currybetdotnet Search archive
Google's recursive lunar image swirls
Google Image Search has been in the news this week for all the wrong reasons, but I've been concentrating on playing with a Labs version of Image Search - Google Image Swirl. It is an interesting variation on the usual grid view that has become the industry standard. I'm not sure that I'd use it exclusively, for a start the data indexed is limited, but it does give you a different way of researching images. And you can generate some...
Notes and quotes from Ecommerce Expo: Part 5 - Product information management and site search optimisation
Over the last week or so I've been posting a whole series of notes and quotes from the recent Ecommerce Expo, looking at multi-variant testing, optimising shopping carts, social commerce, semantic ecommerce and ticket-touting brand building and online marketing. In this last part I want to look at two presentations, one about information management, and one about internal site search. "Product information management: The next Ecommerce opportunity" - Steve Lovatt, Pinder You simply can't argue with a presentation that has...
Paid search and politics - still some learning for the parties to do
A couple of days ago Peter Moore wrote an interesting post about politics and paid search, pointing out how Channel 4 had used Google AdWords to catch some of the search traffic generated by the BNP appearance on BBC's Question Time. He pointed out that: "Paid search has the potential to make an enormous difference [in an election]...It’s possible to carefully study and collect keywords, to manage and monitor huge campaigns that include short and long tail terms as well...
Guess which Jan Moir article is missing from the Daily Mail's search results?
Funny old world, the Internet, eh? If you search the Daily Mail website today for the most recent articles by or about Jan Moir, there seems to be one missing. I wonder if you can guess which one it is? I think it must just be one of those weird coincidences that looks more suspicious than it is when your site is under intense scrutiny on the web. If you click the 'All by this author' link the notorious Stephen...
"Where can I find the UKs cheapest cars" - hey, we are number #1 for this really long search phrase!
I've written before about the trend towards asking users to search for a specific phrase in marketing material as an easier way to help users navigate on the web rather than remembering URLs. I just saw an example of it taken to an absolute extreme. In Metro this morning, the strapline for a cargiant.co.uk advert was to 'Just Google it', with the proud boast at the foot of the page: "For the search term 'where can I find the UKs...
Phillip Bradshaw, inept senior search consultant and "SEO expert", take a bow!
By writing about the inept SEO approaches I often get, I'm dignifying them with more time than they deserve, but I did enjoy this recent one from Phillip Bradshaw, senior search consultant at bFirst, who seems to have form in this area. "I am writing to inform you that I recently visited your website, www.currybet.net, during a routine survey of web sites which may be capable of higher search engine performance resulting in an increase in online sales. I hope...
Michael Jackson and search at The Guardian
With the memorial service over, it looks like we'll now gradually see diminishing amounts of column inches devoted to Michael Jackson. I wanted thought to put down some of my thoughts about what the reaction to his death tells us about search on the Internet, and on news sites. There were a lot of articles looking at the reaction of search engines to the news. This is always one of the cases that fascinates me about the whole problem of...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Web search at the BBC: Part 4 - Glass onion
In recent years the BBC website was also a place where you could, perhaps rather unexpectedly, search the web using the BBC's search service. In January this year it was discontinued, and so I thought it might be a good time to review the development, rise and fall of the service. Today I'm looking at a period when searching the web became one of the dominant features on the BBC's homepage. In splendid isolation in basements in Bush House...
Web search at the BBC: Part 3 - Centerfield
The BBC recently shut down the web search option it used to have on bbc.co.uk, and so I thought it might be an appropriate time to look at the rise and fall of searching the web using the BBC. Over the last couple of days I've been looking at some of the user-testing carried out by the Corporation in 2001 prior to launching the service. Photo courtesy of Beatnic At this stage the BBC's New Media department was housed...
Web search at the BBC: Part 2 - Over the horizon radar
This year the BBC has withdrawn the Corporation's web search service that I worked on for several years at the turn of the century. Yesterday I started a series of posts looking at the history of how it was developed, including some screenshots of design that were user-tested with Flow Interactive in August 2001. A second iteration of testing was carried out a month later, and by now the design of the search results had begun to take a...
Web search at the BBC: Part 1 - The beginning is the end is the beginning
Professor Karen Spärk Jones - 'Ada Lovelace Day' blog post
Searching in vain for Amazon's Kindle in the UK
At least Daily Express readers are still searching for Madeleine McCann
Google thinks Google may harm your computer
Is 'Search online for "Act on CO2"' costing the taxpayer unnecessary pay-per-click money?
