This is all fine and dandy, but when it was discovered that it worked for porn site previews also, and that it could be easily accessed by kids, it caused quite a bit of concern among parents. Bing had noted on its blog how to use Smart Motion Previews in combination with its SafeSearch feature, but apparently it was still very easy for kids to view explicit adult content on its site. Yesterday Microsoft announced that it has made changes that will make it easier for parents to block and monitor what their kids are watching when they visit Bing.

"First, potentially explicit images and video content will now be coming from a separate single domain, explicit.bing.net. This is invisible to the end customer, but allows for filtering of that content by domain which makes it much easier for customers at all levels to block this content regardless of what the SafeSearch settings might be. This makes it much easier for filtering software to block unwanted content if SafeSearch has been turned off.

In addition, Bing will begin returning source url information in the query string for images and video content so that companies who already use this method of filtering will be able to catch explicit content on Bing along with everything else they are already blocking for their customers." An example of such a query string is:

http://ts2.explicit.bing.net/images/thumbnail.aspx?q=974382499649&id=12ae77a7fed979b0502840bedacd2552&url=http%3a%2f%2fwww.explicitsite.com%2fexplicit-picturegoeshere.jpg

CNET News reports "the company has reached out to more than 25 filtering and security vendors to work with them to provide a solution for filtering explicit content while using Bing".

While there are parental controls built into Vista and Mac OS X and software like Safe Eyes to keep kids from viewing porn online, ultimately it is the responsibility of the parents to impose rules and guidelines and to monitor their internet usage. It's also good to have discussions about what you consider is appropriate behavior online and to keep up with the latest trends and technology.

Their latest release, Google@Omgili, features a sweet mashup with Google search, giving users a well-rounded look at the fair-and-balanced web alongside social buzz from and about sources such as blogs, newsgroups, video-sharing sites, forums, discussion boards, Q&A sites, and review sites.

The translation function isn't amazing, but for trending or hot-button topics, the results can be quite interesting.

The basic Google@Omgili search yields traditional web results with discussions that link to each result:

Once a user clicks on the "discussion bubble" next to the link, he can preview some of the social chatter linking back to that particular result:

Users can also choose to refine the search to show results from, say, forums and discussions only:

This product also incorporates the True Knowledge API and integrates Snap.com's service to give users a snapshot and video/RSS/Wikipedia previews. And of course, users can choose any number of social sites to share Google@Omgili with their networks (but not to share specific search results, which is disappointing) and can choose to add Google@Omgili to their search bar.

[UPDATE: The day after this post was published, Geva emailed us to report his team had added sharing of the results page on social networks. "We love feedback!" he wrote.]

Although the original Omgili search offering calls to mind many, many social/forum search engines - most of which have financially struggled or failed, see Twing and Delver - the Google mash gives this engine a much more interesting and useful product.

Overall, it's a nice way to see which links are generating (or supporting) subjective online conversations and might be a good tool for tracking down topic experts or sources. On the other hand, it might also be a way to get mired down in the chatter from forum crazies. Six of one, a half dozen of the other - after all, whether you're brilliantly insane or insanely brilliant, you've got to post your theories and rants somewhere, right?

With more information being published on the internet and different filters for interpreting this information being created, here's a look at a our picks of unique search engines that are making headlines and changing the way we search.

There's no question that Viewzi is a search engine of the future with a host of visual features. Viewzi is a visual search engine that's only gotten better since its initial public launch. What makes Viewzi so unique is the various visual viewing options that are available for users to view their search results. From the album and mp3 search view for music, to the 3D Photo Cloud and Celebrity Photo views, there's something for everyone with Viewzi.

SearchMe

Listed as one of Time magazine's best websites of 2008, SearchMe is a slick search engine with an advanced and intuitive interface. Search results are displayed as a gallery of images that allows you to see the page without having to click-through. Do a search on "Obama" and SearchMe will note that you're probably referring to the future presidential candidate Barack Obama. In doing so, SearchMe will present you with several related categories to narrow your search such as Politicians, Democratic Party, US Government, and Political News. SearchMe also provides users with the option to create stacks, or bundles of web pages saved for later. This is a highly unique search engine of the future.

Custom Search Engines

Rollyo is a service that allows you to create your own custom search engine. While we also recommend Google's service that offers the same concept, Rollyo is a little more user friendly. Users can enter up to 25 individual sites to roll into a custom search engine. If you sign up for the service you can make your custom search engines either public or private and add it to your Firefox browser.

