currybetdotnet Search archive

I've got a hunch about 'Hunch' people
You can tell we are going through a mini-revolution in search, because people aren't just launching search engines that aren't Google, they are launching things like 'computational engines' and 'decision engines'. The latter, Hunch, only appeared in the last couple of days. What I really found engaging about it is that as soon as you visit it entices you into playing a game. It is a brilliant way of building up a user profile, and much, much, much more fun...

Read the full post - Published June 16, 2009 in Search, Web - 1 comment so far

A Google-eye view of the European Elections
A lot of people do their primary research these days using Google as their only gateway to the Internet, and I wondered what they would be finding if they were looking for information on the parties standing for Thursday's European Elections in London. The mainstream parties All of the mainstream party listings in Google are pretty similar. The initial homepage metadata in all cases stresses the name of the party leader. Who says personality politics is dead? The second...

Read the full post - Published June 2, 2009 in Europe, Google, Politics, Search - 3 comments so far

The Guardian Open Platform at Endeca's e-Business Forum
I've been posting this week about my visit to Endeca's office in Richmond for the "Endeca e-Business Forum". I went because Endeca were one of the launch partners of The Guardian's Open Platform API, and they power our internal site search engine. The Head of The Guardian's Developer Network, Matt McAlister, was giving the final presentation of the day - a case study about the Open Platform. The Open Platform API The Open Platform API Explorer uses the Endeca engine...

Read the full post - Published May 7, 2009 in Events, Search, The Guardian - No comments yet

Carzone.ie and Euroffice at the Endeca e-Business Forum
Yesterday I posted some of my notes from a trip to Endeca's Richmond office to attend the "Endeca e-Business Forum". They covered Ashley Freidlein's keynote talk about "Beautiful Basics". Today I wanted to look at some of my other notes from the event. Most of the presentations had a dual format, with a presenter from Endeca demonstrating some of the features of the platform, followed by a customer case study of how they had implemented them. It is always intriguing...

Read the full post - Published May 6, 2009 in Events, Search, Usability - No comments yet

Web search at the BBC: Extras
Part of the reason for publishing my recent history of the BBC's web search service was because I had unzipped a load of old files on my PC, and discovered the original usability reports. As well as the articles on currybetdotnet, I've also made some material available elsewhere on the net. Presentation On SlideShare you can find a couple of examples of the typical sort of search related presentation I used to give within the BBC in 2003. "BBCi...

Read the full post - Published April 13, 2009 in BBC, Flickr, Search, Web - No comments yet

Web search at the BBC: Part 9 - The end is the beginning is the end
I've been writing a series of posts looking at my memories of the development of the BBC's now discontinued web search service. By 2004, I'd moved on to other things within the BBC. The BBC homepage was re-designed again, this time to reflect another re-brand, from BBCi to BBC.co.uk. At the same time the search box was changed from defaulting to web search to defaulting to site search, with the marketing-driven label: "Explore more than 2 million amazing BBC...

Read the full post - Published April 7, 2009 in BBC, Media, Search, Web - No comments yet

Web search at the BBC: Part 8 - Editions of you
I've put together a series of posts looking at how the BBC developed their web search service. During 2002 and 2003 it was a strategic priority for the BBC New Media department, but earlier this year it was shut down. Usability testing at Serco Post-launch, in August 2002, Vincent Helyar & Kate Taylor at Serco produced another user testing report for the BBC about search. Some of their key findings were: The uncluttered layout of results pages was popular...

Read the full post - Published April 6, 2009 in BBC, Media, Search, Web - No comments yet

Web search at the BBC: Part 7 - Shake and crawl
I have been writing a series of posts looking at what I remember of the development of the BBC's web search service, which was recently closed. The service was not always well received internally, and it was certainly unpopular in some quarters outside of the BBC. During the time that the BBC offered web search it used four different technology partners. The initial contract was with Google, and they were replaced as search provider by Inktomi. Inktomi were subsequently...

Read the full post - Published April 3, 2009 in BBC, Media, Search, Web - No comments yet

Web search at the BBC: Part 6 - TV on the radio
Over the last week or so I've been writing up my recollections of the BBC's web search, which was launched in the early part of this decade. In January, having survived both a 2004 DCMS and a 2008 BBC Trust review, Seetha Kumar announced that it was finally being removed from BBC Online. Today I want to look at how the BBC marketed the ability to search the web from bbc.co.uk. Television marketing The web search service initially had...

