News: Yahoo, Google Search Engines, Observe Sprylogics
Toronto, Canada - (Website Hosting Directory) - September 10, 2008 - Developer of next generation semantic search technologies and intelligence-based risk mitigation software and services, Sprylogics, has unveiled a new challenge to the way that users find information online.
While tech heavyweights Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc. spend billions trying to wrestle control of the web search industry from Google Inc., a growing collection of niche search engines are rethinking the way users find information - and they are catching the attention of the big three. By developing tools that scour web pages for the actual meanings of words, rather than merely providing a list of sites with matching keywords, these challengers hope to create services that help users find what they're looking for faster. It doesn't mean these upstarts are trying to beat Google at its own game.
That's not the point, says Michael Frank, chief executive officer of Toronto's Sprylogics International Inc., the makers of Cluuz.com, a semantic search engine attempting to get users to rethink the way they find information online. Mr. Frank surmises, ''What consumers want is to be able to find information faster, and they want clues to help them find their way to that information faster. What we're doing is quite unique and nobody can do what we're doing.''
According to Mr. Frank, search engines such as Cluuz use the science of semantics - the study of meaning in language - to produce more relevant searches.While the site works as a stand-alone search engine, it could also work if it were rolled into existing offerings at Google, Yahoo or Microsoft's MSN.
In July, Yahoo announced it was opening up its search index data to developers as part of a project it dubbed Build your Own Search Service (BOSS). In a press release announcing the BOSS program, Cluuz was one of four services Yahoo cited as examples of innovative search tools built using the platform. Cluuz grew out of business intelligence software that Sprylogics designed to help companies mine and analyze data on their own internal servers.
The software was especially popular with financial regulators, such as the Investment Dealers Association, which uses Sprylogics' technology to map the relationships and past dealings between companies and individuals it is investigating. To create a commercial search engine, Sprylogics simply took its enterprise search and analysis software and tweaked it to filter Yahoo's search index data through the BOSS application. By delivering results that reflect what a user is actually looking for - rather than just locating keywords in certain pages - Cluuz and other semantic search properties believe they can also help deliver more relevant advertising to users than what Google currently offers. If, for example, someone were looking for information about installing blue headlights on their car, a traditional search for "blue headlights" would deliver pages that included those keywords.
A semantic search engine, however, would also bring up pages dealing with 'illumination accessories' or 'after-market auto parts,' said Tim Richardson, an e-commerce professor at Seneca College in Toronto and an expert in search technologies. It is that level of context that allows semantic search engines to present information in a way similar to how humans typically think. Semantic search is a hot area for both entrepreneurs and tech heavyweights.
In early July, Microsoft shelled out $100-million (U.S.) to purchase Powerset, a San Francisco-based company that produces a Wikipedia semantic search tool. Other semantic search providers such as Hakia.com - which has amassed more than $21-million in venture funding - are also growing their user bases while attracting interest from the big three.
Mr. Frank noted, ''We believe we're one of the top three or four alternative search engines in the marketplace. You're going to see more and more search engines become part of other applications, so we think that this application will be particularly well suited for when you're looking for people or companies or entities of any nature.'' With a market cap of about $5-million (Canadian), Mr. Frank knows that Google isn't worried about Cluuz, but he does believe the standalone search engine his team has created can survive on its own or make a great addition to one of the top existing search sites.
Early semantic search trailblazers such as IAC/InterActiveCorp's AskJeeves.com - renamed Ask.com in 2005 - have struggled to attract mainstream users since the mid-1990s, and have been met with a variety of other challenges, most notably cost. Developing software that can index the vast troves of information on the Internet, analyze it and then quickly present relevant search results is expensive and difficult. Last month, Cuil Inc. - a startup founded by ex-Google employees - unveiled a new search engine that claims to index three times as many web pages as Google.
But the site was met with an overwhelming criticism by users who found the results were often inaccurate and unhelpful. The key to success in semantic search is all about putting results in context. That becomes more difficult as the amount of information on the web increases, Mr. Richardson said, adding, ''The reason why people wanted to develop semantic web search engines is because it's a more real way of finding stuff. Keeping in mind that the content is growing faster, search engines need to be more effective at reflecting the thinking of real people.''
Leslie Owens, an analyst with market research firm Forrester Research Group added, ''Some people think that the behaviour of how people express their information needs has been established by Google, so even though they don't express it in natural language they do use just a couple of words. Can that behaviour be untrained if they could express things more completely in a full sentence or in a question? That's to be determined. Google just has so much market share right now.''
