The Best Search Engine?

Yahoo has now doubled Google’s index of of online documents and images.

After a major upgrade, Yahoo now claims to have over 20 billion online objects indexed in its search engine. Google currently has just over 11 billion objects indexed- about 8 billion Web pages and about 2 billion images. Looks like this rivalry is heating up.

Just because Yahoo has a larger index does not mean it will be a better search engine, but it could be. The relevance of search results is what matters most, but there is no large-scale way to measure search relevance. Different search engines are likely to be more or less relevant on specific searches based on the specifics of the keywords searched for.

Google is still the search leader in terms of market share with a 36.9 percent share as of June vs. Yahoo’s 30.4 percent share (according to comScore).

‘China’s Google’ Hits It Big On the NASDAQ

The Chineese search engine company, called Baidu (www.baidu.com, ticker symbol: BIDU) more than quadrupled in its IPO today. The shares traded from a low of $27 and topped $151 at one point during trading. BIDU closed the day at $122.54. While this success is rather exciting, it is most likely attributable to a small share offering- only about 4 million shares were sold here on the NASDAQ.

Baidu makes money in much the same way Google does, by selling text based search advertising. And as if the Google guys were not rich enough already, Google happens to own about 2.6% of Baidu’s stock. While the business models are similar, Baidu is quite small when compared to Google, and probably quite a bit more risky. Baidu must follow Chinese government regulations, so there is always the chance that they may have to pull the plug some day. Unlikely, but still a risk.

Google on the Moon!

A nice addition to Google Maps is the new Google Moon satellite imagery. Not quite as fancy as it could be, but the markers for lunar landings are nice to have, and most likely better detailed imagery will come with time. Be sure to zoom in for a close look.

Google Maps Transparancies

Another incredible use of the recently released Google Maps API. Google Maps Transparencies uses a combination of the ‘map’ and ’satellite’ views to give you an even more useful look at a city. I think it can really make finding your way around very easy. You can adjust the transparency too, so you can essentially zero in on the satellite imagery of a given area and see the street names and local landmarks laid out as well. Brilliant!

Gmaps Pedometer

For those of you not familiar, ‘Gmaps’ is a reference to the Google Maps service. As great as the Google Maps service is on its own, many people are more excited by the recent move by Google to make the Google Maps API available for use by anyone (almost anyone anyway). All you have to do is sign up for an API key, an easy process though it gives Google a chance to deny questionable Websites hoping to use the Maps API. This has lead to many interesting applications that take advantage of the Google Maps API.

The Gmaps Pedometer was put together by a runner from New Jersey who wanted to track training distances without relying on carrying a pedometer or other GPS tracking device. Very cool idea, especially if you have regular routes for walking or jogging. To use the Gmaps Pedometer you simply double click to create points on the map to track a route. The distance will then be calculated, thanks to latitude and longitude coordinates. Ideas like this really give you a glimpse of what is possible with some open technology in the hands of creative people.