D
David Kusumoto
For the last three days, I've noticed that I am unable to
access the Google.com site. Meanwhile, at Yahoo!, I can
get to its splash page, but I cannot execute a search
after typing words in its search field.
Then, most ominously, I read the following story this
weekend crossing the wires of Associated Press. Has
Microsoft started its war against competing web search
engines? I'm not kidding, this inability to access
Google and Yahoo only started before the weekend.
Yet, get this -- if you go to, let's say, Cnn.com, you
can access Google there. But you are prohibited from
doing so using IE6!!! All other sites are A-OK. And
then, at the office today, I was able to access Google
and Yahoo using earlier versions of IE with ZERO
problems!!! What's going on??
If anyone can help, please e-mail privately or publicly.
I'm dying to know if there are other problems going on
out there. Meantime, here's the AP story in full:
=====================
Microsoft Begins to Challenge Google
By HELEN JUNG
REDMOND, Wash. (AP) - Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) may be the
most recognized software company on the planet, but when
it comes to searching the Internet, people are much more
likely to "Google it." Microsoft wants to change that,
and it's betting millions that someday it will be as well
known for search as Google is.
The software giant's push comes amid an exponential
growth in information - on desktop computers, on online
photo albums, on Web sites.
"And the more information there is out there, the more
difficult it becomes to find relevant information and
content," said Rob Lancaster, a senior analyst with the
Boston-based Yankee Group. "The information glut, as it
is popularly known, is becoming a real problem for lots
of businesses."
Beefing up search is a smart move for Microsoft,
Lancaster said, and should strike some fear in the hearts
of Google Inc., Yahoo! Inc. and other companies that
offer search engines.
It won't be easy to shove those two aside, however. Danny
Sullivan, editor of Search Engine Watch online
newsletter, noted that Google and Yahoo have loyal
followings.
And several other players are also trying to grab some of
the multibillion-dollar possibilities in Internet
searches.
IBM Corp. just announced a searching technology, called
WebFountain, designed to not only find text in a variety
of places online but also analyze its meaning.
Still, Microsoft has a strong position currently as one
of the Web's top three search sites.
"Unless they make some terrible mistake they're going to
continue to be a very strong player," Sullivan said. "If
they've decided it's important and they want to grind
away at trying to solve the problem, they have a good
track record of putting together good software to do that
sort of thing."
Microsoft has its eyes set beyond mapping the World Wide
Web.
It is developing search-related technologies to do
everything from sorting through digital photos to combing
through items scattered on your desktop computers.
The goal is to answer an Information Age-old problem -
how do you find what you're looking for? - in a time when
electronic information is becoming ever more dense.
"If you have to struggle through looking for things in
hundreds of different places, it's just going to be
intolerable," said Susan Dumais, a Microsoft senior
researcher who is developing a tool for rapidly finding
material that users have seen - regardless of whether it
was an e-mail, Web site or document.
Some of Microsoft's efforts to simplify search on the
Internet will soon be in place.
The new version of Microsoft's MSN Internet service,
available this winter, will include a tool for retrieving
digital photos based on images in the pictures. For
example, users can ask their computers to retrieve all
pictures that include a specific person's face or
background.
But many analysts are most closely watching Microsoft's
project to develop its own indexing and searching system
for the Internet - and how the technology might later be
deployed throughout the company.
Analysts estimate that Microsoft, which has long relied
on outside companies to provide the search tool on its
MSN Web site, is spending millions developing its new
search engine. Microsoft won't comment on how much it is
spending, how many people it is devoting to the project
or what companies it might try to buy.
MSN decided several months ago it was time to create its
own technology instead of relying on search companies
Inktomi and Overture, said Kirk Koenigsbauer, general
manager of MSN.com. He said it was unrelated to Yahoo's
acquisitions in the last year of Inktomi and Overture.
Rather, Microsoft saw how important search has become,
Koenigsbauer said, and contends that no one is really
doing a good job sorting through the mass of Web sites to
answer queries.
Indeed, if Microsoft can build a better search
engine, "it's wide open at this point," said Charlene Li,
an analyst with Forrester Research.
Koenigsbauer would not say when Microsoft's new search
tool will appear, or what technical changes Microsoft is
making to improve search.
"That's the secret sauce," he said.
But he said better personalization is one way to improve
searching. For example, if MSN knows that the computer
user searching for "pizza" lives in a specific ZIP code,
it can deliver results of pizza places in that ZIP code.
Google and Yahoo representatives refused to comment on
the potential search competition from Microsoft.
Beyond satisfying consumers, better searching can be
lucrative.
Many companies pay or bid for inclusion in search sites'
listings - typically in a cordoned-off section for
advertisers - based on the key words the user enters. For
example, a company that sells shoes might pay to be
listed on queries for "Manolo Blahnik sandals."
Such paid listings are expected to generate more than $2
billion in revenue for search sites in 2003, Forrester
Research's Li said.
