The Seattle-Search.com Blog

Previewed at the AllThingsD conference just a few short days ago and being christened at the start of this week’s Search Marketing Expo (SMX Adanced) at the Bell Harbor Conference Center (Jun 2-3) with a keynote presentation by Dr. Qi Lu, the new Microsoft search engine known as Bing debuts this week. The new search experience is something more than the latest “bling” in search fashion, but Microsoft’s “X-factor” in the competitive search marketplace that it hopes will ring in greater numbers of users and ring up more meaningful market share.

Bing has its roots in the acquired technology of Powerset as a “decision” search engine that is well-suited for comparison shopping among other things. The DNA is expressed in a number of domintant traits. The most fundamental trait is that Bing now organizes search results into categories that expand well beyond the Google tabs of Images,Video, Maps, News, Shopping and More… (and contrasts markedly with the more integrated Google Universal Search). There are 20 results on the Bing Engine Results Page (”BERP?”) rather than the 10 results that have become the norm for standard bearers like Google.

Microsoft is drawing on consumer research of the “next steps” searchers take after getting feedback form a search engine. A famous comment from Bill Gates is that “Search is about verbs.” Searcher want actions, not just data — to reserve a table, book a flight, call a support line. Powerset could give Microsoft the edge it has been looking for.

“Info Mother” Esther Dyson took an early look at Bing (formerly code named Kumo) and penned, “It’s great for consumers and for marketers of products/services, but not so good for intermediaries such as Orbitz and all kinds of shopping sites.” In Dyson’s view, Microsoft is bidding to become the intermediary — or partnering with specific agents such as Open Table.

Clearly, positoning the search engine as a digital concierge that can perform actions for you is not something Google could have taken on given its dominance in Search, nor even the recalcitrant Microsoft of years ago. The timing is right for Bing, not only in terms of the ecommerce connections but in terms of the integration of Search and structured data, to take a significant step forward.

Just about a week ago, Google announced Enhanced Search Snippets and Microformats within its displayed Search Results. Now Microsoft rolls out a category system for managing search in new, structered terms. Isn’t competition sweet?! [24x7]

Judges and audience members at last week’s WTIA Tech Showcase Fast Pitch Forum voted the following three innovators as “Best in Show” of the 23 Seattle-area companies that each had eight minutes to make their case.

AdReady, Inc., a provider of online advertising technology
Swype, Inc., developer of a unique text input solution for mobile touch-screen devices, and TeachStreet, an education-focused online community were the triumphant trio.

Patrick Ennis, one of four panelists asked to judge the candidates, put the showdown in perspective: “It is a hackneyed phrase, but it is true—economic downturns are often the best times to build a startup company. In the chaos and confusion of turbulent times, there always lies opportunity. As industries change and contract, the marketplace is ripe for new solutions. Because despite the negative headlines in the media, people are still going about their daily activities and living their lives, and there will always be opportunities for new products and services, and for new technologies that reduce the cost and increase the efficiency of existing products and services.”

Congratulations to the winners! Each will receive Safeco Field suite tickets courtesy of the Seattle Mariners. Other participating companies included Bonanzle, BuddyTV, Daptiv, Inc., DataSphere Technologies, Inc., Gist, Inc., Konnects, Inc., LiquidPlanner, Inc., Mpire Corporation (WidgetBucks), Ontela, Inc., Pet Holdings, Inc., Picnik.com, Reality Gap, Inc., Redfin, SEOmoz Inc., Talent Spring, Inc., VANTOS, Inc., Visible Technologies, WhitePages, Inc. and Widevine Technologies. [24x7]

Last Tuesday, the Washington state Senate passed ESHB 2075, the digital goods tax bill by a vote of 28-20. What does the bill mean to you?

The bill that requires sellers of digital goods and “digital automated services” to collect sales tax on Washington consumers for such items as ringtones, digital music, digital audio and video, digital books as well as web services such as online expense reporting, online subscriptions of all types and other online services where an end user pays for an item that is a digital product or service.  Nothing changes if an online business receives advertising revenue.

There are a number of exemptions for business use of digital goods, although not complete.

For sellers of digital products, the B&O tax rate drops from 1.5% to .471%, which is about 68% lower.  There are a number of other provisions including an amnesty for uncollected sales tax on sales that were deemed by the Dept. of Revenue to be equivalent to tangible personal property.

The Washington Technology Industry Association (WTIA) announced it will be working with the Dept. of Revenue to help companies comply with the new law. Workshops and seminars are being planned.

