Nov 12
If you find yourself searching the same sites and using the same criteria over and over, you can simplify things and save yourself a lot of time by using Google’s Custom Search.
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Nov 11
This article was written on August 06, 2008 by CyberNet.
We’ve been wondering when Google was going to get into the music game, and it appears as though they’re diving in head-first starting today. The only catch is that the service is only available in China. Users outside of China will need to use a China proxy if they want to gain access to the site.
Google’s Music search site, available at www.google.cn/music, has a database of tens of thousands of songs. All of them are of course searchable by song name, artist, or album. The most shocking part is that Google then provides links to listen or download songs from their Top100.cn music partner. Lyrics and ringtones are also available.
I checked out the content on Top100.cn, and it looks like they have a lot from North America. MP3 download links are directly available on their site without needing to go through Google, but I wasn’t able to successfully start a transfer of a song (the download just sat there without doing anything). They’re likely blocking downloads from outside of China… bummer.
I’m not holding my breath for something like this in the United States because there’s no way the RIAA would allow it. It’s just amazing that the songs are not only freely available for download, but they aren’t even DRM-infested.
[via Google Blogoscoped]
Copyright © 2013 CyberNetNews.com
Nov 07
Google’s XE11 update for Glass may have added calendar and custom location support, but that’s not the only personalized search that the wearable now offers. Glass can now search through Google photos with a custom speech search command, so for instance it’s now possible to ask “OK Glass, Google my pictures for cats” and see […]
Nov 05
With the Nexus 5 and Android 4.4 KitKat, Google begins an age in which their Google Now service is right up front and center – and you can opt-out from the outset. What you’ll find when you first start up the Nexus 5 is a series of option pages, much like versions of Android before […]
Nov 01
Those without a Nexus 5 in their hands already may not have noticed the fact that a brand new home screen feature has been added to Android 4.4 KitKat: Google Now. This system has been part of Android for several iterations of the OS now – a couple of generations, that is – but this […]
Oct 28
This article was written on November 04, 2010 by CyberNet.
Most current operating systems include some sort of indexed file searching functionality, and with that you can often get instant results back on any query you perform. As I pointed out a few weeks ago those tools still leave some things to be desired… especially when dealing with searching the contents of files for some particular text.
FileSeek falls in line with the MariusSoft File Searcher in that it does a great job searching the contents of any file you desire. Both are free utilities that don’t require any files to be indexed prior to kicking off a search, and they are pretty fast at getting results. Both also let you use regular expressions to search for text in a file, but FileSeek is the only one that has Windows Explorer context menu integration. If you regularly perform file searches that can become quite useful.
Here are some of the features highlighted by the developer:
- Search for text string matches inside any kind of file
- Match Regular Expressions inside any kind of file
- Search a folder and all of it’s sub-folders
- Match 1 or more file patterns, like *.jpg, file?.txt or anything else you can imagine
- Exclude 1 or more file patterns from your search, like *.exe or *.dll
- Filter results by the last modified date
- Never indexes files in the background
When you go to grab the download you may overlook the tiny text underneath the download button that offers a version without an installer. That’s the version I tend to lean towards, but you can always grab the installer version if you want all the shortcuts and stuff to be created for you. It’s free either way you decide to go.
FileSeek Homepage (Windows only; 32/64-bit compatible; Freeware)
Copyright © 2013 CyberNetNews.com
Oct 26
This article was written on November 21, 2007 by CyberNet.
Back in October Google’s Vice President of search products, Marissa Mayer, said that less than 1% of Google’s visitors use the I’m Feeling Lucky button. I wasn’t surprised to hear that it was used that little, but despite being such a small percentage it still has a big impact on Google.
When users click on the I’m Feeling Lucky button they are immediately taken to the website of the first result. That means they bypass the search results page all together, and thereby miss all of the ads. Although the I’m Feeling Lucky button gets little usage analysts are estimating that having the button costs Google $110 million in ad revenue every year.
I’m sure the estimated revenue from the button is a little bit off since we don’t know exact usage stats, but the fact of the matter is that it costs them millions of dollars. Google is leaving that button there simply because people have grown accustomed to see it, but who would have thought that they would lose out on millions of dollars because of it?
[via Valleywag]
Copyright © 2013 CyberNetNews.com
Oct 24
This article was written on March 29, 2011 by CyberNet.
One of the things I’ve always enjoyed when using Google is the additional information they will provide you with at the top of your search results. The list includes things like weather info, calculation results, sports scores, and more. All of this means you don’t have to turn to another site just to find the answers to these quick questions.
The DuckDuckGo search engine is another great resource that puts data from dozens of third-party sources at the top of your results. When it is relavent DuckDuckGo will show information from sites such as Wikipedia, Merriam-Webster dictionary, WolframAlpha, and dozens of others. All of this should mean that you won’t have to sift through results to find the answer to some of your basic questions. Too lazy to look out the window? Just ask it if it is raining and it will use its location-aware skills to see if it is raining in your location.
Aside from that this is a search engine, and that is where this may be hit or miss for some of you. Instead of being powered by Google this uses Bing for the search results. Some of you may prefer that, while I’m sure others won’t even consider using it for this very reason.
If you do decide to give DuckDuckGo a try you’ll want to sift through the settings because there are a lot of things you can customize. You can change the appearance/colors, remove ads, take a look at keyboard shortcuts, configure auto paging so that you can continuously scroll through results, and much more. You’ll also want to check out these resources to see what kind of calculations and special searches are possible:
- General Searches: basic calculations, dates, facts, geography, IDs, properties, random numbers, time, and more.
- Math/Programming Searches: advanced calculations, conversions, computing, formulas, physical properties, transformations, and more.
The one thing I really love is the way this brings in WolframAlpha data… because there is so much info available on that site but I frequently forget to use it for my searches. Since I’ve started using DuckDuckGo I’ve noticed that there are even more answers available on WolframAlpha that I didn’t even realize they had.
Copyright © 2013 CyberNetNews.com
Oct 21
Yahoo has been denied a request to delay Microsoft’s Bing search in Taiwan, something that is required under a partnership the company has with Microsoft. The reason cited was the upcoming Microsoft CEO shift, with Yahoo’s CEO Mayer wishing to delay the search in Hong Kong and Taiwan until Microsoft appointed a new chief executive […]
Oct 11
Calculating out a tip can be achieved using an app or by breaking out your handset’s calculator, but neither is quite as simple as asking your phone how much the tip on your bill should be and having the answer appear. Such is perhaps the inspiration behind the latest Google Search app update, which adds […]
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