The Seattle-Search.com Blog

With Firefox 2.0 shipping last week, (and with the Marie Antoinette movie now in theaters), it seemed somehow befitting that the Microsoft Internet Explorer team would send a congratulatory cake to their rivals at Firefox congratulating them on the launch.

Does Firefox really take the cake? Perhaps this is what is meant by getting your just desserts!

iLike Unveils Sidebar for iTunes and Web Site Enabling Music Discovery via Personalized Recommendations and Friends

iLike.com has launched the first social music discovery service designed for iTunes and iPod users. iLike helps people discover new music and share their listening experience with friends. The iLike Sidebar for iTunes complements Apple’s popular media player with a “buddy list” and features for music sharing and discovery. The iLike website (www.iLike.com) gives users a profile of their music listening habits and helps them explore the music libraries of friends. iLike also provides personalized recommendations of free MP3 downloads from almost 200,000 independent artists, drawn from GarageBand.com, the company’s first website.

The Seattle-based company features a legendary line-up of technology and music industry leaders, former Beatles’ producer George Martin, and Jerry Harrison of The Talking Heads, among them.
Read the rest of this entry »

A new print and online ad campaign from Microsoft has gone live — Windows Live, in fact. The new campaign promotes the Windows Live brand which will eventually replace the two-year old MSN Search as Microsoft’s flagship Web search engine.

Despite an ambitious ad campaign last year, MSN Search has been unable to gain much traction with consumers. Last month, Microsoft sites garnered 11.9% of searches–down from 15.6% the year before, according to comScore. Google, meanwhile, grew its market share to 45.1% last month–up from 37.6% one year ago.

The new campaign highlights features in the engine’s image search, local search, and mapping tools.

Playing the role of underdog, the MSN ad notes that some of the Live Search developers “didn’t even pass calculus.” “We’re late to the game. We admit it,” reads the ad copy, created by McCann WorldGroup. “But instead of shrugging our shoulders and becoming a footnote in search history, we’ve decided to write a few new chapters.”

As first reported in BetaNews, Amazon will not hand over information on how it searches and indexes the text of books, filing an objection in U.S. District Court in Seattle. Google had subpoenaed the online retailer in its fight against the Authors Guild, which sued the search engine in September of last year.

The information that Google requested was “highly confidential,” Amazon said, and would require the divulging of trade secrets. Instead, the company directed Google to publicly available information on the Web about its book search methods.

Still outstanding are two subpoenas, one to Microsoft and the other directed at Yahoo. Neither company has responded to the requests as of Wednesday.

The rejection by Amazon is a blow to Google’s case, as its data could have proven valuable in defending its book controversial search project. Google has struck out on its own, following an “opt-out” system where it is the responsibility of publishers to ask the Mountain View, Calif. company to not index their books. Contrast this with Amazon and Microsoft, whose offerings have an “opt-in” system.

Taking actor-assisted (or is it babe-assisted?) search to a whole new level, a skunk works Windows Live Technology team has debuted MsDewey.com, a search engine interface that makes up in sex appeal and sassiness what it lacks in search speed or relevancy.

Ms. Dewey gives new meaning to the phrase “search engine performance” while opening up fresh opportunities for humor and entertainment in response to various search terms. Query Canon Digital Camera and Ms. Dewey inquires just what kind of pictures you had in mind?

The eComXpo Virtual Internet Marketing trade show is now underway at the Mac or PC console closest to you. Complete with virtual trade show floors, exhibits, prizes, animated avatars and interactive chat sessions as well as educational seminar programming, eComXpo focuses on Search/Interactive and Affiliate Marketing. Keynoting today’s events will be John Battelle, author of The Search: How Google and its Rivals Rewrite the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture.

This year’s show has attracted over 8,000 attendees.  Admission  is free.

Taking part as presenters from the Seattle area are Omar Tawakol, CMO, of Revenue Sciences, Bellevue and Nico Brooks, Director of Search Strategy at Atlas Solutions.

Commuters and people on-the-go now have even more real-time traffic information at their fingertips.

WSDOT is offering three new tools to help drivers make informed travel choices before they get on the road:

* Traffic and travel information on your cell phone or PDA: Drivers will now be able to access the popular Seattle area traffic flow map, ferry schedules, mountain pass reports, and current travel times from their PDAs or cell phones.
* HOV travel times on the Web: Drivers will be able to see and compare HOV and general purpose lane travel times.
* Electronic highway message signs on the Web: Drivers will be able to visit WSDOT’s Web site and view messages that currently appear on electronic highway signs. Read the rest of this entry »

Amazon.com Inc. said Monday it added an automotive parts and accessories store to its Web site, offering more than 1 million new, used and remanufactured parts.

The Automotive Store, which can be found at http://www.amazon.com/auto, lets users enter the year, make and model of their car to find parts to fit their vehicles.

“We’re providing a broad selection of products for auto enthusiasts, who are passionate about the appearance and performance of their cars, but also making the Automotive Store convenient for the everyday motorist who is looking for basic car care and maintenance items,” said Steve Frazier, vice president of the automotive unit at Amazon.com.

The company said it will carry brands such as Actron, Fram and Lund, along with items listed by more than 250 independent auto, truck and motorcycle parts retailers, such as Auto Barn and Midway Auto Supply.