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New Media News Every Morning

Local.com releases UK site from beta

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local2.jpgLocal.com Corporation today announced the release of its UK site from beta status, as well as the launch of an enhanced user-interface that incorporates advanced search capabilities.

The new site offers a more streamlined look and feel on the search results page, including a three-column design that provides an intuitive navigation panel. Users can easily: Sort results by rating, distance, business name and category; Limit results to a defined radius; Filter results by related categories and nearby cities; Sort by star ratings and read user reviews; and Access recent searches, which are now automatically saved for easy reference.

“UK search is up almost 22 percent in 2006 according to Hitwise, and is expected to grow even further this year. The UK market represents a significant local search opportunity for our business,” said Bruce Crair, president and COO, Local.com. “Local.com offers our UK users very targeted search results for businesses, products and services. Our enhancements are designed to usher in a new experience in the UK local search market.”

Originally posted on September 26, 2007 @ 9:52 am

NeXplore taps blinkx for advanced video search

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nexplore.jpgNeXplore Corporation announced it has partnered with blinkx to provide advanced video search functionality for NeXplore Search, an innovative search engine optimized for a superior end-user experience and the delivery of highly targeted search, display and rich-media ads. NeXplore Search private beta launch is slated for later this month.

Under the terms of the agreement, blinkx will power video search for NeXplore Search, allowing the new search engine to leverage results from blinkx’s index of over 14 million hours of searchable audio-visual content. NeXplore and blinkx will share revenue generated from ads accompanying video or audio search results displayed on a co-branded results page.

Originally posted on September 27, 2007 @ 5:35 am

Google remains dominant in August U.S. Search Engine Rankings

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comScore, Inc., a global leader in measuring the digital world, recently released the August U.S. Search Engine Rankings. As expected, Google Sites remained the top search property with more than 5.5 billion core searches conducted, representing a 56.5 percent share of the search market and gaining 1.3 share points versus the previous month.

Yahoo! Sites ranked second with 23.3 percent, followed by Microsoft Sites (11.3 percent), Time Warner Networks (4.5 percent) and Ask Network (4.5 percent). Time Warner Network was the only other core search engine property to increase share, up 0.1 share point to 4.5 percent, with 441 million searches.

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In comScore’s recently introduced expanded search report, the largest gains were recorded by YouTube and Craigslist, with 9.0-percent and 7.6-percent increases in their number of search queries. Get more details here

While these monthly stats offer good insights, it would be better if comScore can highlight some key factors affecting the monthly trends. I guess this is an overkill for something free.

Originally posted on September 24, 2007 @ 10:26 pm

Critical Media releases privates beta of Syndicaster, first online real-time clip creation and distribution platform for broadcasters

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criticalmention.jpgCritical Media Inc.,a real-time video search, syndication and information services company, today announced the private beta release of Syndicaster, the broadcast industry’s first free, completely web-based platform for the rapid creation and distribution of broadcast media assets with associated meta-data and text.

Syndicaster, to be operated by the company’s new Broadcaster Services Group, radically simplifies getting broadcast assets off the air and onto the web within moments of airtime, enabling rapid and wide distribution of fully searchable broadcast media assets, in multiple formats, in near real-time. By including text transcripts with other meta-data, Syndicaster will bring video search in line with text search standards. Private beta sign-up is being offered immediately to U.S. broadcasters upon request and qualification.

Syndicaster frees broadcasters from their dependency on legacy solutions that require personnel to be on location at hardware/software stations; each carrying per seat renewal licenses, and often other fees for clip creation and distribution. Requiring no hardware, no software, but rather, a free user name and password to Syndicaster, in-house or outsourced editors can login from anywhere, create fully searchable video clips midstream, download and immediately publish them to their station or station group’s web site as well as to Critical Media’s ad-supported video syndication platform, ClipSyndicate.

Originally posted on September 24, 2007 @ 1:20 pm

Music search and discovery tool for Apple iPod Touch unveiled

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seeqpod.jpgSeeqPod, the search engine technology company specializing in playable search results, today release SeeqPod Music Search & Discovery for the Apple iPod Touch. SeeqPod also recently announced its compatibility with the iPhone, enabling users everywhere to access the Internet’s vast catalog of media more easily and freely.

“The amount of music on the Internet is much larger than music found in localized catalogs or physical inventories,” said Kasian Franks, co-founder and CEO, SeeqPod, Inc. “It’s also a well known fact now that the Internet has a growing inventory filled with mashups, mixes and music of all kinds.” Franks added, “SeeqPod understands that today and in the future search results need to be played in order for relevance to be apparent.”

Originally posted on September 19, 2007 @ 10:23 am