Cluuz also shows the connections between various Web documents and sites based not on actual links between pages but on the information on the pages through a technology it calls semantic cluster graphs. It displays these results in a visual format that resembles a spider's web.
Sprylogics International Inc. develops advanced search, analysis, and information display tools and services. These solutions enable users to search large amounts of unstructured data on the web, and in internal corporate databases, and convert it into actionable intelligence. The core technology driving Sprylogics' solutions is embedded in the Cluuz Search Engine platform, which enables both consumers and corporate users to methodically search the Internet and internal corporate resources and find the information they are looking for. Cluuz search results are visually displayed through patent pending semantic graphs and result in improved decision making capabilities.
Posted by editor on Wednesday, September 10 @ 11:30:03 EDT (1035 reads)
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News: Subaye.com Web Hosting Solutions Firm, to Exhibit SaaS in China
Foshan, China - (Website Hosting Directory) - September 9, 2008 - Web hosting, marketing and e-commerce service provider, Subaye.com, Inc., subsidiary of MyStarU.com, Inc., will be exhibiting at the upcoming 5th China International Small and Medium Enterprises Fair.
Scheduled to be held from September 22-25, 2008, at the Guangdong International Convention and Exhibition Center (China Export Commodities Fair Pazhou Complex) Guangzhou, China, the fim plans present: SaaS software: Enabling B2B Engine.
Subaye.com will be sampling the Subaye Corporate Video and Subaye e-commerce brands along with sample pouches of the most advanced instant results performance enhancer. Open hyperlinks of SaaS Enabling B2B Engine to SMEs, the most innovative solution of B2B search, will also be one of the featured products at this tradeshow.
Heying Zhang, Vice President of Subaye.com noted, ''Open link to SaaS Enabling B2B Engine to SMEs, is the upgrade edition of SME e-commerce solution. This software is for SMEs and customizes its online marketing and sales that beyond all other B2B platforms. It is also a core content for both Subaye and Google. We will invite fair exhibitors and a number of guests of the website industry to the upcoming International SME Fair and extend extensive consultation, communication, discussion and cooperation.''
MyStarU.com, Inc. (MYST) is a Total Solutions Provider that offers Integrated Communications Network Solutions and Internet Content Service in universal voice, video, data web and mobile communications for interactive media applications, technology and content leaders in interactive multimedia communications. It develops, markets and sells a universal media software solution for enterprise-wide deployment of integrated voice, video, data web and mobile communications and media applications. Mystaru.com, Inc. does business in Asia via its wholly-owned subsidiaries, Mystaru Ltd. (formerly known as IC Star MMS, Ltd. www.mystaru.com, www.skyestar.com, www.goongreen.org, www.icurls.com, Guangzhou TCOM Computer Technology Limited and majority-owned subsidiary Subaye.com, Inc.
Posted by editor on Tuesday, September 09 @ 11:27:34 EDT (557 reads)
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News: Google Search Engine Picasa, Highlighted by Intelligence Report
New York, New York - (Website Hosting Directory) - September 9, 2008 - Provider of messaging and web security services to businesses worldwide, MessageLabs, has released the results of its Intelligence Report for August 2008.
Mark Sunner, Chief Security Analyst, MessageLabs noted, ''Over the course of this year, spammers have been highly focused on using as many of Google's free, hosted services as possible to distribute spam. Not only are the links contained within the spam emails difficult for traditional anti-spam filters to detect as they appear to be legitimate URLs, but it is also much more unlikely such filters will block emails based on the URLs they contain without causing significant collateral damage.''
Analysis highlights that Google Picasa Web Albums is the latest of Google's hosted services to be exploited by spammers while Adobe Flash redirection techniques are also being abused by spammers to host Flash-based .SWF, Shockwave Flash, files that cause Web browsers to re-direct to the spammer's site. Together, both of these new techniques accounted for less than 2 percent of spam in August, but MessageLabs expects these tactics will increasingly generate more spam in the coming months.
Also in August, spam volumes rose by 160 percent resulting in an overall three percent increase in spam levels. The sharp rise in spam can be attributed to the aggressiveness of the Srizbi and Cutwail botnets, which both grew by between 20 and 25 percent in July and August. The profile of the increased spam activity was similar to spam runs seen in July with most spam arriving as short, text-based messages. However, the increased capacity of the botnets resulted in higher volumes of this spam. In addition, 64 percent of emails containing malicious links spoofed virtual greeting cards or fake online postcards, an increase of 51.8 percent since July.