Read the full post - Published April 2, 2009 in BBC, Media, Search, Web - No comments yet

Web search at the BBC: Part 5 - The path of least resistance
I've been writing up my recollections of the development, rise and fall of the web search provided by the BBC site. I worked on it in the earlier part of this decade, but in January this year the BBC finally shut the service down. It had never been popular internally. Between 2002 and 2004 the BBCi homepage had web search as one of the main features above the fold. Having the external search service up-front-and-centre in that way was...

Read the full post - Published March 31, 2009 in BBC, Media, Search, Web - No comments yet

Web search at the BBC: Part 4 - Glass onion

Published March 30, 2009 in BBC, Media, Search, Web - 1 comment so far 

Web search at the BBC: Part 3 - Centerfield

Published March 27, 2009 in BBC, Media, Search, Web - No comments yet 

Web search at the BBC: Part 2 - Over the horizon radar

Published March 26, 2009 in BBC, Media, Search, Web - 1 comment so far 

Web search at the BBC: Part 1 - The beginning is the end is the beginning

Published March 25, 2009 in Articles, BBC, Media, Search, Web - 3 comments so far 

Professor Karen Spärk Jones - 'Ada Lovelace Day' blog post

Published March 24, 2009 in Search - No comments yet 

Searching in vain for Amazon's Kindle in the UK

Published March 5, 2009 in Search, Web - No comments yet 

At least Daily Express readers are still searching for Madeleine McCann

Published February 15, 2009 in Daily Express, Media, Newspapers, Search - 4 comments so far 

Google thinks Google may harm your computer

Published January 31, 2009 in Google, Search - 1 comment so far 

Is 'Search online for "Act on CO2"' costing the taxpayer unnecessary pay-per-click money?

Published January 26, 2009 in Google, Microsoft, Politics, Search, Web, Yahoo - 2 comments so far 

'Nofollow' and Twitter's crisis of trust

Published January 13, 2009 in Google, Search, Web - 4 comments so far 

Local search: Seeing the UK's regional press through the eyes of Google

Published January 11, 2009 in Google, Newspapers, Regional press, Search - No comments yet 

Local search: Using site search in regional press websites - Part 4

Published January 10, 2009 in Newspapers, Regional press, Search - 1 comment so far 

Local search: Using site search in regional press websites - Part 3

Published January 9, 2009 in Newspapers, Regional press, Search - No comments yet 

Local search: Using site search in regional press websites - Part 1

Published January 7, 2009 in Articles, Newspapers, Regional press, Search - No comments yet 

Chipwrapper now available with time-slices

Published December 14, 2008 in Chipwrapper, Google, Newspapers, Search - No comments yet 

Thoughts, notes and quotes from the Online Information 2008 Seminars: Part 3

Published December 12, 2008 in Events, Search - No comments yet 

Reactions to my post on the Mumbai terrorist attack search engine response

Published December 4, 2008 in Google, Search - 3 comments so far 

Mumbai terrorist attacks show that search engines still can't get breaking news right

Published November 26, 2008 in Google, Microsoft, Popular, Search, Yahoo - 4 comments so far 

Taking the 'Ooh' out of Google: Getting site search right - Part 12

Published November 21, 2008 in IA Summit, Search - No comments yet 

Taking the 'Ooh' out of Google: Getting site search right - Part 11

Published November 20, 2008 in IA Summit, Search - 1 comment so far 

Taking the 'Ooh' out of Google: Getting site search right - Part 10

Published November 18, 2008 in IA Summit, Search - No comments yet 

8 Search APIs for Hack Days

Published November 14, 2008 in Google, Search, The Guardian, Yahoo - 2 comments so far 

Taking the 'Ooh' out of Google: Getting site search right - Part 9

Published November 13, 2008 in Google, IA Summit, Newspapers, Search - No comments yet 

Taking the 'Ooh' out of Google: Getting site search right - Part 8

Published November 12, 2008 in Google, IA Summit, Newspapers, Search - No comments yet 

Taking the 'Ooh' out of Google: Getting site search right - Part 7

Published November 11, 2008 in Google, IA Summit, Newspapers, Search - No comments yet 

The evil of searching for 'Gary Glitter'

Published November 10, 2008 in Children and Teenagers, Music, Search, The Sun - No comments yet 

He might be the Web 2.0 President, but Barack Obama's change.gov site doesn't get SEO

