At a conference in Beijing last Thursday, Google representatives announced a brand new technology developed by the company called VisualRank. The new innovation is in essence an algorithm for combining image recognition technology with traditional methods for ranking online images.
According to the New York Times, VisualRank will go far beyond the current method of ranking images in Google’s image search service, and will endeavor to group together images that look alike, and rank them appropriately in the search results.
The traditional method of ranking images by Google and other search engines is to use contextual cues in the form of keywords and image tags to determine what the image represents. But the new VisualRank system will actually scan the picture with image recognition technology, and combine this information with surrounding text data and image tags to determine the topic and relative ranking of the image in search results.
The technology of image recognition has been around for decades now, but has proven very unreliable in detecting faces, for example, and other complicated subjects. But the technology is slowly improving, and Google believes they have developed a method whereby image recognition can be weighed as an important factor in ranking digital images.
Google claims that a trial conducted to test the new VisualRank system resulted in search results that filtered out 83% more irrelevant images, a significant improvement by any standard. Primarily, the image recognition software will identify shapes and common objects, and filter out images that fall too far outside of search term parameters.
But although Google representatives are optimistic about the capabilities of the new system, other industry experts are skeptical. Munjal Shah, the CEO of Riya, believes that what Google is attempting is questionable at best, saying “I think what they’re trying to accomplish is largely impossible.”
Mr. Shah may have a point; the size of the World Wide Web is so incredibly vast that attempting to use image recognition software on every picture online would be a Herculean task — if it were possible at all. And there are other issues as well. For example, when scanning a photograph of a bicycle, image recognition software might be successful if it is a near-field, side-view photo, but would be less likely to accurately categorize the photo if the bicycle was in motion, or the photograph was taken from above.
These kinds of issues raise questions about the usefulness of Google’s VisualRank system, and some digital image experts believe that current image recognition software is likely to mis-categorize 50% or more of the images available online.
Even though Microsoft Windows has dominated in PC World for decades now, the company has always had a hard time coming to grips with the Internet, and more specifically, how to monetize their web presence. For example, Microsoft’s “Live Search” has remained a distant third behind Google and Yahoo since its inception. But lately, Microsoft’s share of the search market has been in near-freefall.
In February, Microsoft’s Web searches were down another .2% as reported by ComScore, a leading Internet analytics company. This continues a downward trend for Microsoft that has remained unchanged over the last three years.
In September of 2007, Microsoft revamped its search engine, in an attempt to make the search results more relevant to the user’s query and improve the usability of their interface. But overall, the improvements — called Live Search 2.0 — failed to boost Microsoft’s ratings against either Yahoo or Google.
Microsoft claims that their search engine algorithm is now comparable to Google’s, and that the only challenge for the company is in marketing their search engine, and changing the habits of billions of Web users who have grown accustomed to just “Googling” information.
In fact, Google has become so successful online that their brand name has become synonymous with Internet search. For example, the phrase “Google it” is now commonly uttered in many different languages around the world, and has even found its way into dictionaries and textbooks.
Yahoo also lags significantly behind Google, but at least they’re still in the game. In January, Google handled 5.86 billion Web searches, while Yahoo boasted 2.14 billion searches. Compare those figures to Microsoft’s humble 953 million searches in January, and it is easy to see why the company is concerned about the declining relevance of its Live Search business.
To combat these deplorable results, Microsoft has put in an unsolicited bid to buy Yahoo, and help the company gain market share against the seemingly all-powerful Google. But even combining Yahoo’s Search engine with Microsoft Live Search will not immediately threaten Google, which currently controls approximately 75% of the market.
In fact, many analysts say that Microsoft’s poor track record in the online search area makes it unlikely they could compete successfully with Google, even if they had double both Yahoo and Microsoft’s current market share. At the end of the day, Microsoft still lacks an intuitive understanding of what Web surfers want and need.
It takes more than a highly functioning search algorithm or clever marketing to make a successful search engine. It’s also about understanding the culture of the Web, something Microsoft continues to struggle with.