Mr. Sunner added, ''The new rogue anti-spyware program, Antivirus XP 2008, threatened businesses again this month both as the downloadable that arrives in an email with a Flash component advertising a free Microsoft upgrade and again as a dropper component in the emails spoofing virtual greeting cards and fake online postcards. When the link containing the executable is activated, it proceeds to install Antivirus XP 2008 on the victim machine. This contributed to the 12.2 percent increase in the proportion of email-borne malware contained in links to malicious sites, which represents 15.2 percent of all malware intercepted in August.''
Other report highlights: Web security: Analysis of Web security activity shows that 23.9 percent of all web-based malware intercepted was new in August. MessageLabs also identified an average of 2,980 new websites per day harboring malware and other potentially unwanted programs such as spyware and adware, a decrease of 24.9 percent since July. Spam: In August 2008, the global ratio of spam in email traffic from new and previously unknown bad sources was 78.2 percent (1 in 1.28 emails), an increase of 3.12 percent on the previous month. Viruses: The global ratio of email-borne viruses in email traffic from new and previously unknown bad sources was 1 in 87.6 emails (1.14 percent), an increase of 3.12 percent since July. In August, 15.2 percent of email-borne malware contained links to malicious sites, an increase of 12.2 percent since July.
Phishing: In August, phishing activity fell by .36 percent compared with the previous month. One in 522.7 (0.19 percent) emails comprised some form of phishing attack. When judged as a proportion of all email-borne threats such as viruses and Trojans, the number of phishing emails has increased by 65.3 percent to 16.8 percent of all email-borne malware threats intercepted in August. Geographical Trends: -- In August, France became the most spammed country with levels reaching 82.8 percent of all email, an increase of 3.5 percent. The largest increase in spam levels this month was observed in Italy where spam levels rose by 13.9 percent to 71.3 percent. -- Spam levels in the UK reached 67.9 percent in August and 70.8 percent in Canada and 76.6 percent in the US. Germany's spam rate reached 69.5 percent and 73.1 percent in the Netherlands. Spam levels in Australia were 66.5 percent, 78.3 percent in China and 64.2 percent in Japan. -- The largest increase of 2.75 percent in virus activity was observed in Italy where virus levels of 1 in 35.3 put the country in second place for August. -- Virus levels for the US were 1 in 112.9 and 1 in 67.4 for the UK and 1 in 81.6 for Germany. In Australia, virus levels were 1 in 146.1 and 1 in 133.2 for Japan. Vertical Trends: -- Spam in the Automotive sector rose the highest in August, by 6.3 percent to 83.6 percent. -- The largest decrease was noted in the Engineering sector where levels fell by 7 percent to 68.5 percent. -- Chemical and Pharmaceutical sector spam levels reached 70.5 percent, 72.3 percent for Retail, 69.9 percent for Public Sector and 66.5 percent for Finance. -- Virus levels increased across most industry sectors during August. Education had the highest increase of 1.52 percent to 1 in 28.9 emails containing malware.
There was no decrease in virus levels for any sector during August. -- Virus levels for the IT Services sector were 1 in 96, 1 in 866 for Retail and 1 in 131.9 for Finance. The August 2008 MessageLabs Intelligence Report provides greater detail on all of the trends and figures noted above, as well as more detailed geographical and vertical trends.
MessageLabs Intelligence is a source of data and analysis for messaging security issues, trends and statistics. MessageLabs provides a range of information on global security threats based on live data feeds from our control towers around the world scanning billions of messages each week.
MessageLabs is a provider of integrated messaging and web security services, with over 18,000 clients ranging from small business to the Fortune 500 located in more than 86 countries. MessageLabs provides a range of managed security services to protect, control, encrypt and archive communications across Email, Web and Instant Messaging. The services are delivered by MessageLabs globally distributed infrastructure and supported 24/7 by security experts.
For more information about MessageLabs Intelligence, please visit: www.messagelabs.com.
Posted by editor on Tuesday, September 09 @ 11:20:49 EDT (545 reads)
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News: Web Hosting Provider, 1&1 Internet, Releases Web Culture Study
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - (Website Hosting Directory) - September 8, 2008 - Webhosting company, and subsidiary of United Internet, 1 and 1 Internet, has released a study indicating that the US is the 'friendliest' on the web.
Compared to British, Germans, French and Spanish - Americans seem to be the most concerned about personal online identity and critical of online material. Americans also use the web more effectively to gain friends than Europeans, according to the new research.