Custom search engines are unique and valuable search engines of the future because of what you can do with them. Sarah Perez noted how you can build your own custom search engine with your bookmarks. You can also build your own custom search engine to search through the archives of your competitors and see if they've written about anything you'd like to write about. In essence, you're providing the filters for your very own personalized search engine by only searching the sites you'd like to see results from.

What Did We Miss?

While there are tons of alternative search engines, we'd like to know what you think will be unique search engines of the future. Don't just give out names. Let us know what you're using now and which search engines you expect to see being used a lot more in the future. For more alternative search engine goodness, we recommend heading over and subscribing to AltSearchEngines.

Partner Relationships

Websites wishing to leverage the BOSS APIs will be allowed to can blend in their own ranking input and change the presentation of results. There are no requirements for attribution to Yahoo! and there's no limit on the number of queries that can be performed.

At launch Yahoo! BOSS will see live integrations with at least three other companies. Hakia will integrate their semantic parsing with the Yahoo! index and search, social browser plug-in Me.dium will use the data it's collected to offer a social search tied to the Yahoo! index, and real-time sentiment search engine Summize was included in the BOSS demo - augmenting Yahoo News search results with related Twitter messages.

More extensive customization and integration with large media companies will be performed with assistance from Yahoo! and ad-free access to the APIs will be made available to the Computer Science departments of academic institutions.

Does Anyone Really Care About Niche Vertical Search Engines?

We asked Yahoo! just that, although we believe that alternative search engines can be pretty exciting. None the less, we think it's a valid question.

Senior Director of the Open Search Platform, Bill Michels told us that niche search engines often aren't very good because they have access to a very limited index of content. It's expensive to index the whole web. Likewise, Michels said that there are a substantial number of large organizations that have a huge amount of content but don't have world-class search technology.

In both cases, Yahoo! BOSS is intended to level the playing field and blow the Big 3 wide open. We agree that it's very exciting to imagine thousands of new Yahoo! powered niche search engines proliferating. Could Yahoo! plus the respective strengths and communities of all these new players challenge Google? We think they could.

What's Not Included?

The BOSS APIs are in beta for now, so they may be expanded with time - but for now there are still a few crown jewels in the company's plans that won't be opened up. We asked about Yahoo's indexing of the semantic web and were told that would not be a part of BOSS. We asked about the Inbox 2.0 strategy and the company's plans to rewire for social graph and data portability paradigms. We were told that those were "other programs."

We hope that there's not a fundamental disconnect there that will lead to lost opportunities and a lack of focus. It is clear, though, that BOSS falls well within the company's overall technical strategy of openness. When it comes to web standards, openness and support for the ecosystem of innovation - there may be no other major vendor online as strong as Yahoo! is today. These are times of openness, where some believe that no single vendor's technology and genius alone can match the creativity of an empowered open market of developers. Yahoo! is positioning itself as leader of this movement.

Let's see what they can do with an army of Yahoo! powered search engines. Let the games begin!

NEW relaunch of our forums!

NEW AltSearchEngines conference!

NEW Top 100 Alts list for June 2008! [more after the fold]

NEW staff writer Rafi Farber!

NEW Mobile Search expert Peggy!

NEW custom Weblin avatar!

NEW AltSearchEngines podcasts!

NEW ASE widget gallery!

NEW archives display!

NEW AltSearchEngines Stealth site!

NEW AltSearchEngines' mobile site!

NEW sponsors, and old sponsors!

NEW my favorite post of the year,

and much, much, much more!

Please join us on Monday as we kick off our second year!!

*ok, this one's not true. Try MSN Live.

Sputtr

Charles pointed out that although Sputtr is a great app, it is difficult for mainstream users to grok. For one thing ordinary users won't know how to make sense of all the logos. Also people outside the tech industry will not know many of the brands of the smaller search companies. So Charles suggested that a virtual world approach could be the answer, whereby different alt search engines are represented in a 3D world according to the type of search they provide. For example if you are looking for a job, then there will be a virtual representation of this in the 3D world and a number of job search engines available to meet that need.

This "federated search" approach, as someone in the audience termed it, is one way for the hundreds of small search startups to increase their overall market share. Another approach is to create a common platform for alts, using APIs and UI standards (suggested over lunch to me by Morgan Snyder from allth.at).

Also on the opening discussion panel were myself, Nitin Karandikar from The Software Abstractions Blog, and Henrick Kac from BlogDimension. Nitin recently wrote a post entitled Cooperation of Alt Search Engines: A Manifesto (original here), which outlined 5 possibilities for alts to cooperate - e.g. "Search Federations of complementary ASEs".

