Google Not Usable … Pshaw … Seriously?

January 2nd, 2008 by Charles S. Knight
Posted in Global, Guest Authors, News | 3 Comments »

Well, yes … for the South Koreans, anyway.

From an article in the Financial Times FT.com:

“I love Naver because everything I need is conveniently shown on the first page,” says Hwang Ji-sun, a 22-year-old college student in Seoul. “I get everything from news, shopping advice, the latest entertainment gossip, interesting pictures and hot search words. On Google you see nothing but a search box.”

Naver is to South Korea, as Google is to the Western World: the place where almost all internet searching starts. There is, however, a clear difference between the two companies on how they view their users’ needs. Naver.com is a home page to users, with a lot of “interesting” content. Google.com is for search, and search alone.

Which prompts me to wonder … if this interface …

… can essentially be reduced to this …

is the page “www.google.com” even needed anymore? Is there a point to it?

I think the answer is clearly no. And as added proof, the last time I went to www.google.com – aside from going there to take a screen shot for this blog post – was easily months ago.

This then leads to another question: Why not make iGoogle, for example, be what appears when you navigate to “www.google.com? Is there any value to users leaving it as it is, with just a search box and some links?

Methinks not.

Naver Google Again



As always, thanks for listening.
~alex @  Usable Markets

Excerpts from Information Week:

Google Will Continue To Dominate Search Market In 2008, Analysts Say

By W. David Gardner

Google entered 2008 pretty much as it entered 2007, with a dominating lead over its search engine competitors — except in one country.

While analysts and search engine market share compilers differ on Google’s 2008 outlook, they all agree that the search engine leader will remain far ahead of the search engine pack. However, Google hasn’t been able to do much more than dent the South Korean search market, where Naver dominates the market by a higher percentage than Google dominates in the United States.

(In Korea), Google was recently ranked at less than 2% of the market while homegrown search engine Naver has more than 75%. Another Korean company, Daum.net, is ranked second with about 10% market share, according to recent figures.

Arabic Search Engine Tayait : New features!

January 2nd, 2008 by Charles S. Knight
Posted in Global | No Comments »


Tayait has just launched a new interface offering new features and designs that they believe have never before been seen in the realm of Arabic Search Engines!


Books inside of a library that no one enters because the building is dilapidated and falling apart – is knowledge wasted.  We at tayait.com believe that there should be no barriers whatsoever in the pursuit of information – and right now the internet is the biggest library in the world.  That’s why we focus our energy not only on developing our Arabic search engine in an attempt to provide the most relevant results to our users – but also to provide these results in an environment that is as easy and comfortable to use as possible.  That is why after three months of launching our search engine in beta and intensely analyzing how users interact with it – we now come to you going live with a completely new interface – optimized for maximum usability – giving you not only access to the library of the world – but making it an experience worth enjoying.

So what exactly are we offering you with our new and improved version?
*Completely new, fresh, and easy to use user interface
*Completely new search refine options – presenting you with the best possible options to continue your search
*Advanced Search!  Looking for something very specific?  Let us find it for you.
*Optimized for speed – so you get your results, hopefully before you even want them.
*Now working flawlessly with IE 6, IE 7, and Firefox!

But this isn’t all that we have been working on – keep visiting back over the coming weeks and you’ll see new features coming up everywhere! (Such as an English version)

Tayait offers their users the ability to search in the following language modes:
Morphological Search: Results include all inflictions of the keyword.
Expanded Search:  Results include all derivatives of the keyword.
Synonyms (Thesaurus):  Return all synonyms and dialectical variants.
Cross Language:  The ability to input English words to search through Arabic Documents
Phrase:  The ability to link multiple keywords more loosely or tightly.
 
At the same time it allows users to “refine” their searches – based on automatically generated related keywords – allowing users to drill down as deep into the Arabic internet as they like.

With an extensive database of Arabic websites, coupled with superior NLP software, and constantly releasing new and improved features – we believe that we can revolutionize the way that Arabic internet users search and browse the internet today.

New Search Engine www.WhatsOpen.com

January 2nd, 2008 by Charles S. Knight
Posted in Reviews | No Comments »

WhatsOpen is a social search engine which has rolled out its public beta today. Users on a first come, first serve basis can signup to use the service on the web, iPhone, or Google Android equipped phones. By using proprietary algorithms and allowing users to contribute to the site by inputting their favorite locations, WhatsOpen now has a database to over 50 Million global listings,  over 1 Million of which can be found live on the California beta now.