Some 53 percent of Americans have made at least one friend online. In comparison, Germans are the second most web-friendly, with 51 percent gaining a friend online, followed by France and Spain, with less than half (47 and 42 percent, respectively) and lastly, the British with only 16 percent making a friend online.
The study of 5000 consumers(1) also found that Americans are the most critical - with 76 percent admitting to quickly judging others solely based on online material (photos, blog entries, resumes, Facebook profiles), while only 46 percent of Britons and Germans (74 percent) admit to quickly judging online.
The '1 Online Attitudes Study' found that 76 percent of Americans believe you can make a reliable overall assessment of a person online. There was a clear difference between Europe and the US on the issue. In the UK, only 46 percent of the public believe you can make a clear overall assessment of a person online. Similarly, only 57 percent of Spanish, 54 percent of French and 43 percent of Germans agreed that it is not possible to judge an individual from their online material alone.
Oliver Mauss, CEO of 1 and 1 Internet Inc. noted, ''It appears that Americans are leading the pack in using the Internet for social purposes. Based on the Americans' success in achieving friends via the web, a person's online identity may be a reliable way to make an evaluation for a relationship. Therefore, it is highly recommended to use a controllable way to display personal material online for accurate representation, such as with a personal website.''
Reflecting the degree to which Americans judge each other online, the US public is more concerned over the issue of their own personal online identity than Europeans. 77 percent of Americans admit to having concerns about how they may appear online, compared to half of Britons (49 percent), 45 percent of Germans, 44 percent of French and only 38 percent of Spanish.
The research suggests that the more seriously a nation takes personal online material, the more success its residents enjoy in establishing meaningful online relationships. 1 and 1 Internet, the world's largest web host by known servers provides a one-stop-shop for web solutions. 1 and 1 offers a full range of domain names, feature-rich web hosting, servers and ecommerce products.
1 and 1 Internet's global community includes over 10 million domain names. 1 and 1 features an array of services, from instant domain packages to all-inclusive shared hosting plans, dedicated servers and ready-to-run eShops. Combining over 55,000 fully-tuned servers in five data centers. With the performance of Juniper and Cisco routers, 1 and 1 endeavors to utilize the most superior products from the leading technology manufacturers and service providers. 1 and 1 is a Microsoft Joint Development Partner, and works with other paramount companies such as Google, Plesk, Symantec, and HP/Compaq.
To learn more about 1 and 1 Internet, please visit: www.1and1.com.
Posted by editor on Monday, September 08 @ 12:03:59 EDT (459 reads)
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Search Engine Management, Offered by SearchMedica
Darien, Connecticut - (Website Hosting Directory) - September 8, 2008 - Search engine for medical professionals, SearchMedica.com, has unveiled the new search category, Practice Management, designed to connect medical professionals with the best practice management resources available on the web.
Cyndy Finnie, Senior Product Manager for SearchMedica noted, ''Doctors who use SearchMedica tell us about the challenges of running a medical practice, such as dealing with third party payers and coding. The resources available through SearchMedica's Practice Management search category help practice managers run their businesses more efficiently and effectively, allowing them to focus more of their time and energy on patient care.''
SearchMedica's Practice Management channel features content and advice from The American College of Physician Executives, PhysiciansPractice.com and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. SearchMedica provides free, open access to the Web's most authoritative content for medical professionals. By default, SearchMedica returns results from ''all of medicine,'' suitable for any practicing medical professional.
Specialists, however, can refine their search into any of nine search categories including cardiovascular, musculoskeletal, pediatric and respiratory disorders, or practice management, for those running their own practices. In keeping with SearchMedica's mission, the practice management search category, like the other disease categories, removes the clutter clinicians encounter on consumer search engines like Google, while providing the professional research and resources they need on an often overlooked topic. Even before this development, SearchMedica.com was acknowledged for its outstanding user experience as a recipient of a 2007 Standard of Excellence WebAward.
SearchMedica.com indexes only authoritative medical information, approved for inclusion by medical editors and a physician editorial board. Medical professionals receive more relevant, smaller sets of search results from SearchMedica.com than from mainstream engines, which contain consumer-oriented, paid testimonials and other types of unreliable information. Since SearchMedica.com is advertiser supported, medical professionals pay nothing to use the search engine.
All of SearchMedica search results are independent and unbiased. They contain well-known, credible journals, peer-reviewed research, and evidence-based articles written for practicing healthcare professionals.
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