Opening panel, photo by Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten

Conclusion

The overarching theme to AltSearchEngines Day is to encourage the alts to band together and help each other reach the mainstream audience. Anyone who regularly reads AltSearchEngines will know that there is a ton of innovation in search, literally hundreds of niche and vertical search startups. So this effort to join together to compete with (or complement) the likes of Google and Microsoft is very commendable - and as I mentioned in the panel, ReadWriteWeb heartily supports it.

Special thanks to Charles Knight for the vision and pulling this day together, and also LA Lassek and the SeeqPod team for organizing the event. Thanks as well to the sponsors of this event: SeeqPod, UpTake, HealthPricer, MatchPoint, GoPubMed, BlogDimension.

When I was doing the intros at the start, I noted that Charles is "the voice of alternative search engines" in this industry. He really is galvinising and leading the alts forward as a group. Be sure to subscribe to AltSearchEngines to track this initiative.

Here's how The Search Race works:

1) You need to sign up for a free Search Race account before you can vote.

2) You can vote for as many search engines as you like, but you cannot vote for a single search engine more than once.

3) You can submit new search engines.

4) The Search Race will continue until we get to the Search Engine of the Year.

This probably should be called the Day Without Google Search, as like Marshall I can't live without Gmail (which I use to manage all my email accounts). Even so, it will be a struggle for me not to use Google Search, simply because it is still IMHO the best search engine around. It's fast, simple and usually delivers me the search results I want.

However I'm all for the idea of experimenting with new search apps - and this is what ASE's Day Without Google Search is really about. We ran a similar day last year and got some great comments and discussion on alternative search engines.

I'm going to try out some of the new semantic search engines tomorrow, April 1st. How about you? Leave your thoughts in the comments here or on AltSearchEngines.

According to hakia, this is what their OntoSem technology does:

• information retrieval, analysis, and distribution
• text summarization
• information assurance and security
• machine translation
• ontology support
• terminology standardization
• supply chain automation

Essentially, it will enable third parties to find and use "the meaning of language" in their applications. Hakia's definition of 'semantic search' by the way differs from the traditional Semantic Web definition, in that hakia search aims to automatically determine meaning from search queries using its algorithms - whereas Semantic Web is all about adding metadata to information to enable connections between data.

At this early stage there aren't any visuals from RiverGlass showing how they're using hakia technology, but the company told us that "we will see the biggest boon in increased relevancy of results".

Disclosure: hakia is a RWW sponsor

eeggi (engineered, encyclopedic, global and grammatical identities) is the world’s first mathematically-based Search and Retrieve, Response, and Discovery engine (ReDi engine), capable of focusing on the concept of text and not just the text itself.

Relational Intelligence (RI) is a new informational platform and network that implements a series of new algorithims, processors (or computers) and state of the art eeggis to produce a new type of machine Intelligence which is specifically designed to process concepts, their retrieval and/or their rational discovery. With substantial differences to that of current Artificial Intelligence (AI), RI opens new horizons on information retrieval and processing. For example, once eeggi is taught or discovers that “Mary” is a girl, all the attributes relative to a female human become available and/or distinguishable, thus allowing eeggi to retrieve and respond to all sorts of questions about “Mary” -the girl-.

Why use eeggi?

Because it is immensely more efficient, robust, responsive and comprehensive than any text-based technology.

A text-based engine gives no attention to meanings; as a consequence, it promotes the following problems:

a) Limits findings to the text itself crippling results, and inventory (avoids other equally meaningful data, synonyms, etc.),
b) Allows for numerous irrelevant hits.

On the other hand, instead of just finding the text, eeggi focuses on the meaning behind the text, avoiding the problems above by retrieving all “equally meaningful” data, not crippling inventories, and reducing irrelevant hits. In addition, eeggi is the only engine in the world capable of grouping results by meaning (words with multiple meanings, such as: Right = correct; Right = turning). In short, eeggi saves users’ time and enhances sales.

A Text-based search engine (technology used to search the Internet) finds only the text, exactly as entered, ignoring the concept of the query, thus retrieving millions of irrelevant results while treating words such as “photo” and “photograph” as if they meant different things; and words such as “light” (radiation) and “light” (weight) as if they meant identical things. But eeggi implements Relational Intelligence for retrieving results based on concept and to respect the words’ proximities and relationships.