Using algorithms for checks and balances, users can add, edit, upload, mash, share, invite, mob, and swarm to favorite locations and hot spots. An entire social platform, which currently powers the private alpha version, is being brought to the public beta in the first part of 2008.

Users from all states in the US, as well as Europe and China, can also sign up to be enrolled in the private alpha system. All locations are scheduled to reach public beta in the first part of 2008.

“What we are developing, the majority of which remains in the private alpha, and where we are going with the website is new territory. Sure, there are many services that give people local data, some of which have been around for a decade. These existing websites are really going to help us get to where we are going. We don’t see the existing websites as competition, we see them all as very beneficial to our long term vision.” said Jason Aaron, founder of the project.

The Apple iPhone and Google Android Applications are in private alpha and will begin to be rolled out to the public in public beta over the next 60 days. “We will be rolling out these apps to the public based on a first come, first serve basis through the email sign up at our website.” said Li Qin Su, one of the lead mobile developers on the project in China.

Social networking apps built for Facebook’s F8, Google’s Open Social, and other open platforms will tie much of this together and be available in the US, Brazil, Europe, and China in the first part of 2008.

“We are really excited to bring all of these developments to the public in 2008 and it’s important to remember that this is a true beta system which we are continually working on improving.” said Scarlett Quinn, lead web programmer on the project in California.

France’s Orange Alt: Le Moteur (The Engine)

January 2nd, 2008 by Charles S. Knight
Posted in Global | No Comments »


Orange has just launched a new Alternative Search Engine.


The GUI is somewhat different compared to what we are used to seeing, but it is just a question of look & feel. The technology behind it seems to be www.voila.fr.

Here are some features:
    * One billion documents indexed,
    * 50 new technological components have been added which
      increase general performance (more relevant summaries, responses
      linked to news, etc),
    * Speed of search improved: 10 times more rapid than previously,
    * New functions improving usability like display of the results
      with an icon or intuitive keywords (tags?),
    * Some content displayed for some specific keywords. For example,
      if you type “TV” you will get the evening TV program/grid,
    * Presence of a tool bar that seems to have enhanced functions
      (did not see it during the test): automatic updating, permanent
      (search?) form and login possibility for Orange’s customers.
    * Content: websites with no distinction, images, news, directory
      search (like yellow pages), shopping, hotels, travel, etc.


In my opinion there is nothing really new or innovative here. I  have the feeling that Orange launched this search engine in order to capture the users within its own web ecosystem. Every action is done so that
the user gets trapped within Orange’s world. There is a mix of Google Ads and own advertising.

Orange is the telco distribution Apple’s iPhone in France. They have a huge marketing capacity. I guess “Lemoteur” (”the engine”) can rapidly rank within the three to five search engines used in France.

Orange’s Lemoteur is an avatar of the incumbent Voila.fr search engine. “Voilà” was one of the top search systems in the 2001’s in France, before the Odramatic upcoming of GOOG. Now it’s the 4th or 5th. It used to be NOT alternative at that time… But, now, every search that is not Google, Yahoo or MSN (>95% market share here) can be considered as an “alt”.

My opinion is that Lemoteur deserves to be cited in ASE, especially because of it’s weird and courageous black interface, which I admit is rather a cosmetic feature. This opens a perspective to new heterodoxal look & feel in the search industry that are different than the Google-like puristic interfaces you often mention in your posts.

Cheers,
Henrick
BlogDimension
 


 
 

UK Job Search Engine Workhound gets £100,000

January 2nd, 2008 by Charles S. Knight
Posted in News | No Comments »

Workhound, the UK’s largest online job site, has announced the completion of its initial round of funding. The angel round of £100k was led by private investors to fund product and market development. The Workhound site launched in the 3rd quarter of 2007 and now lists more than 700,000 recruitment posts — making it the largest online job source in the UK. The company is led by Howard Lee, former Head of Internet Operations for TSL Education Ltd., Britain’s highest trafficked specialist employment site and previously a division of News International Ltd.

The core Workhound product is based on the full integration of vertical search with open platforms that self-optimize based upon user demands. This structure allows for the development of custom solutions that provide search data based on format, place and specifications of its users. Workhound is building a robust business around this platform, helping job seekers to improve and manage their employment searches.

“Search marketing in the UK represents 57% of all online advertising, and recruitment advertising is the single largest category, capturing 24% of all search marketing spend,” said Lee. “This makes recruitment the single best opportunity for online advertising driven companies. With over 1,300 UK sites — and no public site with more than 5% market share — this category is ripe for aggregation.”