As you probably know, Reddit is a news voting service that ranks only behind Digg in this particular niche. That being said, the company is looking for a way to take their name and presence to the next level. The latest move made by those at Reddit is the decision to make the site’s code open source. What does this mean? Well, in simple terms it means that anybody can now make their own site that will perform and operate in an identical manner to Reddit and other voting services. That being said, clones of these services have been around since day one; it did not take an open source project to make this imitation a popular one. (more…)

Believe it or not, Yahoo is adding some top of the line features to its search engine. The reason for this, you may ask? Well, first off they want to make things easier on users. And of course, they want to add these major features in order to be able to better compete with Google. This may sound like a tall task, but Yahoo is taking a shot!

So what features has Yahoo added in order to make for a better search experience? For one, videos and images are now available from the main results page. Yahoo did a great job by offering this benefit without cluttering the main page. The music that can be played from this page is available from Yahoo Music. (more…)

There have been many rumors circulating about Microsoft making some much needed changes to its Live Search Engine. Well, it appears that these rumors have finally come to fruition. Obviously, if Microsoft is going to compete with Google and Yahoo as far as search engines are concerned, these changes need to improve the overall user experience.

The biggest change Microsoft is claiming is that of relevant search results. In other words, the results that are returned after a query are said to be closer to what the searcher is looking for; this is where Google really excels. Additionally, the Live search engine has also been updated to better handle common misspellings and abbreviations.

Many people will be surprised to find out that Microsoft’s research shows that they have matched Google in the relevant search department. Of course, this is something that users will have to decide on for themselves. If this claim is true, it will go a long way in helping Live Search Engine to increase its user base. (more…)

In January, rumors started to surface that Google was working on a virtual world to be based on their ever popular Google Earth platform. While these rumors were never confirmed or denied, it seems that the public is getting closer to answer as each day goes by. There is word circulating around the tech industry that Google will be testing their virtual world on the campus of Arizona State University.

Google Operating System has released the following information: Arizona State University students will have the chance to test a new product that is set to be launched late in 2007 by a major internet company. Additionally, this new product is said to be related to video games as well as social networking. As you can see, it appears that Google is doing all it can to build the hype around this new product before it becomes available to the rest of the world. (more…)

NBC has come to the conclusion that more and more people are less interested in watching television programs in the old fashion way. For this reason, they have announced a service in which viewers will be able to download programs for free to their personal computer or other electronic device.

After the show airs first on NBC television, it will then be available through this service for a week. Popular shows that are set to kick things off include The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and Heroes. For how popular these programs are on regular television, it will be interesting to see how many downloads this translates into. (more…)

‘Ask.com’ – the fourth most used search engine (behind the ranks of ‘Google’, ‘Yahoo!’, and ‘MSN’) – recently unveiled their new design last night at 9 PM PST. Ask.com now incorporates a more “pure” approach to their layout, with a simpler search box similar to that of Google’s. However, in comparison, Ask.com rises above the rest with a vibrant design and a newly introduced feature, “Skins” which allows the a more customized feel to the page (”Timber Brume” pictured below).

In addition, as opposed to other search engines, Ask.com pioneers the rest by allowing preferences such as “Advanced Search” and “Options” to appear in the same window, instead of opening a new page.Search results produced by Ask.com are tailored to the specific type of search the user is doing. For example, music-related searches, such as artist and songs, produce results that can include images to clips of songs. Search results displayed are also accompanied to the right of the screen with information from the wikipedia encyclopedia and the Ask.com dictionary. A new preview function on Ask.com – a pair of binoculars appearing before the website link – allows the user to view the page before he or she clicks on it. Results can also be bookmarked – by clicking the ‘+’ button – for future searches.

Most certainly a great user-interface, both efficient and concise, Ask.com is sure to rise to the top.

Sources
Ask.com
Tech Crunch