There have been many significant changes to the face of search over the last several years with engines becoming more intelligent than ever before. Today's users expect mainly fast, easy, relevant and satisfactory search results. In response to this search engines have responded by giving users more control over search results than ever through the emergence of alternative search engines.
One instance of these so-called alternative search engines goes by the name of Nutch (http://www.nutch.org/). Nutch is a two-year-old open source project, which has been hosted previously at Soundforge and backed by a non-profit organization. Since then it has been determined that the Apache license is the most appropriate, with Nutch no longer requiring the overhead of an independent non-profit organization. The board of directors and the developers both were in favor of the move to the Apache Foundation.
Nutch builds on Lucene technology, which was developed under the watchful eye of Doug Cutting, the primary developer for both of these open source projects. Doug has been working in the field for almost two decades and has spent three years at Apple, four years at Excite as well as 5 years at Xerox PARC, so it is safe to say that Doug definitely knows his stuff. Lucene is suitable for nearly any application that requires full-text search, especially cross-platform. It is a full-featured, high-performance, text search engine library, coded entirely in Java to implement web search. Nutch is an application; you can download it and run it. It adds a crawler and other web-specific stuff to Lucene as well as it's very own search algorithm and a link analysis module. Nutch aims to search the entire web like Google or Yahoo! but has a few tricks up its sleeve thanks to the beauty of open source licensing.
I recently had the privilege to interview Mel Strocen, the CEO of Jayde Online, Inc. (http://www.exactseek.com/), one of the Web's major online publication and search companies. Mel had some very exciting news to report on how Jayde is planning to utilize the Nutch application.
Jayde has been developing a customized version of Nutch for the last eight months and is planning to launch a search engine based on the Nutch technology within the next few weeks. The initial beta version will consist of a network of dedicated servers with an index of between 20 and 30 million website listings.
The real potential of this new search engine, and others using the Nutch technology, lies in the fact that it is open source and uses a "Plug-In Architecture". What this means is that the engine will be perpetually evolving and constantly improving to better facilitate the needs of searchers. One terrific example that shows us just how beneficial this type of open source plug-in technology can be is the FireFox web browser (http://www.firefox.com/).
FireFox, in its short existence has eaten up a significant portion of the once all mighty Internet Explorer's market share. The popularity of this browser is due to the fact that it is constantly making itself smarter. You can now find a plug-in for virtually anything that you require , ranging from web developer, downloading, and search tools to privacy, security, website integration and humorous plug-ins. You name it, there is an extension for it. The extension library consists of nearly six hundred different plug-ins and is growing daily thanks to the help of contributors everywhere.
Now just imagine implementing this type of plug-in technology to a search engine, with one type of plug-in for say searching MP3s and another plug-in for downloading PDFs. The possibilities of this new open source search technology are infinite. Now the term "open-source search engine" may make a lot of people's minds wander towards the idea of Black Hat search engine optimization. The primary developer of Nutch, Doug Cutting, feels that the closed-source advantage is not nearly as much of a factor as one might imagine it to be. The fact that the search engine is open-source allows sp@mmers to be detected far faster than that of closed-source search engines latest sp@m detecting algorithms. Either way, you know that the sp@mmers will eventually figure out how it works, the only difference is how quickly. So the top anti-sp@m techniques, closed or open source, are those that continue to function even when their mechanism is known.
Another type of alternative search engine technology has just recently been released to beta version is "Relevancy Rank" from the Claria Corporation (http://www.claria.com/relevancyrank/about/), the minds behind Gator. I had the pleasure to conduct an interview with the Vice President and Executive Chief of Marketing, Scott Eagle. He had some very interesting things to say about the launch of this new product and what exactly the benefit of Relevancy Rank has to the user. This unique search technology takes the results from the top search engines and applies its very own algorithms to output to the user the most relevant results.
Relevancy Rank is a combination of personalization, localization, time spent at any one site, click through rates as well as conversions. These are all taken into account to provide the most relevant results. "For an example, if you happened to be a zoologist who loved to search for different animals and information relating to animals and you entered the word "Jaguar" you would be returned far different results from say a car enthusiast who searched frequently for different types of vehicles and also typed in the word "Jaguar"", noted Scott. Relevancy Rank helps to provide you with the most relevant results based on your previous search behavior.