Published November 8, 2008 in Politics, Search - 1 comment so far 

Taking the 'Ooh' out of Google: Getting site search right - Part 6

Published November 7, 2008 in IA Summit, Search - 1 comment so far 

Taking the 'Ooh' out of Google: Getting site search right - Part 5

Published November 6, 2008 in IA Summit, Search - No comments yet 

Taking the 'Ooh' out of Google: Getting site search right - Part 4

Published November 5, 2008 in IA Summit, Search - No comments yet 

Taking the 'Ooh' out of Google: Getting site search right - Part 3

Published October 31, 2008 in IA Summit, Search - No comments yet 

Taking the 'Ooh' out of Google: Getting site search right - Part 2

Published October 30, 2008 in IA Summit, Search - No comments yet 

Taking the 'Ooh' out of Google: Getting site search right - Part 1

Published October 29, 2008 in Articles, IA Summit, Search - 1 comment so far 

Introducing Olympic Chipwrapper

Published August 4, 2008 in Chipwrapper, Newspapers, Olympics, RSS, Search - No comments yet 

BBC iPlayer browser search plug-in updated

Published July 16, 2008 in BBC, Search - No comments yet 

More thoughts on Google's sitelinks algorithm

Published June 22, 2008 in Google, Search - 4 comments so far 

Is this evidence that Google hand-edits 'sitelinks' for small sites?

Published June 21, 2008 in Google, Search - 5 comments so far 

Begging more questions than answers - the BBC Trust bbc.co.uk review: Search

Published June 6, 2008 in Articles, BBC, Search - 4 comments so far 

Introducing the Euro 2008 edition of Chipwrapper

Published June 3, 2008 in Chipwrapper, Euro2008, Newspapers, Search - No comments yet 

Google News and the missing Mayor from Henley

Published May 27, 2008 in Google, Search - No comments yet 

At last, some varied 'popular' search terms on the Express site

Published May 3, 2008 in Daily Express, Newspapers, Search - No comments yet 

OMG! They are not searching for 'Princess Diana' anymore at the Daily Express!

Published April 30, 2008 in Daily Express, Newspapers, Search - No comments yet 

Chipwrapper and the Ofcom PSB review

Published April 26, 2008 in Chipwrapper, Newspapers, OFCOM, Search - No comments yet 

How many British newspapers use sitemap.xml to help search engine indexing?

Published April 24, 2008 in Newspapers, Search - 8 comments so far 

Newspaper "Site Search Smackdown": Round 6 - Google vs The Search Engine All-Stars

Published April 13, 2008 in Google, Microsoft, Newspapers, Search, Yahoo - No comments yet 

Newspaper "Site Search Smackdown": Round 5 - The Newspapers vs Google

Published April 12, 2008 in Chipwrapper, Google, Newspapers, Search - 1 comment so far 

Newspaper "Site Search Smackdown": Round 4 - The Daily Express vs The Times

Published April 11, 2008 in Daily Express, Newspapers, Search, The Times - 1 comment so far 

Newspaper "Site Search Smackdown": Round 3 - The Guardian vs The Mirror

Published April 10, 2008 in Daily Mirror, Newspapers, Search, The Guardian - 1 comment so far 

Newspaper "Site Search Smackdown": Round 2 - The Telegraph vs The Independent

Published April 9, 2008 in Daily Telegraph, Newspapers, Search, The Independent - No comments yet 

Newspaper "Site Search Smackdown": Round 1 - The Daily Mail vs The Sun

Published April 8, 2008 in Articles, Daily Mail, Newspapers, Search, The Sun - 1 comment so far 

The online fall-out of the Daily Express apology to Madeleine McCann's family

Published March 19, 2008 in Daily Express, Google, Media, Newspapers, Search, Web - 1 comment so far 

Chipwrapper goes to church

Published February 23, 2008 in Blogging, Chipwrapper, Newspapers, Search - No comments yet 

Search the blogs of the Miami IA Summit

Published February 15, 2008 in Blogging, IA Summit, Search - 1 comment so far 

Personal search engine optimsation for Information Architects

Published February 2, 2008 in Blogging, IA Summit, Search - 2 comments so far 

Google blocks access to the Biased BBC blog via search

Published January 30, 2008 in BBC, Google, Search - 3 comments so far 

FAQ you! ACAP doesn't do 'attribution' for critics

Published January 25, 2008 in Search, Web - No comments yet 

24/7 TV news websites: Part 12 - Search III

Published January 24, 2008 in BBC, CNN, France 24, Search, Television, Web - No comments yet 

24/7 TV news websites: Part 11 - Search II

Published January 23, 2008 in France 24, Search, Television, Web - No comments yet 

24/7 TV news websites: Part 10 - Search

Published January 22, 2008 in BBC, CNN, Search, Television, Web, Yahoo - No comments yet 

Reflecting on reflections of a Newsosaur

Published December 30, 2007 in Blogging, Newspapers, Search - No comments yet 

ACAP - flawed and broken from the start?