The bill as it passed the legislature is online at http://www.washingtontechnology.org/community/blogs/wsagovtaffairs/attachment/514.ashx

Medical students and interns/residents from the American Medical Student Association (AMSA), the nation’s oldest and largest independent association for more than 67,000 physicians-in-training, are now available to answer online health questions from the public for free on Healia Communities (http://communities.healia.com).

Where once people looked to friends and acquaintances for advice on topics such as where to find reputable medical information and what kind of doctor to visit for a particular set of symptoms, a trained group of medical students will now be available to answer many of people’s common health questions. Healia and medical students are working together to make trusted health information available — anywhere, anytime, and at no cost.

“The problem is that many people are rightly hesitant to use the Web for health questions because they have little or no confidence that their questions will be answered by someone who is actually qualified to do so,” said Tom Eng, Founder and President of Healia. “Through this partnership with AMSA, we hope that people will take advantage of this unique opportunity to get trusted information and learned insight from doctors-in-training who are actively studying the latest research and developments in medical science.”

In addition to asking health questions, Healia Communities members can share their experiences and knowledge and make connections with others who have similar health interests and concerns. There are more than 250 active communities including allergy, Alzheimer’s disease, asthma, breast cancer, diabetes, exercise and fitness, heart diseases and weight management.

The final build of Internet Explorer 8 has been released in 25 languages. You can also grab the download directly from these links: Windows XP 32-bit (16.1 MB), Windows XP 64-bit (32.3 MB), Windows Server 2003 32-bit (16.0 MB), Windows Server 2003 64-bit (32.3 MB), Windows Vista 32-bit (13.2 MB), Windows Vista 64-bit (24.3 MB), Windows Server 2008 32-bit (13.2 MB), and Windows Server 2008 64-bit (24.3 MB).

IE8’s new features include Accelerators, Web Slices, and visual search suggestions, which improve how quickly users can get typical browsing tasks done. Accelerators allows users to get—or pass on—information like a map or a definition by right clicking a word on a website and choosing a service from the drop down menu, without ever leaving the page. That means getting directions to the party, figuring out what your friend means when he says he’s an “aficionado,” or even sending something on the page to a friend via e-mail, all from the right click menu.

A Web Slice grabs specific information from a website (like the top stories from Digg or the weather forecast) and puts it in a drop-down menu, eliminating the need to browse to the actual website. ”

An improvement to the search box in the top right: users can get their answers without ever hitting enter, thanks to the drop-down menu that grabs information from the search engine without ever going to the site. The address bar also looks through favorites and history, and opening a new tab shows you a list of tabs you’ve closed recently, making it easier to find the site you visited earlier.

eWeeks Labs calls IE8 a “Must Upgrade.” After its debut last Thursday, those who use Microsoft Internet Explorer as their browser are proving reluctant to adopt the new IE 8. On Friday afternoon, StatCounter Global Stats reported that IE 8 only accounted for about one and a half percent of all internet traffic. That was an increase of less than one and a half percent over Thursday. [24x7]

The Fareologists at Live Search Farecast have issued the 2009 Spring Break Forecast, which uncovers a much-needed break in airfare and hotel rates.

Live Search Farecast, which is known for telling travelers when to buy based on airfare predictions, is currently recommending “Buy Now” 29 percent more often than at this time last year for spring break flight searches. Similarly, premium hotel rates in U.S. spring break destinations have decreased 15 percent since last year. Savvy travelers can maximize their budgets and save more than 20 percent on the total trip cost by choosing the right travel dates, destinations and hotels.

Fares for spring break travel — Feb. 28 through April 5 — are down more than 15 percent from 2008, reaching roughly the same price points as spring break travel in 2007.

Microsoft has released a “Technology Preview” of its new Microsoft Recite application, which will officially be unveiled at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona this week.

Recite is an application for Windows Mobile that uses voice search technology to let users record notes for themselves and then later find those notes by speaking back to the application. Here’s an example. You could first tell Microsoft Recite: “Emil’s birthday is February 23″ as well as “Emil wants a 16GB Zune for his birthday.” When you later want to figure out what to get me for my birthday and when it is, you can simply say “Emil’s birthday” into the search function. Saying “Zune” would also bring up the second message, as well as any other entries that also mention “Zune.”

The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) is using Twitter to broadcast Seattle area traffic incidents and other statewide related traffic and travel information.

The Seattle area incidents service also includes a link to a traffic camera image if one is available.

Direct messages are in the works which will return current mountain pass conditions, Seattle area travel times and Canadian border wait times.

Visit <http://twitter.com/wsdot>