currybetdotnet Search archive

BBC iPlayer browser search plug-in updated
I got an unexpected email from the Mozilla Mycroft project a couple of weeks back, to say that my iPlayer Search plug-in had been updated. To be honest, I had forgotten that I had even submitted it. Andrew Steele has refined the code, putting it into the proper Open Search namespace and adding some extra elements to govern updates to the plug-in. My only gripe is that he has also changed the logo from the shocking electric pink iPlayer 'Play'...

Read the full post - Published July 16, 2008 in BBC, Search

More thoughts on Google's sitelinks algorithm
I was writing yesterday about Google's choice of sitelinks for a domain name, and I was speculating, based on the evidence of the links they list for currybetdotnet, that there may be some hand-editing involved. What got me started on this train of thought was an article by Ann Smarty on Search Engine Journal. She suggested six factors that make up the 'sitelinks algorithm'. Surfers oriented Domain-authority oriented Internal-architecture oriented On-page SEO oriented Brand-strength oriented Competition oriented One of the...

Read the full post - Published June 22, 2008 in Google, Search

Is this evidence that Google hand-edits 'sitelinks' for small sites?
A few days ago Search Engine Journal published an article by Ann Smarty where she tried to reverse engineer the algorithmic decisions that lead Google to display a selection of up to eight sitelinks under a search result. She identified 6 potential theories. As ever, when dealing with the black box that is Google's SERPs, it is a mix of speculation, evidenced-based logic, and extrapolation from Google's published FAQs and webmaster guidelines. The 6 elements Ann mentioned were: Surfers oriented...

Read the full post - Published June 21, 2008 in Google, Search

Begging more questions than answers - the BBC Trust bbc.co.uk review: Search
I was hoping that Alfred Hermida was going to blog the whole of the recent BBC Trust review of bbc.co.uk so that I wouldn't have to read it, but sadly on the backstage.bbc.co.uk list Brian Butterworth piqued my interest with some choice quotes about search and external linking, so I had to succumb. What has intrigued me is that of the handful of recommendations that the Trust had made to BBC management, two of them seem somewhat contradictory. The Trust...

Read the full post - Published June 6, 2008 in BBC, Search

Introducing the Euro 2008 edition of Chipwrapper
Last year I produced a special version of my Chipwrapper newspaper search engine to celebrate the Rugby World Cup, and so it only seemed natural to follow suit for this summer's big football event - Euro 2008 in Austria and Switzerland. Today I've put live the new Euro 2008 edition of Chipwrapper. As ever, Euro 2008 Chipwrapper comprises of a search engine, some feeds and some other bits and bobs to help you find content about Euro 2008 from...

Read the full post - Published June 3, 2008 in Euro2008, Newspapers, Search

Google News and the missing Mayor from Henley
Most people building search services of any type hold Google up as their benchmark, so it always nice to be reminded that the search giant can be fallible as well. I was recently having a look at the advanced search features they offer on Google News UK. These include some options to limit results by date, which are not sadly available on the general web index, otherwise I'd introduce date-sorting and date restrictions to Chipwrapper in a flash. Google News...

Read the full post - Published May 27, 2008 in Google, Search

At last, some varied 'popular' search terms on the Express site
It seems I got a bit over-excited earlier this week when I wrote about the Daily Express changing two of the most popular search they list on their search results page. That appears in fact to have just been the first step towards providing a broader spread of search terms on the page. For nearly three months, the site had displayed the same set of ten search terms - including one blank one - as the most popular on the...

Read the full post - Published May 3, 2008 in Daily Express, Newspapers, Search

OMG! They are not searching for 'Princess Diana' anymore at the Daily Express!
I've mentioned before that I have a little Perl script that keeps an eye on the 'Most popular searches' at the Daily Express site. Each day it faithfully goes and checks what they are, and then alerts me with a 'VROOT! VROOT!' email if anything changes. This morning the alarm went off for the first time in 74 days. The Express has finally changed the list of what users are most looking for, by altering two of the terms. You...