Published December 2, 2007 in Newspapers, Popular, Search, Web - 4 comments so far 

That 2002 BBCi Search impartiality problem in full

Published November 29, 2007 in BBC, Radio, Search - 4 comments so far 

Headline buzz tag cloud now on Chipwrapper

Published September 10, 2007 in Chipwrapper, Newspapers, Search - No comments yet 

Pavarotti and Jane Tomlinson's deaths test search

Published September 7, 2007 in Chipwrapper, Google, Search - No comments yet 

Chipwrapper gets a rugby edition for the world cup

Published September 6, 2007 in Chipwrapper, Search - No comments yet 

Introducing Chipwrapper - a UK newspaper search engine

Published September 3, 2007 in Chipwrapper, Newspapers, Search - 8 comments so far 

Using 'TEST' as a test search term is quite testing for TravelMail and others

Published August 7, 2007 in Newspapers, Search - 1 comment so far 

BBC iPlayer search plugin for Internet Explorer and Firefox, and an iPlayer Google Toolbar button

Published August 2, 2007 in BBC, Google, Search, iPlayer - 5 comments so far 

Back at the BBC (slight return)

Published July 24, 2007 in BBC, Search - 6 comments so far 

Google Toolbar buttons for British newspapers including headline feeds

Published July 19, 2007 in Google, Newspapers, Search - No comments yet 

British newspaper search plugins for Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox 2

Published July 11, 2007 in Newspapers, Search - 2 comments so far 

BBC search plugins for Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox 2

Published June 29, 2007 in BBC, Search - No comments yet 

Tweaking my old Glastonbury articles in response to searches

Published June 15, 2007 in BBC, Music, Search - No comments yet 

Google search results promoting YouTube's Premier League copyright infringement

Published June 13, 2007 in Football, Google, Search, YouTube - 1 comment so far 

Guess who is the the favourite search term on the Daily Express site?

Published June 11, 2007 in Daily Express, Media, Search - No comments yet 

Who benefits financially from the Madeleine McCann publicity juggernaut?

Published June 1, 2007 in Children and Teenagers, Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph, Media, Newspapers, Search, The Times - 2 comments so far 

How much did shingles cost in 1963?

Published May 18, 2007 in Google, Music, Search - 1 comment so far 

Questionable eBay adverts on Google "Jewish cemetery" searches

Published May 14, 2007 in Google, Search - No comments yet 

Google putting Wikipedia extracts at #1 - for Bruce Hornsby anyway

Published March 29, 2007 in Google, Search - No comments yet 

My 'biased' view of the Biased BBC blog - part two

Published March 15, 2007 in BBC, Google, Search - 6 comments so far 

Search Engine Land's social bookmarking faux pas

Published March 7, 2007 in Search, Web - No comments yet 

Google kills the political Googlebomb - well, unless you are French

Published January 30, 2007 in Google, Search - No comments yet 

Sitemaps in search engine news

Published November 16, 2006 in Google, Search, Yahoo - No comments yet 

Someone auctions FTP access to a .gov site on eBay

Published November 10, 2006 in Search - 2 comments so far 

High rankings for Wikipedia doesn't mean the net has been hi-jacked by teenagers

Published October 30, 2006 in Google, Search - No comments yet 

Ignore the #privacy campaign - searching the internet is not a private activity. Period.

Published October 18, 2006 in Search - 2 comments so far 

Smarter searching: liberating information from the Internet - Shopping around

Published October 15, 2006 in Search - No comments yet 

Smarter searching: liberating information from the Internet - Easier visual interfaces

Published October 14, 2006 in Search - No comments yet 

Smarter searching: liberating information from the Internet - Let the information come to you

Published October 13, 2006 in Search - No comments yet 

Smarter searching: liberating information from the Internet - Optimise your browser for search

Published October 12, 2006 in Search - No comments yet 

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