Paul, I wonder if Google's reaction was due in part to the threat that a combined Microsoft/Yahoo poses in terms of social search?
I would expect that Microsoft would rationalise its search business (or in plain English, fire a lot of them). Yahoo has always been better at search and Microsoft's attempt to develop its own search only proven that its own dogfood is not very palatable. Perhaps Microsoft concentrated too much on the academic voodoo promise of the Semantic Web while the real players concentrated on the fuel of the search business - advertising.
John Battelle wrote about Google being a "database of intentions". I think that he only had part of the picture. The intentions are in the e-mails, personal recommendations and visitor activity. Privacy issues aside, the integration of social data into the search process will change the search business. And guess who has most of that social data - more even than Google?
Paul Walsh
· 1 year ago
@John "in plain English, fire a lot of them" Yes I agree totally. I'm not sure if IE supports the Semantic Web, does it - would like to learn more. I'm setting up a meeting with the IE team thanks to Steve Clayton in the hope I can encourage them to adopt Content Labels (based on the Semantic Web).
Social search could be achieved in part, by using del.icio.us and other tools?
John McCormac
· 1 year ago
I still think that Sematic Web is a bit down the road. But an SW supporting IE would be an amazing thing as it would create a very interesting angle for search in that some of the search process could be offloaded to the browser. However the main problem is getting websites to adopt SW labelling and tags. Even now, most sites don't bother with meta data. The webmasters expect the search engines to categorise everything.
The social search could be helped by del.icio.us and other tools but from my point of view, (as a supercruncher), it is the combined social data that Yahoo and Microsoft have that makes the merger a threat to Google. The recommendations, e-mail activity, the user activity - that's what powers social search.
Paul Walsh
· 1 year ago
@John - it's an entire post-worth regarding how/why I think we'll see mass adoption for Content Labels. But allow me to provide a little insight in bullet form.
1) Content Labels will soon replace PICS - the W3C standard currently used by IE for content filtering. 2) W3C mobileOK conformance claims will come in the form of a Content Label. Following best practices alone won't be sufficient. 3) We intend to get more sites labelled for accessibility and mobileOK compliance via a global partner network - same business model as VeriSign for the provision of SSL Certificates. 4) We're going to launch an application soon which automatically creates Content Labels - we'll give this away for free to other Trustmark providers. 5) Creative Commons guys love Content Labels. We'll soon have a label for site owners to assert copyright claims. 6) ICRA already use Content Labels for assertions about content that's appropriate/inappropriate for minors. 7) Our Firefox extension is being used by the W3C Semantic Web Education and Outreach Special Interest group to demonstrate a real implementation of the Semantic Web. 8) Lots more :)
Michele
· 1 year ago
Paul You summed it up nicely.
They're all companies that want to make loads of money. There's nothing wrong with that. It's the pretending to be at something else that drives me mad!
Michele
steve clayton
· 1 year ago
Paul
Candid as ever - love ya :)
Not sure why but your post made me think Calacanis may be on to something with Mahalo after all
Steve
Paul Walsh
· 1 year ago
@steve - there are enough people around to tip toe around. As you know I'm not one to mince my words, so why be any different online. I personally find it easier to get my point across when I'm direct.
Regarding Calacanis - I'm not surprised because I also thought of him whilst writing my post. That's mainly because he and I have met twice to discuss collaboration between Mahalo and Segala. Jason wants to enable more relevant search results and I want to enable more trust.
@Michele - glad you agree as it's sometimes difficult to go against the grain.
@Michele how dare you come back here to publish a link to your blog without linking to this post ;)
Michele
· 1 year ago
*sigh* Even though my post predates yours I'll edit it to include a link to you. ok? :)
Paul Walsh
· 1 year ago
@Michele - noooo just kidding mate, honest :) I did type 'I'm kidding of course' but later deleted it.
Michele
· 1 year ago
Too late - link juice hath been bestowed
Rick
· 1 year ago
You said:"Keep the Yahoo! brand but turn it into a search engine. Use the bookmarks as described above, as an engine to help provide more meaningful searrch results."Methinks that already happened... Jan 19th.
Paul Walsh
· 1 year ago
@Rick - looks like my knowledge is way behind but my thinking is perhaps, ahead? :)
Thanks for the link.
markingegno
· 1 year ago
I promised a comment yesterday on twitter. Here I am. Actually I'm asking if once MS has bought Yahoo! there will be more or less competition in search engine market. It's not easy to say.
The truth is I don't like too much MS because of its past, and present dominant position in pc market, and don't believe Google is "as evil as MS" for the web market.
Maybe it can seem silly to say, but I think I'm happy because MS has done a good shot, but I still stand for Google, hoping that nobody of the two pretenders will defeat the other, and even that others will come to play a fair opened match.
All Comments
I wonder if Google's reaction was due in part to the threat that a combined Microsoft/Yahoo poses in terms of social search?
I would expect that Microsoft would rationalise its search business (or in plain English, fire a lot of them). Yahoo has always been better at search and Microsoft's attempt to develop its own search only proven that its own dogfood is not very palatable. Perhaps Microsoft concentrated too much on the academic voodoo promise of the Semantic Web while the real players concentrated on the fuel of the search business - advertising.
John Battelle wrote about Google being a "database of intentions". I think that he only had part of the picture. The intentions are in the e-mails, personal recommendations and visitor activity. Privacy issues aside, the integration of social data into the search process will change the search business. And guess who has most of that social data - more even than Google?
Social search could be achieved in part, by using del.icio.us and other tools?
The social search could be helped by del.icio.us and other tools but from my point of view, (as a supercruncher), it is the combined social data that Yahoo and Microsoft have that makes the merger a threat to Google. The recommendations, e-mail activity, the user activity - that's what powers social search.
1) Content Labels will soon replace PICS - the W3C standard currently used by IE for content filtering.
2) W3C mobileOK conformance claims will come in the form of a Content Label. Following best practices alone won't be sufficient.
3) We intend to get more sites labelled for accessibility and mobileOK compliance via a global partner network - same business model as VeriSign for the provision of SSL Certificates.
4) We're going to launch an application soon which automatically creates Content Labels - we'll give this away for free to other Trustmark providers.
5) Creative Commons guys love Content Labels. We'll soon have a label for site owners to assert copyright claims.
6) ICRA already use Content Labels for assertions about content that's appropriate/inappropriate for minors.
7) Our Firefox extension is being used by the W3C Semantic Web Education and Outreach Special Interest group to demonstrate a real implementation of the Semantic Web.
8) Lots more :)
You summed it up nicely.
They're all companies that want to make loads of money. There's nothing wrong with that. It's the pretending to be at something else that drives me mad!
Michele
Candid as ever - love ya :)
Not sure why but your post made me think Calacanis may be on to something with Mahalo after all
Steve
Regarding Calacanis - I'm not surprised because I also thought of him whilst writing my post. That's mainly because he and I have met twice to discuss collaboration between Mahalo and Segala. Jason wants to enable more relevant search results and I want to enable more trust.
@Michele - glad you agree as it's sometimes difficult to go against the grain.
Michele
Even though my post predates yours I'll edit it to include a link to you. ok? :)
Thanks for the link.
Actually I'm asking if once MS has bought Yahoo! there will be more or less competition in search engine market. It's not easy to say.
The truth is I don't like too much MS because of its past, and present dominant position in pc market, and don't believe Google is "as evil as MS" for the web market.
Maybe it can seem silly to say, but I think I'm happy because MS has done a good shot, but I still stand for Google, hoping that nobody of the two pretenders will defeat the other, and even that others will come to play a fair opened match.