Google has changed. Kinda.

Posted by Les on Tuesday, March 30, 2004 at 07:30 AM. Read 423 times. Tags:
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If you’ve stopped by Google recently you may have noticed that its layout has changed.

Then again, you might not.

It took me a moment to realize the difference when I pulled it up, but it’s not so different that it jumps out at you. Surprisingly, it’s gotten a fair amount of news coverage considering how subtle the change is. OK, I suppose there is one major change. The addition of Froogle, Google’s “smart shopping” service that helps you find the best deals on products you’re interested in buying. The Froogle site still lists itself as being in Beta and it doesn’t offer a whole lot more in the way of functionality than other sites like Price Grabber do, but if you’re a big Google fan then this will likely be a welcome addition.

I suppose they must be doing something right, though, otherwise I wouldn’t have written as much as I have about it. Those crafty devils!!

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David United States Posted on 03/30/2004 at 02:02 PM

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Froogle was around in December, don’t know how long before that. People are just noticing it? ouch. Doesn’t say much for Google’s PR department.

Les United States Posted on 03/30/2004 at 02:51 PM

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It’s been considered to be “in beta” up until just recently. You could use it, but it wasn’t an official service. Now there’s a link to it on the main Google page (which wasn’t there previously) along with the minor tweaks to the layout.

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VernR United States Posted on 03/30/2004 at 05:15 PM

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Les, a couple of days ago I came across a reference to Teoma. The feature that intrigued me was the way that it determines relevance by defining content related communities of web pages. Compared to Google, It doesn’t catalog as many web pages and doesn’t have as many features. I just wondered whether you or anyone else had worked with this engine enough to comment on its utility. 

Here are three links that provide some additional information.

A 1999 Scientific American article, Hypersearching the Web, discussing the underlying technology of Teoma and how it counts links differently than Google.
http://www.cs.cornell.edu/home/kleinber/sciam99.html

These are from Search Engine Watch: the ratings page placing Teoma in their Strongly Consider category—a step below their Top Choices, and a Jan. 2003 review describing Teoma’s latest release.

Ratings-- http://searchenginewatch.com/links/article.php/2156221
Product review-- http://searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/2161691

DaveR Great Britain (UK) Posted on 03/31/2004 at 09:47 AM

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The big change I have seen most people shouting about is the removal of links to the Directory from the front page

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