Topic: Google news.

[Sirgod]

 http://www.crn.com/sections/BreakingNews/dailyarchives.asp?ArticleID=48998

 Google Gets Personal

8:45 AM EST Tues., Mar. 30, 2004
Google on Monday rolled out a test version of tools for personalized searches, indicating that the company is looking to maintain its lead as the Web's most popular search destination by boosting user loyalty.

The Mountain View, Calif., company launched the tools through Google Labs, the company's research arm. Google did not give the release date for the final version of the tools, which are available at no charge.

Personalized Search lets users define a personal profile by selecting from several categories, including news, science, business/industries, and computers. A search through the selected category can then be fine-tuned by using an on-screen slider tool to, for instance, bring more pertinent results to the top of the list.

Web Alerts, on the other hand, is more straightforward. Similar to the already-in-place news alerts that Google offers, Web Alerts lets users enter a search string, and will then send a daily or weekly e-mail with links to newly discovered pages.

Google's alerts will also include findings from its news pages and Froogle shopping site.

"Today, Google takes the first step in providing personal search results based on users' preferences," Larry Page, co-founder and president of products at Google, said in a statement.

Research, however, indicates that users are not impressed with personalization and other features that have been the recent focus of search engines, including toolbars and being able to search by geographical region.

"Users are not looking for the bells and whistles," Nate Elliott, an analyst for Jupiter Research, said. "They want easy to use interfaces and accurate results."
Although the new features may have value, it's not obvious to consumers how the additional capabilities will help them find what they want, Elliott said.

Nevertheless, Google and its rivals are focusing on what they know best, the technology, to try to build brand loyalty in a market where research shows consumers are fickle, using as many three different search engines.

"(Building loyalty) is kind of murky," Elliott said. "The search engines don't know for sure what creates loyalty."

Google also debuted other enhancements to its general search engine on Monday, including a new number range command that lets users specify that results contain numbers in a set range. A number range search is done by specifying two numbers, separated by two periods, with no spaces. For example, a search string of "DVD player $250..300" will return only those DVD players priced between $250 and $300.

Google News now includes thumbnail-sized images of any photos accompanying the original story.

Despite its lead as the top web surfing vehicle, Google faces stiff competition from Yahoo! and Microsoft Yahoo! earlier this year dropped Google's search technology, replacing it with its own platform.

Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer recently acknowledged that the company was slow in getting into the search market, but indicated the company plans to invest heavily in developing new technology for the lucrative market.

Search destinations have become popular among advertisers looking to reach web shoppers. By 2008, 29 percent of offline retail purchases are expected to be influenced by online research, according to Jupiter Research, a division of Jupitermedia.

Total retail sales is expected to exceed $117 billion, or 5 percent of total retail sales in the United States, in 2008 from $65.1 billion, or 3 percent of sales, this year. On average, shoppers are expected to spend $779 apiece online in five years from $585 this year.

This story courtesy of TechWeb.

-------------------------

I've been using alot of there tools in the past few years, and they seem to work great.

Stephen

[JMM]

I'm still waiting for Google to go public, ahhhhh, the good ole days, if only some of us had had the foresight to invest in Yahoo or uggggghhhhh Dell, or Microsoft.

I will give Dell credit even though IMO their machines are kinda crappy. They have made a Austin family multimillionaires by doing business with their recycling company. Austin already has recycling for metals, glass, cardboard and newspapers, but when Dell made a major contract for P/C parts recycling that was the brass ringer.  

[TB613]

Quote:
I'm still waiting for Google to go public, ahhhhh, the good ole days, if only some of us had had the foresight to invest in Yahoo or uggggghhhhh Dell, or Microsoft.

I will give Dell credit even though IMO their machines are kinda crappy. They have made a Austin family multimillionaires by doing business with their recycling company. Austin already has recycling for metals, glass, cardboard and newspapers, but when Dell made a major contract for P/C parts recycling that was the brass ringer.  

Google is better off staying private. Once they go public they become a target for someone looking to put a shining star at the top of their company. By staying independent Google keeps the respect they have earned for the quality product that they have developed. Respect that would be diluted or even destroyed by the current corporate belief that evey single part of their operations must show a profit even a flagship operation which can make money just with its presence by bringing in customers for other products.  