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Although it sometimes seems that Google has a complete monopoly when it comes to online search, with Yahoo trailing a distant second, there are in fact other viable search engines to compete with the “big boys” online. Microsoft’s Live Search and Ask.com are but two examples of “alternative search engines.”
But this week Wikia Search will officially go online as an alternative to the big players. CRN.com is reporting that the new Wikia Search engine will be online by January 7, 2008. Wikia chairman Jimmy Wales admits that the new search engine is not an immediate threat to either Google or Yahoo, while hoping that “the community construction of the search engine will bring increased transparency.”
Like Wikipedia, Wikia Search will be entirely built and maintained by users. Search enthusiasts can filter and rank search results with the help of Wikia Search’s open-source online software. Wikia’s concept is to create the first community-based Search engine which allows users to transparently view how search results are compiled.
Wikia Search has an ambitious goal of indexing 50 to 100 million web sites by the January 7 launch date. Wales is optimistic about Wikia Search’s chance to provide a transparent user-driven search engine to a global Web audience, and he admits that the goal of the new search engine is nothing less than to “change how the industry works.”
In an apparent slap toward Google, Wales insists that allowing search results to come from a “magic” and unknown algorithm — like Google does — does not contribute to the concept of an open Internet, with a democratic and transparent nature.
Google has long been criticized for failing to reveal the methods the company uses to rank web sites online, and the specific algorithm that is used to determine their search results changes several times a year.
Although Web experts admit that Wikia Search is an interesting concept, and may well find a market in the online world, most also agree that Google and Yahoo will continue to dominate the Internet search market into the foreseeable future, regardless of the success or failure of Wikia’s new search engine.
But others feel that Wikia may actually have Google a bit nervous about the future. With the success of other Wikia online channels, such as Wikipedia, the organization definitely has a good track record online. With a little luck, Wikia Search may just find itself taking over a sizable share of the online search market, even if that does leave it a distant third in the running behind “the big two:” Google and Yahoo.
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With the Internet increasingly appearing to be a “big brother,” that knows your search habits, frequented sites and preferences, many Web surfers are demanding greater privacy online. Ask.com, the former “Ask Jeeves” search engine, has recently announced that it will go to greater links to protect users privacy, including the development of a new feature called the “AskEraser” which allows users to delete their search activity information permanently from the company’s server.
The feature works by eliminating all “cookies” on the user’s computer that are associated with the ask.com site, and by sending a query to the company’s server which will delete all previous search-related information gathered for the user.
The move is seen by Web analyst as a way of increasing user privacy, and dispelling fears that many Web surfers have about the growing amount of information online companies collect pertaining to their web-surfing habits. The AskEraser service is free, and deletion of an individual’s associated data takes place in only a few hours.
Online privacy advocates have been railing against the use of “cookies” and other information gathering applications employed by many of the biggest names online. Google, for example, collects an enormous amount of information about its users, and keeps this data available for users to see under their “Google History” page.
And although Google allows users to delete items from their search history, the company does not permanently delete this information from its servers. Amazon.com also uses advanced software cookies to collect data from users, though in Amazon’s case, the user is not presented with an option to alter or delete their prior history on the site.
In fact, remembering user’s preferences and previous search history on their site is a feature which Amazon.com boasts about. It allows the company to show an individual special sales and items that they are likely to be interested in, based on their prior viewing experience.
And although this type of collected search data can be convenient in some cases, it also raises very real privacy concerns, especially at a time when cybercrime and identity theft are rampant. Users are rightly concerned that many online companies know too much about their personal shopping and search history, and perhaps even other, more personal information that could leave them vulnerable to online scams.
In light of the growing discontent over a seeming lack of privacy online, Ask.com’s new “eraser” feature seems like a step in the right direction. Now if we can just get Google, Amazon, eBay, iTunes and other big names online to follow suit, we’ll really be getting somewhere.