Furthermore, eeggi permits questioning, such as entering “Where did Napoleon die?” to obtain a single compiled response or… “St. Helena” (not thousands of results), providing superior, conceptually matching, lesser but more appropriate results, with either very little or no irrelevance whatsoever.

With eeggi, searches can:

* Include synonyms (other words with the same meaning),
* Manipulate similarities (words such as “pretty” and “gorgeous;” yet respecting their conceptual intensities),
* Automatically organize results based on the word’s concept (text with several meanings),
* Reduce irrelevance (allowing very specific and detailed queries)
* Become multi-lingual (handle several languages simultaneously)
* Find conclusive and/or deductive results (other information native to deductive intelligence)
* Respect Directional Conceptuality (avoids inverted phrases and sentences)
* Utilize search controls (user can manipulate search magnitude and behavior)
* Respond to questions

Will eeggi search the Internet?

Yes, eeggi was designed to replace text-based technology, and to surpass language barriers effortlessly. Providing more sensible, organized, comprehensive, and conceptually meaningful results, eeggi is the optimum Internet Search engine.

I encourage you to visit the Demo for a trial of eeggi versus text.

To see an example of how an Internet Search engine is limited by its own text please click here.

1. Why 100? Note: The entire list is available at the end of this post.

The silly reason is because it is next in line after the 1 Search Engine of the Year (SEY), which is selected from amongst the 10 total Search Engines of the Month (see Dec 2007), but less than the 1,000 that we launched with last June.

The serious reason is that it takes a good 100 in order to show you the diversity of search engines out there - just look at the descriptions of the attached file(s). The best People search engines, Job, Health, Media, Local, Social, Semantic, Image, etc., etc. The alternative search engines are nothing if not diverse. But still, at 10 minutes each, it would take you more than 16 hours to check them all out! (I only know of one person who regularly does that - do you?)

2. How are the Top 100 selected?

For the AltSearchEngines list, this is how: I start with the Top 100 from February and add every search engine that was displayed on AltSearchEngines during the month. In February, there were 49 new search engines shown, so I start with 149. Can you imagine knocking down 149 good choices to 100? It’s not easy! But to answer the question, I delete search engines until I am down to 100 again, and that’s how the best search engines get integrated into the March list.

3. What about the Search Engine of the Month (SEM)?

Same principle - I look back on February’s news stories to see which search engine had the most significant development - in my humble opinion. Last month’s SEM was ChaCha.

4. What if I don’t like your choices?

First, leave a comment - as an individual. Second, be prepared. We will soon be launching our newest feature, a Top 100 list where you the reader will get to vote for your favorite engines. Then we’ll compare my choices to yours (as a group).

5. How do I find old versions of the List?

Most are under the Top 100 tab at the top of this page (June 2007 - February 2008), and the very old ones are in the ReadWriteWeb archives (Jan-May 2007), but of course older lists tend to be very outdated.

6. What if I want you to look at another alternative search engine this month?

Email it to me at at: Charles@ReadWriteWeb.com, or leave a comment if you want others to see it.

7. What if I have a question about the Top 100 not mentioned here?

Join the AltSearchEngines Forum and, once inside, click on the “Ask Charles” tab.

8. Who is not on the Top 100 list? (or, Why don’t I see my favorite search engine?)

Good question! My guesstimate is that 1,300 search engines are not shown. We have no list of those for you, so we plan to start a Master database where together we can create a directory of all alternative search engines.

9. I don’t want to talk to you. How can I talk to other readers?

Great! Join the AltSearchEngines Forum and interact with the other ASE readers.

10. Who is the Search Engine of the Month for March?

It’s

EveryZing

In February, EveryZing launched two very exciting uses for their technology. Not just new tweaks or basic features, but major new applications / products: ezSearch and ezSEO. Rather than just write the information all over again, please go to the posts that that covered it all here for ezSEO and here for ezSearch.

Get the entire Top 100 list here as .xls The Top 100 Alternative Search Engines, March 2008

and here as .pdf The Top 100 Alternative Search Engines, March 2008

The Search Engine forum is open to Alt search engines on an invitation only basis. With an introductory price of $49 per year, it will provide several benefits for its members. CEOs can have private conversations or participate in forums relevant to many alternative search engines. The monthly Top 100 Alternative Search Engines list will be posted in this forum prior to being published live on the blog. Special announcements and invitations that are not appropriate for general posting can be shared confidentially within the forum.

In the second forum, open to any reader, members can also participate in private and group forums. Special news such as private beta invites, will be offered to forum members prior to general posting. There is also a Conference Calendar with the most comprehensive display of search and tech related conferences available anywhere, with over 100 conferences world wide currently listed. Another feature is "Ask Charles" where readers can email a question directly to editor Charles Knight and receive a private email response.