[Sirgod]

 http://www.crn.com/sections/BreakingNews/dailyarchives.asp?ArticleID=48998

 Google Gets Personal

8:45 AM EST Tues., Mar. 30, 2004
Google on Monday rolled out a test version of tools for personalized searches, indicating that the company is looking to maintain its lead as the Web's most popular search destination by boosting user loyalty.

The Mountain View, Calif., company launched the tools through Google Labs, the company's research arm. Google did not give the release date for the final version of the tools, which are available at no charge.

Personalized Search lets users define a personal profile by selecting from several categories, including news, science, business/industries, and computers. A search through the selected category can then be fine-tuned by using an on-screen slider tool to, for instance, bring more pertinent results to the top of the list.

Web Alerts, on the other hand, is more straightforward. Similar to the already-in-place news alerts that Google offers, Web Alerts lets users enter a search string, and will then send a daily or weekly e-mail with links to newly discovered pages.

Google's alerts will also include findings from its news pages and Froogle shopping site.

"Today, Google takes the first step in providing personal search results based on users' preferences," Larry Page, co-founder and president of products at Google, said in a statement.

Research, however, indicates that users are not impressed with personalization and other features that have been the recent focus of search engines, including toolbars and being able to search by geographical region.

"Users are not looking for the bells and whistles," Nate Elliott, an analyst for Jupiter Research, said. "They want easy to use interfaces and accurate results."
Although the new features may have value, it's not obvious to consumers how the additional capabilities will help them find what they want, Elliott said.

Nevertheless, Google and its rivals are focusing on what they know best, the technology, to try to build brand loyalty in a market where research shows consumers are fickle, using as many three different search engines.

"(Building loyalty) is kind of murky," Elliott said. "The search engines don't know for sure what creates loyalty."

Google also debuted other enhancements to its general search engine on Monday, including a new number range command that lets users specify that results contain numbers in a set range. A number range search is done by specifying two numbers, separated by two periods, with no spaces. For example, a search string of "DVD player $250..300" will return only those DVD players priced between $250 and $300.

Google News now includes thumbnail-sized images of any photos accompanying the original story.

Despite its lead as the top web surfing vehicle, Google faces stiff competition from Yahoo! and Microsoft Yahoo! earlier this year dropped Google's search technology, replacing it with its own platform.

Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer recently acknowledged that the company was slow in getting into the search market, but indicated the company plans to invest heavily in developing new technology for the lucrative market.

Search destinations have become popular among advertisers looking to reach web shoppers. By 2008, 29 percent of offline retail purchases are expected to be influenced by online research, according to Jupiter Research, a division of Jupitermedia.

Total retail sales is expected to exceed $117 billion, or 5 percent of total retail sales in the United States, in 2008 from $65.1 billion, or 3 percent of sales, this year. On average, shoppers are expected to spend $779 apiece online in five years from $585 this year.

This story courtesy of TechWeb.

-------------------------

I've been using alot of there tools in the past few years, and they seem to work great.

Stephen

[JMM]

I'm still waiting for Google to go public, ahhhhh, the good ole days, if only some of us had had the foresight to invest in Yahoo or uggggghhhhh Dell, or Microsoft.

I will give Dell credit even though IMO their machines are kinda crappy. They have made a Austin family multimillionaires by doing business with their recycling company. Austin already has recycling for metals, glass, cardboard and newspapers, but when Dell made a major contract for P/C parts recycling that was the brass ringer.  

[TB613]

Quote:
I'm still waiting for Google to go public, ahhhhh, the good ole days, if only some of us had had the foresight to invest in Yahoo or uggggghhhhh Dell, or Microsoft.

I will give Dell credit even though IMO their machines are kinda crappy. They have made a Austin family multimillionaires by doing business with their recycling company. Austin already has recycling for metals, glass, cardboard and newspapers, but when Dell made a major contract for P/C parts recycling that was the brass ringer.  

Google is better off staying private. Once they go public they become a target for someone looking to put a shining star at the top of their company. By staying independent Google keeps the respect they have earned for the quality product that they have developed. Respect that would be diluted or even destroyed by the current corporate belief that evey single part of their operations must show a profit even a flagship operation which can make money just with its presence by bringing in customers for other products.  

