The Seattle-Search.com Blog

At the just concluded Advertising Week 2006 in New York, Microsoft unveiled a new unified global advertising initiative packaging the full suite of media-enabled products, including Xbox, MSN, Windows Live, Office, Windows Mobile, and Microsoft TV under one advertising solution.

By combining its assets and presenting a unified front to Madison Avenue, Microsoft not only counters Google and Yahoo but also general broadcast and print media as well. Read the rest of this entry »

Forget MySpace, Friendster or Facebook, at least for the moment. Microsoft is packing its online community punch with Wallop, a social networking site that launched yesterday at the DEMOfall 2006 conference in San Diego.

In development for four years as part of Microsoft Research Labs, SFO-based Wallop has created an “invitation-only social experience” Read the rest of this entry »

Seattle podcast search service Pluggd has introduced a revolutionary Podcast search feature called  “Hear Here” that makes it possible to locate content inside of podcasts by concept, rather than keyword. Search for “golf,” and the sections of the podcast related to the subject will be detected through speech recognition and semantic analysis. The results are highlghted in a progress bar with a heat map overlay so you can locate the section and listen in just the right place.

For the official unveiling of this featue at this week’s DEMO trade show, there is only one podcast, aptly dubbed demo,  that is so configured. Many more heat-synched podcasts are promised in the pipeline as are transcripts. For the time being, Podzinger and Podscope are the leading choices for transcripts but the accuracy is less than impressive.

While it’s not exactly PC World Labs, the current issue of Redmond Magazine has staged a fight-to-the-finish, boxing battle royale inside the ropes of a fight ring called Search. The bruising contest pits hometown hero Microsoft against an insurgent called Google in a two-round battle featuring Web Search and Desktop Search. And the winner is? Well, I guess you’ll just have to click to find out… Read the rest of this entry »

Your trusty editor got a special mention from Search industry czar Danny Sullivan on the latest edition of the global Daily SearchCast podcast. Correspondent Barry Schwartz, aka Rusty Brick, also cited our coverage of Google’s Webmaster Central, writing in the industry-leading Search Engine Watch blog:

“An excellent conversation with Vanessa Fox and Amanda Camp of Google on Google Webmaster Central and working at Google. Both Google women began working at Google in April of 2005 in Seattle. They discuss the conception of Google Webmaster Central (also known as Google Sitemaps). The discussion also goes into the 20% time and recruiting Google women. You can see a picture of the “Seattle’s Sisters of Search” also.

What can you do if your appraisal of your home’s value differs from the world according to Zillow?  Starting today, raise your voice. Locally-based Zillow will release new features this morning that will allow homeowners to contribute updated and detailed information about their own homes to augment Zillow’s national database. Read the rest of this entry »

Soapbox from Microsoft, a YouTube-like user uploaded video product formerly known as ‘Warhol,” may launch by the time you read this according to a few generally accurate sources in the blogosphere. Read the rest of this entry »

Leading mobile media and technology company InfoSpace, Inc. has added spoken turn-by-turn directions, integrated performance-based advertising and 15 million points of interest to InfoSpace Find It!, the first comprehensive location-based application which helps consumers easily and quickly find everything from nearby restaurants and movie times to maps and driving directions. Read the rest of this entry »