With the end users expectations continuing to grow, these twists on the way that results are gathered and displayed are an enormous help in satisfying the user's hunger to get to the results that they are looking for. I am quite anxious to see how these new forms of search technology fair out over the next several months. One thing is for sure, these new technologies are sure to revolutionize the way that web search is conducted and pave a new path for the evolution of search.
Tyler Huston is the SEO Manager for Beanstalk Search Engine Positioning Inc. Beanstalk is proud to offer their guaranteed SEO services to clients from around the world. To keep updated on the latest going's on in the search engine world watch for Tyler's posts on the Beanstalk SEO blog.
Optimal website design is the art of logical navigation.It will... Read More
Q1.Why would I need a web site? A1.- Improve my... Read More
What is SQL? SQL stands for Structured Query Language and... Read More
Is your website Really useful?I had a 'rep' in yesterday... Read More
SiteSpinnerSiteSpinner is a user-friendly web site development tool that includes... Read More
If you like the Internet and surfing through the billions... Read More
It may seem like the publishing industry's equivalent of Beanie... Read More
Every good Internet business understands the value of conversions versus... Read More
The cost of setting up a web site is dirt... Read More
A simple website stats counter is not enough if you... Read More
You have seen those web pages where they have the... Read More
Cost Effective Advertising. Online selling. Increased geopgraphic range. Wider... Read More
An additional benefit of website accessibility is an improved performance... Read More
If you were asked to put a value on your... Read More
1. Be clear on your purpose.Building a website can be... Read More
Webmasters deal with a myriad of complex design challenges every... Read More
For years now I've been looking to start my own... Read More
Often time I've browsed sites and seen the same thing... Read More
How many Web Sites did you stumble over telling you... Read More
That's right. According to a recent study by Nielsen/NetRatings, Amazon.com... Read More
Dance is how you pamper your soul and satiate your... Read More
I talk with so many people who have small businesses... Read More
The first thing my business consultant (read brother-in-law) asked me,... Read More
Let's begin by setting some limits. If you're like me,... Read More
Globalize Your WebsiteThe Internet has unlocked a wide array of... Read More
If you are like me you have wanted to build... Read More
So you have a good idea for a business and... Read More
A company must earn and keep trust or sales don't... Read More
With search engines putting a damper on direct reciprocal links,... Read More
QUESTION: Should I build and maintain my business Web... Read More
You have permission to publish this article electronically, in print,... Read More
A professional online reputation is essential to the flourishing of... Read More
Website, website, website, everyone says you need one. But do... Read More
SummaryHere's the scoop on what you must know when designing... Read More
There are many different traffic analysis tools, ranging from simple... Read More
From early days of www, the Internet sites that are... Read More
In a previous ezinearticles.com article,"I Need real visitors, Not Search... Read More
We all start out the same. Some have budgets, some... Read More
Most interactive websites nowadays require data to be presented dynamically... Read More
When building a relationship, listening is more important than talking.A... Read More
Running an effective website is a continuous process. I have... Read More
Thousands of people are now making a living online and... Read More
If you have some experience in web site design and... Read More
In this example I have used the map of the... Read More
In the late 1990's three San Francisco based web developers... Read More
Website, website, website, everyone says you need one. But do... Read More
In this day and age most businesses consider having their... Read More
How popular is online shopping? And is there room for... Read More
1. SiteSpinner V2 - On Sale www.deprice.com/sitespinner.htmSiteSpinner is a user-friendly... Read More
One of the best tools you have as a webmaster... Read More
In 1995 a new era of accessibility for disabled people... Read More
Every small business owner knows that they need a website,... Read More
If you're fairly new to the Internet scene, you may... Read More
One of the things that Internet excels is disseminating information... Read More
1. Be clear on your purpose.Building a website can be... Read More
Recently I was reviewing the keyword specific conversion rate data... Read More
You work hard to build traffic to your web page.... Read More
Anyone who knows anything about web accessibility knows that images... Read More
1. Many people are not getting good or complete advice.... Read More
Like wine cars get more attractive to collectors as years... Read More
1) Data CaptureOne easy way to collect e-mail addresses and... Read More
There is an ongoing debate about web copy. Some say... Read More
Many small companies choose not to invest in a professionally... Read More
Web templates by nature are created to aid and ease... Read More
Failure, just like success, is measured differently by each and... Read More
There's been widespread speculation about the new legislation being introduced... Read More
Web Development |