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The world’s largest and most successful search engine is no stranger to controversy regarding people’s privacy. Google strives to bring new and innovative products to the web that generally make information more accessible to everyone. In their latest attempt, Google made an interesting addition to their Google Maps feature. It’s called “street view” and it gives users the ability to zoom down to the street level of a city on a map and see actual photographs and panorama views. Obviously this isn’t the case in every single neighborhood but in most big cities you are able to see what was going on in the city at the time the photographs were taken.
It has become an interesting and quite exciting feature. You can zoom down to the ground level of your favorite big city. You can cruise the streets of New York and revisit some areas you haven’t been to in a long time or cruise the Las Vegas Strip and check out the marvelous casinos. While more and more people are using the Google Maps “Street View,” people are starting to discover some interesting moments that were recorded and available to the public. In San Francisco, you can find a man standing on the street corner picking his nose, people taking out the trash and one man looking a little suspicious climbing on the outside of an apartment building. If you journey down to Stanford University, you can find a couple younger coeds catching some rays in their bikinis. In other parts of California, you can find homeless people living on the streets, groups of protesters picketing in front of an abortion clinic and many people have found embarrassing moments showing men walking out of adult strip clubs in the middle of the day.
With all these potentially embarrassing or private moments available to the entire world, the privacy question comes into play. Many people were bothered by the images they discovered in “Street View.” Google Spokeswoman Megan Quinn said, “This imagery is no different from what any person can readily capture or see walking down the street. Imagery of this kind is available in a wide variety of formats for cities all around the world.” The “street view” ability is currently only available in San Francisco bay area, New York, Las Vegas, Denver and Miami but Google plans on expanding to more U.S. cities.
Legal analysts believe that Google has every right to take pictures in public places so any lawsuits filed again the Internet giant would most likely be dismissed. Google also mentions that they have no intention of harming anyone with the new tool but helping. They have provided a way to submit a request that a certain image be removed if it causes any serious privacy concerns although they claim they have had very few removal requests. They are also working with different organizations to blur out any images where someone’s privacy or anonymity would be in jeopardy. Although most people probably find this mildly intrusive, it is a good sign of times to come in the changing world of technology.
Search engines – they are the Internet’s most powerful tool because they allow you to go through a massive number of websites and displaying the results that are looked for in just a matter of seconds. These tools come in handy anytime you’re looking for some piece of information, whether for work or pleasure. However, one of the frustrating things that can happen when using a search engine is that, despite all the information dumped on your screen, you still can’t find what you’re looking for. You’ve probably flipped through 3-4 pages of results and some of the websites shown are either not there and you see the dreaded 404 error message or they do not display the information you need.
Well, here’s an interesting new player in the market. A brainchild of Scott Jones and launched in September 2006, ChaCha brings the definition of search engine to a whole new level. It incorporates the workings of a search engine with the human touch to get you the results that you need. You can choose between the simple search engines, very much how like the normal search engines operate, or you can “chat” with an online “Guide” who will help you sift through the numerous results generated from your query.
This is what makes ChaCha unique - the human factor. It’s like going to the library and asking the librarian specific information about a topic and she’ll tell you which books at which aisles you can find your answers. It certainly saves time from going through the card catalogue, so to speak.
Another advantage with these “Live Guides” is that since they’re people, they themselves are familiar with some of the topics that you’ll be researching on, so they may already have websites in mind when they see your query which cuts on the time to search. The creators of ChaCha wanted to make sure that these Live Guides will be able to sufficiently answer your queries and in fact undergo training and tests on speed, quality and accuracy prior to actually interacting with users. They will also maintain profiles based on their backgrounds and areas of expertise. And on your part, if you’re satisfied or not with the Live Guide’s performance and help, you will be able to rate him/her.
One concern however is that with a system that employs human guides, just how many guides do you need to employ in order to effectively handle the voluminous search queries? From the time that they were launched, ChaCha has now over 10,000 people to search for you. These guides come from a wide variety of backgrounds, from college students to work-at-home moms, all of whom get invited into the system by “experts” who have already reached the top of the Guide hierarchy. So, hopefully, at any given time, you’ll be able to chat with someone knowledgeable about the topic that you’re looking for. Their profiles and ratings should help in making the searching experience a prolific one.
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