Read the full post - Published April 30, 2008 in Daily Express, Newspapers, Search

Chipwrapper and the Ofcom PSB review
It seems that quite a lot of people I'm connected to via teh interwebz over the last couple of weeks have been slowly making their way through the mountain of documents that Ofcom have issued as part of their second review into Public Service Broadcasting. Martin Moore, whilst praising the PSB blog, has been thoroughly bogged down in the detail: " The wonderful thing about the internet is that OFCOM can publish as much as it likes without worrying about...

Read the full post - Published April 26, 2008 in Newspapers, OFCOM, Search

How many British newspapers use sitemap.xml to help search engine indexing?
When I started my 'Newspaper Site Search Smackdown' the other week, within a few minutes of the first part being published Bruce had posted the following comment. " 'a newspaper site search ought to be able to index content directly from a CMS faster than Google can crawl a site' - Perhaps, but this seems kind of irrelevant. Any well built site will be creating a sitemap.xml and pinging Google whenever any updates are made so that it's indexes will...

Read the full post - Published April 24, 2008 in Newspapers, Search

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

Published April 13, 2008 in Google, Microsoft, Newspapers, Search, Yahoo

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

Published April 12, 2008 in Google, Newspapers, Search

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

Published April 11, 2008 in Daily Express, Newspapers, Search, The Times

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

Published April 10, 2008 in Daily Mirror, Newspapers, Search, The Guardian

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

Published April 9, 2008 in Daily Telegraph, Newspapers, Search, The Independent

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

Published April 8, 2008 in Articles, Daily Mail, Newspapers, Search, The Sun

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

Chipwrapper goes to church

Published February 23, 2008 in Blogging, Newspapers, Search

Search the blogs of the Miami IA Summit

Published February 15, 2008 in Blogging, IA Summit, Search

Personal search engine optimsation for Information Architects

Published February 2, 2008 in Blogging, IA Summit, Search

Google blocks access to the Biased BBC blog via search

Published January 30, 2008 in BBC, Google, Search

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

Published January 25, 2008 in Search, Web

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

Published January 24, 2008 in BBC, CNN, France 24, Search, Television, Web

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

Published January 23, 2008 in France 24, Search, Television, Web

24/7 TV news websites: Part 10 - Search

Published January 22, 2008 in BBC, CNN, Search, Television, Web, Yahoo

Reflecting on reflections of a Newsosaur

Published December 30, 2007 in Blogging, Newspapers, Search

ACAP - flawed and broken from the start?

Published December 2, 2007 in Newspapers, Popular, Search, Web

That 2002 BBCi Search impartiality problem in full

Published November 29, 2007 in BBC, Radio, Search

Headline buzz tag cloud now on Chipwrapper

Published September 10, 2007 in Newspapers, Search

Pavarotti and Jane Tomlinson's deaths test search

Published September 7, 2007 in Google, Search

Chipwrapper gets a rugby edition for the world cup

Published September 6, 2007 in Search

Introducing Chipwrapper - a UK newspaper search engine

Published September 3, 2007 in Newspapers, Search

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

Published August 7, 2007 in Newspapers, Search

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

Published August 2, 2007 in BBC, Google, Search, iPlayer

Back at the BBC (slight return)

Published July 24, 2007 in BBC, Search

Google Toolbar buttons for British newspapers including headline feeds

Published July 19, 2007 in Google, Newspapers, Search

British newspaper search plugins for Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox 2

Published July 11, 2007 in Newspapers, Search

BBC search plugins for Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox 2

Published June 29, 2007 in BBC, Search

Tweaking my old Glastonbury articles in response to searches

Published June 15, 2007 in BBC, Music, Search

Google search results promoting YouTube's Premier League copyright infringement

Published June 13, 2007 in Football, Google, Search, YouTube

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

Published June 11, 2007 in Daily Express, Media, Search

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

How much did shingles cost in 1963?

Published May 18, 2007 in Google, Music, Search

Questionable eBay adverts on Google "Jewish cemetery" searches

Published May 14, 2007 in Google, Search

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

Published March 29, 2007 in Google, Search

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

Published March 15, 2007 in BBC, Google, Search

Search Engine Land's social bookmarking faux pas

Published March 7, 2007 in Search, Web

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

Published January 30, 2007 in Google, Search

Sitemaps in search engine news

Published November 16, 2006 in Google, Search, Yahoo

Someone auctions FTP access to a .gov site on eBay

Published November 10, 2006 in Search