The membership fee is $5.99 per month, or $49 per year. There is a 30 day free trial for all forums.

The third foum is for AltSearchEngines' international advisors who provide the global search engines and bilingual posts for the blog. While this is also by invitation, there is no fee for the international volunteers. In this way, advisors from all over the world can meet and interact in one location. A virtual United Nations of Search!

AltSearchEngines and Near-Time will be rolling out additional features during the year to continuously add value to joining the forums. ReadWriteWeb readers can click here to sign up for the 30 day free trial.

Best Search Engine Research Blog
Breakout Blog of 2007
Most Giving Search Blogger (for editor Charles Knight)

Best Search Engine Research Blog
ResourceShelf
SEO by the SEA
SEOFastStart
HamletBatista
AltSearchEngines

Breakout Blog of 2007
Dosh Dosh
BlogStorm
SEOish
AltSearchEngines
VanessaFoxNude
Tropical SEO

Most Giving Search Blogger
Bill Slawski
Aaron Wall
Charles Knight
Danny Sullivan
Barry Schwartz
Rand Fishkin
Kevin Newcomb
Tamar Weinberg
Lisa Barone

1. You ask a query and then receive your search results:

2. You will see an icon in the top-right of search results that says "Meet Others who asked the same query". If you click on the button, you enter into a room (if the room exists) of people who have a) asked the same or similar query; and b) decided to post a message to the room.

3. You can either post a message or contact someone who has already posted a message. To post, you only need to authenticate your email address - there is no other personal info or registration required. You can choose the method you'd like to be contacted: via email (which is masked), or IM (Skype of MSN). So if a user has IM contact enabled, you can start chatting with that person with one click.

There is a voting system too, which together with message age determines how long messages stay in the room for.

Conclusion

Hakia MO kind of resembles Yahoo! Answers, in that you are basically asking a question and then getting feedback from other users. However Hakia points out that MO is not a collaborative search result voting system. They are calling MO a "peer-to-peer transactional platform". Rather than Yahoo! Answers, Hakia says that MO most resembles Craigslist - because "users post content and there are no registration requirements."

In evaluating Hakia HO, I'm in two minds about the usefulness of social networking in a search engine. On one hand, it enables you to join groups of like-minded users in a very specific topic. I'm a big Velvet Underground fan for example, so if I search for "velvet underground" then it might be useful and/or enjoyable for me to join a "room" full of VU fans and begin conversations.

On the other hand, social networking is not something I am usually looking for in a search engine. I use search engines to gather information - in and out. Once I get what I came for, I'm outa there. So, will enough users join topic-focused rooms to make Hakia's MO a compelling feature?

I guess we'll find out, but it's an open question worth seeing the results of. Google would probably be very interested to see if they can integrate social networking into their search homepage, given their new OpenSocial APIs. Although, Hakia says they have a patent application on MO - so maybe Google won't be able to do it anyway!

What do you think: do search and social networking go together? Or should they be kept separate?

Disclosure: Hakia is a sponsor of our network blog AltSearchEngines and recently they signed up as a Read/WriteWeb sponsor for November.

A Newsweek article makes the case for an alternative search engine to usurp Google and become the dominant 3rd generation search engine. Our own Charles Knight, from R/WW Network blog AltSearchEngines, features prominently in the article:

"If Google has been able to crush its search competition, it's not because it has perfected the art and science of Web searching. Far from it. Google is what the industry calls a "second-generation" search engine. First-generation engines like AltaVista found Web pages containing words that matched the user's search words. Google's innovation was to further rank a Web page by the other pages that link to it, on the somewhat shaky assumption that if a page is much-linked-to, it must be useful. Charles Knight, an analyst who runs the AltSearchEngines Web site, notes there's a plethora of good ideas for what a third-generation engine might bring to the party, and no shortage of companies trying to prove those ideas. "Each has shown they can do some aspect of a search better than Google can," says Knight."

Can one of the up-start startups usurp Google in the next generation of search? It'd be a brave person to bet against Google, given its resources and reputation for innovation. But the Newsweek article highlights very well that search isn't 'solved' yet and the switching costs to try another search engine are low. And so in those respects, Google is indeed vulnerable to a greater search technology coming along and wooing millions of users.

If you want to cover your bases and see what the Next Big Thing in search may be, I suggest you subscribe to AltSearchEngines! ;-)