[Sirgod]

 http://www.crn.com/sections/BreakingNews/dailyarchives.asp?ArticleID=48998

 Google Gets Personal

8:45 AM EST Tues., Mar. 30, 2004
Google on Monday rolled out a test version of tools for personalized searches, indicating that the company is looking to maintain its lead as the Web's most popular search destination by boosting user loyalty.

The Mountain View, Calif., company launched the tools through Google Labs, the company's research arm. Google did not give the release date for the final version of the tools, which are available at no charge.

Personalized Search lets users define a personal profile by selecting from several categories, including news, science, business/industries, and computers. A search through the selected category can then be fine-tuned by using an on-screen slider tool to, for instance, bring more pertinent results to the top of the list.

Web Alerts, on the other hand, is more straightforward. Similar to the already-in-place news alerts that Google offers, Web Alerts lets users enter a search string, and will then send a daily or weekly e-mail with links to newly discovered pages.

Google's alerts will also include findings from its news pages and Froogle shopping site.

"Today, Google takes the first step in providing personal search results based on users' preferences," Larry Page, co-founder and president of products at Google, said in a statement.

Research, however, indicates that users are not impressed with personalization and other features that have been the recent focus of search engines, including toolbars and being able to search by geographical region.

"Users are not looking for the bells and whistles," Nate Elliott, an analyst for Jupiter Research, said. "They want easy to use interfaces and accurate results."
Although the new features may have value, it's not obvious to consumers how the additional capabilities will help them find what they want, Elliott said.

Nevertheless, Google and its rivals are focusing on what they know best, the technology, to try to build brand loyalty in a market where research shows consumers are fickle, using as many three different search engines.

"(Building loyalty) is kind of murky," Elliott said. "The search engines don't know for sure what creates loyalty."

Google also debuted other enhancements to its general search engine on Monday, including a new number range command that lets users specify that results contain numbers in a set range. A number range search is done by specifying two numbers, separated by two periods, with no spaces. For example, a search string of "DVD player $250..300" will return only those DVD players priced between $250 and $300.

Google News now includes thumbnail-sized images of any photos accompanying the original story.

Despite its lead as the top web surfing vehicle, Google faces stiff competition from Yahoo! and Microsoft Yahoo! earlier this year dropped Google's search technology, replacing it with its own platform.

Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer recently acknowledged that the company was slow in getting into the search market, but indicated the company plans to invest heavily in developing new technology for the lucrative market.

Search destinations have become popular among advertisers looking to reach web shoppers. By 2008, 29 percent of offline retail purchases are expected to be influenced by online research, according to Jupiter Research, a division of Jupitermedia.

Total retail sales is expected to exceed $117 billion, or 5 percent of total retail sales in the United States, in 2008 from $65.1 billion, or 3 percent of sales, this year. On average, shoppers are expected to spend $779 apiece online in five years from $585 this year.

This story courtesy of TechWeb.

-------------------------

I've been using alot of there tools in the past few years, and they seem to work great.

Stephen

[JMM]

I'm still waiting for Google to go public, ahhhhh, the good ole days, if only some of us had had the foresight to invest in Yahoo or uggggghhhhh Dell, or Microsoft.

I will give Dell credit even though IMO their machines are kinda crappy. They have made a Austin family multimillionaires by doing business with their recycling company. Austin already has recycling for metals, glass, cardboard and newspapers, but when Dell made a major contract for P/C parts recycling that was the brass ringer.  

[TB613]

Quote:
I'm still waiting for Google to go public, ahhhhh, the good ole days, if only some of us had had the foresight to invest in Yahoo or uggggghhhhh Dell, or Microsoft.

I will give Dell credit even though IMO their machines are kinda crappy. They have made a Austin family multimillionaires by doing business with their recycling company. Austin already has recycling for metals, glass, cardboard and newspapers, but when Dell made a major contract for P/C parts recycling that was the brass ringer.  

Google is better off staying private. Once they go public they become a target for someone looking to put a shining star at the top of their company. By staying independent Google keeps the respect they have earned for the quality product that they have developed. Respect that would be diluted or even destroyed by the current corporate belief that evey single part of their operations must show a profit even a flagship operation which can make money just with its presence by bringing in customers for other products.