Grayboxx, the local search engine, today announced that the company’s unique “neighbor-recommended” local search engine has concluded its national trial phase and is now available across the United States. Using its PreferenceScore technology, Grayboxx provides more than 185 million automated rankings and recommendations for local businesses in more than 4,000 yellow pages business categories. In addition to implicit neighbor recommendations and updates to the PreferenceScore algorithm, the national release of Grayboxx will allow users to see reviews gathered from third-party sites.

“Grayboxx’s PreferenceScore technology provides a way to easily poll a community’s interest and preference in a local business, anywhere, anytime,” said Bob Chandra, founder of Grayboxx. “Local search services that rely solely upon user-generated reviews do provide useful information, but there is a huge gap between the number of available reviews and the number of local businesses in the United States. Grayboxx’s depth and breadth of automatically generated local business rankings and recommendations reliably fills this gap.”

Source: Grayboxx.com

Usability test results were very positive, with both renters and owners stating that the site is clean, accessible and informative. Respondents showed particularly positive reactions to the frank yet cartoony “Web 2.0” look.

Facility owners who participated as product testers said that StorageFront appears to be a better and less expensive online marketing solution than competing solutions such as storage directories, marketing agencies, and yellow pages (print and online). Vendors who tested the site’s display-advertising system also experienced click-through success, which can be attributed to StorageFront’s sparing placement of ads in two hotspots per web page (left column and footer).

Following February’s launch, StorageFront will continue to progress its offerings in an effort to maximize the renter’s search experience as well as to enhance the storage owner’s visibility online—currently a learning curve for business owners in an industry that has long relied on traditional phone book and billboard advertising. StorageFront enhancements already slated for Q1 2010 include an advanced space-calculation widget that helps renters accurately select a suitable storage unit size and a Spanish-language search engine for the burgeoning Hispanic self storage niche.

StorageFront’s positioning targets two distinct audiences in the self storage industry: residential and commercial consumers who need more space, and owners and managers of U.S. self storage facilities.

For Consumers: A Renter-friendly Search Engine
“The U.S. is one of the most consumer-driven countries in the world, but where to put it all? As Americans, we like our space almost as much as we like our stuff,” mused Marc Smith, StorageFront’s Director of Business Development. “StorageFront is set to shine a new light on the self storage option. As the whole industry evolves from commodity space into specialty service, we’re gearing up accordingly with a premium, precise search experience. Whether the consumer is moving, deploying, or just cleaning house, StorageFront puts mini storage front-and-center.”

Like web-based yellow pages, StorageFront specializes in local-area business search online. However, the company is sharply focused on the self storage industry specifically, enabling it to assemble tools and information that are uniquely relevant to the self storage shopper. For example, because renters most often choose facilities by location (typically within a two- to three-mile radius of home), directory features like geo-relevant results and visual mapping are essential to their nationwide search. Additional renter concerns include safety, accessibility and security, as well as business specialties like climate control and wine storage. StorageFront enables users to narrow their search by amenity.

StorageFront differs from other industry search engines in that it is much more than a database; the website provides depth and accuracy of content throughout, thanks in large part to the company’s proactive sales and service team. Enhancements have been made to refine the relevancy of returned search results and improve the interactivity of maps. As a result, users can search by zip code, with fewer clicks and more flexibility.

What’s more, StorageFront largely levels the playing field between facilities. Whether a storage business is comprised of one facility or a large national chain, the search engine shows everything that fits the renter’s criteria, sorted by proximity. StorageFront currently lists over 40,000 locations—more than three quarters of the U.S. market. The complete storage facility directory can be viewed at http://www.storagefront.com/state-listing.
To reinforce the search engine as a self storage resource, StorageFront has kicked off a growing library of tools, tips and checklists. Well-researched topics range from antique wood furniture storage to RV winterization.

The front end of the website was designed to be extremely approachable and easy-to-use. Months of research revealed that although strong branding may be important to a market-specific search engine, affable feel and usability are essential. Thus StorageFront sidestepped the utilitarian look that is typical of industry directories for a friendlier, renter-centric feel. The site assimilates today’s “standards and best practices” in web design to suit an audience that is largely female, lightly web savvy, and often relocating. Other design considerations included slower connection speeds, consumers with poor eyesight, and conservative commercial audiences.

