So, Microsoft and Yahoo! have taken another step closer to striking a deal – but what does this mean for us? Yahoo! was once a dominant force, perhaps even the de facto name, in the search engine business and whatever you may read, it’s still going strong, second in fact behind Google. That sounds pretty [read more...]

Regular readers to this blog will know I have a heavy interest in search engine technology, and even have my own search engine development project simmering away for research purposes. So, when I hear about a new kind of search engine – the antennae on the radar go wild – this was the case with [read more...]

Introduction For my ongoing search engine research project I need to understand much more about search mechanics, and to gain a deeper understanding of where it is heading into the future. Search engines have come a long way since their humble beginnings out of directory listings and approachable and accessibly keyword search techniques have driven [read more...]

Keywords and Tags play a vital role in organising and indexing the modern web and are used heavily by search engines to classify website content. But, what is a Keyword, what is a Tag and what is the difference, if any, between them? My explanation would be this:

There are two trains of thought which have a negative impact upon the term SEO, or Search Engine Optimisation. There is the train of thought that it is used for questionable activities and tactics to try and take advantage of automated search engine algorithms (black hat SEO). There is also the train of thought that [read more...]

Search engines teach us a lot about information and a lot more about technology, from the way we look for information of interest to how we can provide platforms for distributed access to constantly changing sources of information. In the context of information retrieval the two aspects of information and technology do not often sit [read more...]

Searching for information? Microsoft are very nearly ready to roll out Bing, helping us to make better decisions, on 3rd June 2009, you will be able to find it at www.bing.com Bing is Microsoft’s new take on search. So, what sets Bing apart from the rest? Microsoft say it is the “Decision Engine” which help [read more...]