
I can do it easily, basically, you feed the query into some kind of geocoding service, and trying to identify the parts that corresponds to a city or area name, then reform the query. Rather then feeding to the general search, send the query to the specialized local search.
Oh well, Google is much thoughtful than others
I was a Google fan for quite some time and they do have the largest market share right now. However, compared to the development in semantic and real language search I have been exposed to recently, Google search is really a dinosaur.
It will be difficult (well not really) for some of these to catch up in terms of indexed pages and etc. Other engines in Beta or still behind doors in Silicon Valley have some of the greatest minds on the planet behind them. The also have some of the heaviest hitting investors too.
I just interviewed Dr. Berkan CEO of hakia search (not finished yet). he walked me through what they are doing and we talked about 2nd tier engines in collaboration with each other. You simply have to think of Google as a 6 or 7 year old TV, when compared to these developments.
Don't take my word for it, do some research.
Not trying to start a ruckus, just want to help.
Phil Butler
Maybe they noted all the hits. :)
1. an implementation that has good enough performance (remember, it affects their main search, where the bulk of their traffic is)
2. good enough results. matches that aren't made are not as bad as false positives.
He claims he has a better search engine than Google too.
He just might have it. But Google is both algorithms and datacenter execution.
It might be easy to come up with better algorithms (I have yet to see more than just a prototype that works on a specific set of searches well) but it isn't going to be easy to build out the datacenters that Google has a huge lead in.
Google can always reverse engineer a new set of algorithms.
A new company can't easily reverse engineer the brand that Google has, nor can it build datacenters around the world without becoming a hugely profitable business first.
Translation: if you're gonna beat the big three at this game, you've gotta bring something to the table that's so remarkable (and so well patented) that you'll probably get bought right away anyway.
Dr. Berkan told me that he would make his technology open source in the final analysis any way. I need to wrap my mind around the system better before I can authoritatively comment. I am an engineer and have some limited grasp so far. But fuzzy logic and AI are just a little out of my scope of operation.
Algorithms by themselves can always be manipulated and can only return as diverse set of data sets to choose from. Humans (and correctly designed semantics) return much more precise data sets.
The way Dr. Berkan explained it to me like this:
Take a sentence with 10 words in it. A mathematical analysis of those 10 words would result in BILLIONS of permutations. A person would organize and break down those same 10 words into perhaps 6 or 7 permutations.
By using semantics in conjunction with a special algorithmic program, semantic searches will return something in between these parameters.
Sorry, to run so long :) Any way, what they are bringing to the table is as you described and they are not interested in short term windfalls. I got the feeling that they are in it for the long haul. The people behind them have a different cause I think.
Just what I know so far, thanks for the great venue Robert! When I get some technical data I will shoot it to you.
Sincerely, Phil Butler
"Compaq DL380 R02 spec"
The result is non-existent with the word SPEC in there. Without it, I get at least some references, but Google doesn't yet have it down to the basics, like Mac OSX Tiger (and beyond) already do for OS's. I wonder what it'll take to have the entire web cross-reference already down on the client (probably a thicker search-client than most would care for. I, for one, wouldn't mind if I got "Spotlight" functionality for the entire web on my fingertips.) Firefox (yes, the browser) is already starting to show _some_ intelligence in that direction by the "recommended search terms" that pop up when you start typing something into the built-in search bar. Perhaps the best of worlds scenario will arise by the conjunction of smart developments in different arenas.
Abbas Zaidi
www.GymkhanaClub.us/zeo
If you're not sure of the EXACT name, using an EXACT phrase search is silly.
A search for:
Compaq DL380 R02 spec
or
“Compaq ProLiant DL380 R02” spec
returns hits.
If you do a search for Palo Alto Bimbos, google will probably lead you to one. In a year or two hakia will be able to categorize the bimbos by height and weight, location and eating habits. The biggest plus will be having the prostitute ads in the "sponsored links" bar on the right :)
Like I said, I will attempt to reach Dr. Berkan so that I might be able to show you guys (as he did for me) how rather excellent this technology is. Google has many reasons fro being #1. I am not against them, heck if they invented better technology I would be all out for them.
Tnanks ....Phli
Top local listings for notary near Aberdeen, NJ Is this useful? (note: when I clicked on this link ("Top local listing") I received a map with 10 notaries within 10 miles).
Scheeler's Postmark(410) 273-0048939 Beards Hill Rd # I, Aberdeen
Post Mark Incorporated(410) 273-0491939 Beards Hill Rd, Aberdeen
Delivery Unlimited(410) 734-4773Churchville
Especially if you have a great screen.
About local search, you are supposed to type subject location not location subject. Google is the only one who is reversing the query it seems like.
Another thing no one has noticed is if you type in a city in Google Maps, it gets stored as a cookie, which increases the relevancy of that city when you zoom out. The smaller city now appears even when you have a larger city right next to it that does not now appear. That's a spit finish shine--like the one Robert points out--that wins loyalty!
Google is doing a heck of a lot right, including building brand loyalty by going to bat for consumers consitantly and consistantly, but I'm tired of sensationalism and jaded spin on tech stories.
What happened to when we could sit back and be excited about technology and call 'em like we see them? I'm sure I could find a fluke in Google's tech that was better polished on the live.com side. (I did find one major glitch on Google Maps where spam was leaking into the results and my company had Google make some corrections to it's top results)
The fact is I use Google maps more than Live simply because it usually loads faster depending on where I am connecting in the US, but they (Live) have a much nicer technology in place, and Google has been playing catch up for quite some time in this area. Scoble, you're a wish washy dude sometimes man, I can see you wearing a Zune in two years. :)j.k. (about the Zune)
J
What sense does that make?
*Sigh*
I work for germany's greatest online provider and the members talk about google, if they're talking about the internet
it's amazing
joern
I'm curious why you didn't use a notary locator service likes ours and many others out there? Just an observation...
thx
Please edit my last comment with the URL for this one. When I do blog comments I always copy my comments to the clipboard in case something goes wrong when I submit. Ugh.. Didn't know I screwed that last comment up. Sorry for the trouble!