To ensure that renters search StorageFront first, the company will continue to employ advanced search engine optimization and marketing. Complementary marketing, networking and promotional techniques will further boost exposure. By focusing marketing dollars on the renter more than the owner, StorageFront will draw more qualified shopper traffic to the owner and thus become the industry’s leading search directory and web marketing resource.

For Storage Owners: More Manageable Marketing
“With StorageFront.com, we believe we have set the bar for online marketing in the self storage industry,” said Rich Cray, President of StorageFront. “On the front end, the website appears singly resourceful and inviting to the prospective renter, thanks to our first-rate search, smart tools and helpful reference materials. But on the admin side, the interface is actually a self storage owner’s dream—especially if he/she isn’t well versed in the complexities and costs of online marketing. StorageFront covers the applied web marketing gamut – from informative website layouts to search engine optimization to call tracking and trending – at an extremely competitive price. But most importantly: it generates rentals.”

Source: StorageFront.com

FunnelScope, a unique semantic and social travel search engine,  is making its unique semantic data and semantic approach available for license. The data is optimal for search engines, travel sites, and local search sites. The data is both compelling for driving conversion rates and SEO purposes. FunnelScope’s data is readily available for travel, but can also be customized for companies seeking to use FunnelScope’s approach for verticals other than travel.

FunnelScope aggregates and semantically analyzes hotel reviews from top travel / reviews sites. FunnelScope’ approach is to measure the sentiment of each review for key attributes: service quality, bed comfort quality, pet-friendly, kid-friendly, business, romantic, room quality, room size, gym quality, views, beach access, entertainment access, food quality, and much more. Here is an example of how search engines can aggregate unique data for SEO purposes.

This data is available in several formats:

1) Aggregated reviews for each hotel from top sites where the content is available either in search engine format (with snippet and link to site with review) or full text format.

2) Same as #1 but where each review has semantically scored attributes.

Check out this page to get a sense of how the data in option #2 could be uniquely structured and organized by attribute.

The unique approach FunnelScope takes is outlined in the following diagram. The NLP or Natural Language Processing module is where FunnelScope applies semantic and sentiment analytics.

Currently, the data is only available as an XML file, but FunnelScope is working on API so this data can be available as a web service.

Contact FunnelScope if interested in licensing this data. FunnelScope is also willing to work with clients and apply its approach to other verticals (for example, restaurant reviews, product reviews, etc).

Thanks, Kul!

StyleFeeder is a bookmarking and product search site that recommends new items to shoppers based on what other users with similar tastes have liked. Amazon and Last.fm use similar technology, which is called collaborative filtering.

StyleFeeder is one of a growing number of fashion-oriented new-media sites where users create the content around brands. Others include fashion collage site Polyvore, fashion search engine ShopStyle and bookmarking sites such as Kaboodle.

The site, which was previously working with Hachette, is profitable with fewer than ten full-time employees. It has more than 1 million members and 600,000 unique visitors monthly. It displays more than 14 million products around the Web, and takes a cut of sales whenever a user clicks and buys. It has received more than $3 million in venture backing from firms such as Highland Capital Partners of Boston.

Source: WWDMedia by Cate T. Corcoran

Simply Hired,

Today’s web-savvy job seekers have turned social applications into professional job hunting tools by embracing social networks to expand professional connections, tapping into Twitter for real-time alerts about job openings and leveraging blogs to increase their online presence. Simply Hired’s new features integrate many of these existing tools into the site’s job search results, improving the effectiveness of social applications for job seekers, driving innovation in job search technology forward and further mirroring how candidates find jobs through traditional networking.

Simply Hired’s mashup with LinkedIn is the first in the industry to enable job seekers to discover their connections at the organisations returned in their search results. This new feature is an evolution of the Simply Hired Who Do I Know? tool, which allowed users to connect to LinkedIn from a SimplyHired.co.uk job listing to find out if they had a contact within the organisation. With this latest release, job seekers now have the ability to immediately see whether someone in their network is affiliated with a potential employer. As a user’s network grows, their search results will always reveal the most recent and relevant connections.

“Given the competitive employment landscape, it is imperative now more than ever for job seekers to leverage all possible avenues in pursuit of their dream job,” said Sachin Shah, director of international, Simply Hired. “With hundreds of applicants vying for any one role, a personal or professional connection within an organisation can give a job seeker the crucial advantage. Our new features show job seekers that there is hope; that their network of connections is more powerful than they believe.”

