Internet & Media

Google on Tuesday announced it has broadly released changes that it expects will produce better results for complicated searches.

The technology works by analyzing the content of Web pages that appear related to the query and determining from those pages the "entities" such as people, places, or concepts that are related to the query. Sometimes it would then offer suggested new searches in a "search refinements" section that appears at the bottom or top of the list of results, said Ori Allon, technical lead for the company's search quality team, in an interview. The processing … Read more

Apple co-founder and "Dancing With the Stars" celebrity du jour Steve Wozniak has joined the advisory board of DeepDyve, a "deep Web" search company that aims to discover hard-to-find information on the Internet that mainstream search engines overlook.

"The deep Web holds an almost limitless wealth of data, yet most of that information is collecting dust because nobody's come up with a way to mine the data in a way that's useful to researchers and consumers," Wozniak said in a statement Tuesday.

DeepDyve, formerly named Infovell, specializes in searches for biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, … Read more

Sure, rocker Trent Reznor's example has encouraged plenty of music acts to reject the label system and search for a new industry paradigm using the Web.

But did anyone expect that among Reznor's disciples would be Lars Ulrich?

Ulrich, a member of the rock band Metallica and once one of the leading critics of peer-to-peer sites, said during an interview last week with The Los Angeles Times that Metallica no longer needs the backing of a big record company and suggested that the group may be ready to go independent.

"The primary--not the only, but the primary--function … Read more

Douglas Merrill, Google's former chief information officer who jumped to EMI Music not quite a year ago, has resigned as chief of the label's digital unit.

Merrill was hired by Guy Hands, the founder of private equity firm, Terra Firma, and parent company of EMI. Merrill's departure comes less than a week after Hands announced he would give up everyday control of Terra Firma. EMI said in a press release little more than Merrill had stepped down. I spoke to Merrill's wife, Sonya, by phone and she said Merrill didn't wish to comment.

An internal … Read more

E-marketing firm SmartReply has acquired mobile-advertising specialist MSnap in an effort to increase its presence on wireless devices.

SmartReply, which distributes advertisements via voice messages, e-mail, and text messages, is seeking to create the largest U.S. mobile-messaging ad network through the acquisition, according to a post on MSnap's Web site.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, and MSnap and SmartReply were not immediately available for comment, but according to a report in The Wall Street Journal, MSnap's shareholders will receive a minority stake in SmartReply.

MSnap, founded in 2006, has received investments from Partech International and … Read more

SpiralFrog met its end just days ago, and already, operators of other ad-supported music services are rushing to put distance between their business models and that of the doomed site.

"The concept was good, but the management, board (not all), and execution were poor," wrote Robin Kent, the former CEO of SpiralFrog who went to work as an adviser to Qtrax, one of SpiralFrog's competitors. "It was obvious to anyone...it wouldn't survive."

What might encourage supporters to jump to the defense of ad-supported music services, which don't charge users to listen to … Read more

Attorneys representing defunct music service SpiralFrog have notified investors not to expect any returns. Whatever money comes from liquidating assets will go to a group that loaned the company an "amount exceeding $34 million."

In a letter dated March 17, 2009, the law firm Rattet, Pasternak & Gordon-Oliver delivered that message to an undisclosed number of SpiralFrog investors. A copy of the letter, seen by CNET News, says the group that loaned the money was issued senior secured notes, which gives members of the group priority in any funds collected from the sale of assets.

"In that … Read more

Craigslist overtook MySpace as the most searched-for term on the Web last week, according to traffic-tracking firm Hitwise.

"U.S. searches on the term 'Craigslist' have increased 105 percent for the week ending March 14, 2009, compared with the same week last year," Hitwise reported. MySpace has been the top term since March 11, 2006.

This was the first time in three years that searches for Craigslist topped MySpace, Hitwise said.

The research group suggested more consumers are logging on at Craigslist, the Web's largest classifieds publication, as the ailing economy prods them to look for bargains. … Read more

SpiralFrog users can continue to play songs obtained from the now defunct company for two more months before they become inaccessible, according to a source close to the company.

The ad-supported music service shuttered its Web site late Thursday evening and ceased operations, the source told CNET. Some customers of the service asked on Friday how long their music, which is wrapped in copy-protection software, will continue to play. A source familiar with SpiralFrog's operations said the service's digital rights management technology, designed to prevent unauthorized copying, will lock up the music indefinitely after 60 days. The songs … Read more