If you take one search tool and combine it with another, does it make a better product? In the case of Search Cloudlet and Surf Canyon's new creation, the answer is yes.
On Tuesday the two companies put out a new custom search engine (cloudlet.surfcanyon.com) that uses both technologies, and allows users to do enhanced searches without having to download additional browser extensions. Previously both products required the use of add-ons to augment Google's search results.
The benefits of using this tool over Google alone are numerous. For one, you're still getting Google's standard results. You also get Search Cloudlet's sorting technology, which lets you filter results by domain or keyword from its word cloud. You also get Surf Canyon's related results feature, which can recommend results from pages that appear deeper in a search. In my quick go, this was pulling up results from as deep as 25 pages (or 250 results from the top result) into a search.
Search Cloudlet and Surf Canyon's combined engine tweaks Google results with both tools. All without the install of browser plug-ins.
(Credit: CNET)The first program I open every day is Firefox, and most days the first Web site I visit is Google. That's why I'm glad so many Firefox add-on developers have created tools that give me a new perspective on my Google search results. Here are three of my favorites.
Sharpen your searches with GoogleEnhancer
The primary reason I click Google's Advanced Search option is to limit the results to a specific date range. With NettiCat's GoogleEnhancer add-on I can narrow my searches by date as well as by file type and a handful of languages via drop-down menus that are placed to the right of the search box.
The GoogleEnhancer add-on for Firefox puts drop-down menus next to the text box that let you narrow your results by time, language, and file type.
(Credit: NettiCat)As nice as the search enhancements are, one of my favorite GoogleEnhancer features is the addition of icons to the left of the results for each link's site. The add-on also numbers the results, though these don't really add much to the results, in my opinion.
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There are far too many domain search and purchasing tools, but I haven't found one that does it like Domain Pigeon. The service tracks domains that are still available and puts them in an index that can be searched and sorted in all manner of ways.
Domain Pigeon's secret sauce, however, is that it shows you what other users have been looking at, right down to how many have clicked on any specific domain name. Domains that have gotten more attention darken in color, with the heavy hitters bubbling up to the top.
To encourage registration (which costs a one-time fee of $15), users who sign-up can view and search from a larger catalog of domain names. As of me writing this it's a difference of an extra 5,000 or so domains once you register.
While the site doesn't actually sell domains--something you have to do with a registration service--it can be a good source of inspiration for people who have not found a good name for their service. Of course, if you're trying to be secretive about that process, you're probably better off using something that won't be showing your search queries to a gaggle of other users.
Domains are tracked for popularity on clicks, and when you click on one it shows you how many other people have as well.
(Credit: CNET Networks)See also:
Bust A Name: Best domain name helper ever
Eleven steps to buying a domain name that doesn't suck
What's in a domain name?
FaveBot is a service that keeps an eye on whatever keywords you give it to pull up related items from the Web. If you're familiar with Google Alerts, the idea is similar. In Favebot's case, you can take any keyword or set of keywords and apply it to the types of content you're looking to keep an eye on, be it photos, videos, blog posts, or podcasts. There are nine categories in all, and the system is designed to serve it up like a river of news with the most recent items appearing on the top.
What's neat about FaveBot is that it uses location as part of the filtering. For example, if you live in Texas and earmark a word like Web 2.0 and opt into the events category, you'll get the heads up on when the service finds local happenings that match up with that category (e.g. SXSW). By adding more types of items on your tracking list, you can increase your chances of seeing them in the main news stream.
Each set of keywords can be dialed in by what type of content you're looking for. Each set also has its own RSS feed.
Besides the river of information that's all mixed up, each keyword you're tracking has its own RSS feed. These can simply be subscribed to in Google Reader or whatever RSS catcher you happen to be using if you feel like skipping the site entirely. Each item also has its own permalink so you can share it with friends in the same place as your other items from that feed, although my guess is that people will simply link back to where the content was originally found.
Speaking of which, the sources are from all over, but there's a blacklist curated by humans. This is an attempt to keep some of the spammy sources from pervading your news stream. The service also recommends you combine three or more keywords together (unlike I did in the screenshot above) to avoid getting irrelevant results. Putting in "Webware" as a keyword in all of the categories brought in a good grouping of related content, although as warned, some items ended up being less focused.
I've looked at a few other services that do similar things but just for news (see Fav.or.it and Tiinker). There's also Persai, a machine learning search tool put together by the guys from Uncov that does a more advanced version of this by putting several keywords together into packages for you and learning what content to serve you based on what you like and dislike. In either case the difference between human recommended content and machine is starkly different, and worth giving a go if you're on the hunt for new content to enjoy.
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