garyp
08-02-2004, 10:26 PM
J.B.'s Searchblog with news about Mark Cuban's latest project, Icerocket.
http://battellemedia.com/archives/000767.php
Mark Cuban is banging the drum for Icerocket, (http://www.icerocket.com) the latest metasearch tool to challenge the Google/Yahoo hegemony.
A couple of comments:
1) In Cuban's blog posting he talks about Icerocket offering (http://www.blogmaverick.com/entry/1511731206339485/), "what we
hope are some unique and different features that make using the engine
more efficient and addictive" and then mentions:
+ Thumbnail photos
This is not a new idea. Alexa Internet's implementation of Google has
offered this feature for over a year. The same goes for Ask Jeeves and
their recently announced Binoculars feature. Thumbshots (http://www.thumbshots.org) offers thumbnail
photos for many ODP sites.
+ The page preview feature
Again, not a new idea. Vivisimo and Wisenut have offered this feature for
several years.
2) While all of these databases offer different relevancy
algorithms MSN (for the time being), AltaVista, AllTheWeb and Lycos all
pull results from the same Yahoo crawl. While this is also true at
Vivisimo, you also get the benefit of the dynamic clustering and the option to add a few speciality engines into the mix.
In his comments he also talks about a way to search IceRocket via a pda by
sending an email message. He writes, "Its a pain in the butt to go to a
search site, whether its icerocket, google, yahoo, or wherever and input a
search term." He is correct. However, he does not mention that Google
offers an interface specifically designed for pda's and wireless phones.
http://wap.google.com/options/wireless.html where you can interact and refine your search results without having to send another email message.
Yahoo already offers numerous wireless tools (http://wap.oa.yahoo.com) and I would think that a WAP interface to their web database is in the works.
http://battellemedia.com/archives/000767.php
Mark Cuban is banging the drum for Icerocket, (http://www.icerocket.com) the latest metasearch tool to challenge the Google/Yahoo hegemony.
A couple of comments:
1) In Cuban's blog posting he talks about Icerocket offering (http://www.blogmaverick.com/entry/1511731206339485/), "what we
hope are some unique and different features that make using the engine
more efficient and addictive" and then mentions:
+ Thumbnail photos
This is not a new idea. Alexa Internet's implementation of Google has
offered this feature for over a year. The same goes for Ask Jeeves and
their recently announced Binoculars feature. Thumbshots (http://www.thumbshots.org) offers thumbnail
photos for many ODP sites.
+ The page preview feature
Again, not a new idea. Vivisimo and Wisenut have offered this feature for
several years.
2) While all of these databases offer different relevancy
algorithms MSN (for the time being), AltaVista, AllTheWeb and Lycos all
pull results from the same Yahoo crawl. While this is also true at
Vivisimo, you also get the benefit of the dynamic clustering and the option to add a few speciality engines into the mix.
In his comments he also talks about a way to search IceRocket via a pda by
sending an email message. He writes, "Its a pain in the butt to go to a
search site, whether its icerocket, google, yahoo, or wherever and input a
search term." He is correct. However, he does not mention that Google
offers an interface specifically designed for pda's and wireless phones.
http://wap.google.com/options/wireless.html where you can interact and refine your search results without having to send another email message.
Yahoo already offers numerous wireless tools (http://wap.oa.yahoo.com) and I would think that a WAP interface to their web database is in the works.