'Nofollow' and Twitter's crisis of trust
Local search: Seeing the UK's regional press through the eyes of Google
Local search: Using site search in regional press websites - Part 4
Local search: Using site search in regional press websites - Part 3
Local search: Using site search in regional press websites - Part 1
Chipwrapper now available with time-slices
Thoughts, notes and quotes from the Online Information 2008 Seminars: Part 3
Reactions to my post on the Mumbai terrorist attack search engine response
Mumbai terrorist attacks show that search engines still can't get breaking news right
Taking the 'Ooh' out of Google: Getting site search right - Part 12
Taking the 'Ooh' out of Google: Getting site search right - Part 11
Taking the 'Ooh' out of Google: Getting site search right - Part 10
Taking the 'Ooh' out of Google: Getting site search right - Part 9
Taking the 'Ooh' out of Google: Getting site search right - Part 8
Taking the 'Ooh' out of Google: Getting site search right - Part 7
The evil of searching for 'Gary Glitter'
He might be the Web 2.0 President, but Barack Obama's change.gov site doesn't get SEO
Taking the 'Ooh' out of Google: Getting site search right - Part 6
Taking the 'Ooh' out of Google: Getting site search right - Part 5
Taking the 'Ooh' out of Google: Getting site search right - Part 4
Taking the 'Ooh' out of Google: Getting site search right - Part 3
Taking the 'Ooh' out of Google: Getting site search right - Part 2
Taking the 'Ooh' out of Google: Getting site search right - Part 1
Introducing Olympic Chipwrapper
BBC iPlayer browser search plug-in updated
More thoughts on Google's sitelinks algorithm
Is this evidence that Google hand-edits 'sitelinks' for small sites?
Begging more questions than answers - the BBC Trust bbc.co.uk review: Search
Introducing the Euro 2008 edition of Chipwrapper
Google News and the missing Mayor from Henley
At last, some varied 'popular' search terms on the Express site
OMG! They are not searching for 'Princess Diana' anymore at the Daily Express!
Chipwrapper and the Ofcom PSB review
How many British newspapers use sitemap.xml to help search engine indexing?
Newspaper "Site Search Smackdown": Round 6 - Google vs The Search Engine All-Stars
Newspaper "Site Search Smackdown": Round 5 - The Newspapers vs Google
Newspaper "Site Search Smackdown": Round 4 - The Daily Express vs The Times
Newspaper "Site Search Smackdown": Round 3 - The Guardian vs The Mirror
Newspaper "Site Search Smackdown": Round 2 - The Telegraph vs The Independent
Newspaper "Site Search Smackdown": Round 1 - The Daily Mail vs The Sun
The online fall-out of the Daily Express apology to Madeleine McCann's family
Search the blogs of the Miami IA Summit
Personal search engine optimsation for Information Architects
Google blocks access to the Biased BBC blog via search
FAQ you! ACAP doesn't do 'attribution' for critics
24/7 TV news websites: Part 12 - Search III
24/7 TV news websites: Part 11 - Search II
24/7 TV news websites: Part 10 - Search
Reflecting on reflections of a Newsosaur
ACAP - flawed and broken from the start?
That 2002 BBCi Search impartiality problem in full
Headline buzz tag cloud now on Chipwrapper
Pavarotti and Jane Tomlinson's deaths test search
Chipwrapper gets a rugby edition for the world cup
Introducing Chipwrapper - a UK newspaper search engine
Using 'TEST' as a test search term is quite testing for TravelMail and others
BBC iPlayer search plugin for Internet Explorer and Firefox, and an iPlayer Google Toolbar button
Back at the BBC (slight return)
Google Toolbar buttons for British newspapers including headline feeds
British newspaper search plugins for Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox 2
BBC search plugins for Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox 2
Tweaking my old Glastonbury articles in response to searches
Google search results promoting YouTube's Premier League copyright infringement
Guess who is the the favourite search term on the Daily Express site?
Who benefits financially from the Madeleine McCann publicity juggernaut?
How much did shingles cost in 1963?
Questionable eBay adverts on Google "Jewish cemetery" searches
Google putting Wikipedia extracts at #1 - for Bruce Hornsby anyway
My 'biased' view of the Biased BBC blog - part two
Search Engine Land's social bookmarking faux pas
Google kills the political Googlebomb - well, unless you are French
Sitemaps in search engine news
Search this site
Posts of the moment
Day of the Triffids
If everyone suddenly went blind, how long would the Internet survive, and could you still publish news on it?
With professionals of this quality, who needs 'citizen journalist' enemies?
It is hard to argue that ethics and quality set the 'professional journalist' apart from the amateur blogger, if the 'professional' keeps publishing articles so wrong that they have to be deleted.
Read more about...
- The future of news
- IA and UX events
- Local and hyperlocal news
- Martin Belam talks and presentations
- Media policy and regulation
- New media best practice
- Newspaper website design
- Notes and quotes from media and web events
- 'Old' media relationship with 'new' media
- Site search management and design
- Working at the BBC (2000 - 2005)
- Working at The Guardian (2008 - now)
Also on the site
or any current or former employers or clients.
Contact: martin dot belam at currybet dot net. © Martin Belam where appropriate.
Powered by Movable Type. Hosted by Bytemark. Manufactured in Great Britain.