The new “Share” feature enables job seekers to easily share interesting job openings with their friends and followers on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter as well as via email. This feature enables users to help each other locate relevant opportunities. Employers and job boards also benefit from increased visibility and traffic when a job posting goes viral.

“The job search process can be incredibly time consuming, with some job seekers spending the equivalent of a full-time job on their search,” said Francis Larkin, senior product manager, Simply Hired. “Our goal was to help increase the exchange between job seekers’ personal networks and our job search engine to provide a faster, more efficient job search experience.”

In addition to the new social features, Simply Hired has improved the search results interface to provide a simpler, faster and more efficient user experience. The addition of a “Telecommute” job type filter addresses the feedback from many job seekers who prefer to work remotely.

Source: onrec

“PHAROS will move search engines right into the 21st century, providing automatic annotation and full multimedia searching
on audiovisual content whatever its nature and structure.”

Worldwide, the volume of stored information is growing exponentially, and an increasing share is audiovisual content. This content drives the demand for new services, making audiovisual search one of the major challenges for organisations and businesses today. Digital data is the greatest value that many organisations possess, and the ability to use it, rather than just store it, will be one of the most important strategic aspects in the coming decade.

Demo Videos Click Here

This website serves the project PHAROS (Platform for searcHing of Audiovisual Resources across Online Spaces), an Integrated Project co-financed by the European Union under the Information Society Technologies Programme (6th Framework Programme) – Strategic Objective ‘Search Engines for Audiovisual Content’ (2.6.3)

The PHAROS mission is to advance audiovisual search from a point-solution search engine paradigm to an integrated search platform paradigm. This platform will be built on an innovative, open, and distributed architecture that enables consumers, businesses and organisations to unlock the values found in audiovisual content.

The PHAROS search platform will create a new infrastructure for managing and enabling access to information sources of all types, supporting advanced audiovisual processing, content handling, and management that will enhance control, creation, and sharing of multimedia for all users in the value chain. The impact for the specific audiovisual industry will be to strengthen and extend product and service offerings, integrating oustanding technologies and achieving a competitive advantage by integrating solutions addressing the full content management processing chain.

Source: P.H.A.R.O.S.

José Gómez is the founder and developer of Neotake, and it is based in a wonderful place in Costa del Sol named Málaga, Spain.

Don Quijote
Creator: Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
Subject: Spain — Social life and customs — 16th century — Fiction
Knights and knighthood — Spain — Fiction
Picaresque literature
Romances
Language: Spanish
File Format: ePUB
Publisher: Project Gutenberg
Rights: Public domain
Date: publication: 1999-12-01
Date: conversion: 2009-08-21

Source: Neotake.com

Additionally, some wallpapers are tagged as NSFW which means they are not suitable for work/school or in any enviornment which doesn’t allow adult-only materials.

The main rule for this website is to keep the images on a certain level of quality. I mean, I don’t allow any child pornography, desktops, hightly offensive etc. wallpapers on wallbase.net, but if you spot any disturbing images, please report them to Yotoon. Thanks!

Oh, and some of the description is originally from 4scrape (the best wallpaper website of its time). If you have any questions or concerns regarding this service, feel free to use the comments section.

The main person behind all of this is Yotoon! – I designed, managed and coded basically everything you see here (except some parts of the scraper program, which is taken from the old 4scrape’s website).

Have fun!

Modeled on research observations in human perception and cognition, Clio identifies key melodic patterns along with their likely variations. Translation? Clio comprehends music the way trained musicians do and understands what makes every piece of music unique.

Clio reveals how music may be influentially related.

Clio shows the extent to which multiple pieces are influentially (or even historically) related, a process similar to the way human DNA allows scientists to determine precise ancestral relationships between people.

Clio recognizes music in different contexts.

Clio doesn’t depend on hearing the same music in identical (or even similar) settings. Whether a work is performed by a pair of dueling banjos, a symphony orchestra, or on a kazoo, Clio will recognize it and conduct successful analysis within the different performance contexts.

Clio follows the flow of creativity.

The product of extensive research, Clio’s ASMID™ algorithms are capable of analyzing individual instrument layers to capture the flow of creative ideas. This patent pending technology allows Clio to model the elements responsible for musical style, and ultimately discover the specific characteristics of individual composers.

Source: Orpheus Media Research