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Tom Foremski On
Google And Yahoo Culture
"Yahoo kicked the engineers aside quite some time ago.
Co-founders Jerry Yang (does he still carry the title of "chief
yahoo" on his business card?) and David Filo probably
still do engineering type stuff, but the business is handled
by people who know how to run a large media company.
Yet at Google, there are NO media professionals! They've
done well so far, no one would disagree, but can computer
engineers grow a media business? This could be Google's Achilles'
heel. "
http://www.searchnewz.com/searchnewz-12-20041213TomForemskionGoogleandYahooCulture.html
MSN Unveils Desktop Search
Microsoft debuted a test-version of a new desktop
search product Monday that scans hard drives for information
in saved e-mails, pictures, Web pages, PDF files, and word
processing documents, among other files.
"We have built and delivered what I think people expect
of us, which is the best way to search your PC," said
Yusuf Mehdi, corporate vice president for MSN Information
Services, in a conference call with reporters. Microsoft expects
to work out enough kinks to distribute a polished version
by early next year, said Mehdi.
With its new desktop search feature, Microsoft joins the rapidly
growing ranks of companies developing products to seek and
find information on hard drives. In October, search giant
Google released its beta version of desktop search. Internet
portal Yahoo! announced last week that it intended to unveil
a desktop search product by January. And Ask Jeeves intends,
on Wednesday, to offer a desktop search product, based on
technology from the company's June acquisition of search software
developer Tukaroo.
MSN, like Google, does not currently attach ads to the hard
drive search results, said Christopher Payne, a vice president
at MSN. "Desktop results do not include advertising,
and at no time is your information sent back to our Web servers,"
he said.
But, for now, ads don't seem to be the point of the new generation
of free desktop search products. Instead, the purpose appears
to be convincing consumers to use the tools, in hopes that
they will also turn to the same company's Web search engine.
"The goal is to try to create an integrated experience,
so users will stay within the environment," said JupiterResearch
analyst Michael Gartenberg. "They're hoping that getting
users to use their desktop search products will get them to
try areas where they make money--paid search."
http://www.mediapost.com/dtls_dsp_news.cfm?newsId=282877
I have been testing it today and must say it is finding emails
for me very effectively ! :)
The new tool is free and is available at
http://beta.toolbar.msn.com
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