In a move of inter-galactic proportions, the planet’s leading search engine has announced a partnership with the University of Washington, among others in academia, to create the world’s largest database — a moving picture of the entire universe.
The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, or LSST, is planned to begin operation in 2013 on a mountaintop in Chile, The telescope will take moving digital images — rather than the typical static snapshots — of all space, the entire visible sky. “It will be the greatest movie of all time,” said UW astronomer Craig Hogan, one of the leading scientists working on the project. “It will transform how we do science.”
The Google announcement was timed to precede the Seattle conference frequently dubbed the “Super Bowl of Astronomy,” the national meeting of the American Astronomical Society. Read more of this story >> [24×7]
Amazon’s Askville.com Pays the Way in Q&A
Amazon’s Askville opened to the general public in December. Like leader Yahoo Answers, Askville is free, and participants can earn points based on the quality of answers they provide.Participants Users will also earn a virtual currency called “Quest Coins,” which Amazon says will be redeemed for unspecified prizes on the still-inactive Questville.com.
“We’ve got different types of customers who use our Web sites and our technology,” Amazon spokesman Craig Berman said. “I think Askville is a service for a new type of customer, for people who want to find information quickly, easily and inexpensively.”
Askville’s public unveiling quickly followed November’s announcement that Internet search leader Google was dropping Google Answers, a similar service.
Google’s service required its users to pay a researcher anywhere from $2 to $200 to chase down the answers to minutiae like “How many tyrannosaurs are in a gallon of gasoline?”
Google collected a 50-cent commission on each question, with the remainder going to one of the roughly 800 researchers who had responded to questions since 2002.
Microsoft Corp. and several specialty Web sites like Keen.com, Answers.com and Answerbag.com also compete against Yahoo and Amazon in the highly specialized niche of human-assisted Internet search. [24×7]
Incentivizing Search — with Xbox Style Points
Microsoft has a built-in incentive program that some pundits — including former MS super-blogger Robert Scoble — believe could be a secret weapon in the battle for search market share against Google, Yahoo and ASK.
The concept of Achievement Points and a Gamerscore has become more popular than Microsoft ever imagined. Building on the time-honored, incentive marketing redemption power of cumulative awatd poin programs like the classic S&H Green Stamps (circa 1896) and frequent-flier miles, the Microsoft Xbox 360 thought it had a brainstorm when it borrowed a page from the past. Read more of this story >> [24×7]