Although Microsoft has not revealed many details about
its new Longhorn operating system, the company has said
it plans to build a unified file system that allows a
quick search across everything in a computer, regardless
of whether it is an e-mail or other specialized document.
access the Google.com site. Meanwhile, at Yahoo!, I can
get to its splash page, but I cannot execute a search
after typing words in its search field.
Then, most ominously, I read the following story this
weekend crossing the wires of Associated Press. Has
Microsoft started its war against competing web search
engines? I'm not kidding, this inability to access
Google and Yahoo only started before the weekend.
Yet, get this -- if you go to, let's say, Cnn.com, you
can access Google there. But you are prohibited from
doing so using IE6!!! All other sites are A-OK. And
then, at the office today, I was able to access Google
and Yahoo using earlier versions of IE with ZERO
problems!!! What's going on??
If anyone can help, please e-mail privately or publicly.
I'm dying to know if there are other problems going on
out there. Meantime, here's the AP story in full:
=====================
Microsoft Begins to Challenge Google
By HELEN JUNG
REDMOND, Wash. (AP) - Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) may be the
most recognized software company on the planet, but when
it comes to searching the Internet, people are much more
likely to "Google it." Microsoft wants to change that,
and it's betting millions that someday it will be as well
known for search as Google is.
The software giant's push comes amid an exponential
growth in information - on desktop computers, on online
photo albums, on Web sites.
"And the more information there is out there, the more
difficult it becomes to find relevant information and
content," said Rob Lancaster, a senior analyst with the
Boston-based Yankee Group. "The information glut, as it
is popularly known, is becoming a real problem for lots
of businesses."
Beefing up search is a smart move for Microsoft,
Lancaster said, and should strike some fear in the hearts
of Google Inc., Yahoo! Inc. and other companies that
offer search engines.
It won't be easy to shove those two aside, however. Danny
Sullivan, editor of Search Engine Watch online
newsletter, noted that Google and Yahoo have loyal
followings.
And several other players are also trying to grab some of
the multibillion-dollar possibilities in Internet
searches.
IBM Corp. just announced a searching technology, called
WebFountain, designed to not only find text in a variety
of places online but also analyze its meaning.
Still, Microsoft has a strong position currently as one
of the Web's top three search sites.
"Unless they make some terrible mistake they're going to
continue to be a very strong player," Sullivan said. "If
they've decided it's important and they want to grind
away at trying to solve the problem, they have a good
track record of putting together good software to do that
sort of thing."
Microsoft has its eyes set beyond mapping the World Wide
Web.
It is developing search-related technologies to do
everything from sorting through digital photos to combing
through items scattered on your desktop computers.
The goal is to answer an Information Age-old problem -
how do you find what you're looking for? - in a time when
electronic information is becoming ever more dense.
"If you have to struggle through looking for things in
hundreds of different places, it's just going to be
intolerable," said Susan Dumais, a Microsoft senior
researcher who is developing a tool for rapidly finding
material that users have seen - regardless of whether it
was an e-mail, Web site or document.
Some of Microsoft's efforts to simplify search on the
Internet will soon be in place.
The new version of Microsoft's MSN Internet service,
available this winter, will include a tool for retrieving
digital photos based on images in the pictures. For
example, users can ask their computers to retrieve all
pictures that include a specific person's face or
background.
But many analysts are most closely watching Microsoft's
project to develop its own indexing and searching system
for the Internet - and how the technology might later be
deployed throughout the company.
Analysts estimate that Microsoft, which has long relied
on outside companies to provide the search tool on its
MSN Web site, is spending millions developing its new
search engine. Microsoft won't comment on how much it is
spending, how many people it is devoting to the project
or what companies it might try to buy.
MSN decided several months ago it was time to create its
own technology instead of relying on search companies
Inktomi and Overture, said Kirk Koenigsbauer, general
manager of MSN.com. He said it was unrelated to Yahoo's
acquisitions in the last year of Inktomi and Overture.
Rather, Microsoft saw how important search has become,
Koenigsbauer said, and contends that no one is really
doing a good job sorting through the mass of Web sites to
answer queries.
Indeed, if Microsoft can build a better search
engine, "it's wide open at this point," said Charlene Li,
an analyst with Forrester Research.
Koenigsbauer would not say when Microsoft's new search
tool will appear, or what technical changes Microsoft is
making to improve search.
"That's the secret sauce," he said.
But he said better personalization is one way to improve
searching. For example, if MSN knows that the computer
user searching for "pizza" lives in a specific ZIP code,
it can deliver results of pizza places in that ZIP code.
Google and Yahoo representatives refused to comment on
the potential search competition from Microsoft.
Beyond satisfying consumers, better searching can be
lucrative.
Many companies pay or bid for inclusion in search sites'
listings - typically in a cordoned-off section for
advertisers - based on the key words the user enters. For
example, a company that sells shoes might pay to be
listed on queries for "Manolo Blahnik sandals."
Such paid listings are expected to generate more than $2
billion in revenue for search sites in 2003, Forrester
Research's Li said.
Although Microsoft has not revealed many details about
its new Longhorn operating system, the company has said
it plans to build a unified file system that allows a
quick search across everything in a computer, regardless
of whether it is an e-mail or other specialized document.