Searching for PlusNet?
An interesting article popped up on El Reg today.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/03/06/google_second_search/
Basically it discusses a new feature of Google, whereby if you search for something, and Google thinks it likely that you'll then want to refine your search, it give you an extra search box specifically for searching that site.
The ability to use Google to only search within a specific site is nothing new, <site:plus.net Home Phone> for example.
What is new however is the way that it now automatically presents a search box for some sites that it thinks you might want to search for other stuff on.
Strangely, Google doesn't expect that you'd actually want to search for anything on a site such as eBay Results for Google search for eBay however it does think that if you want something fron PlusNet, you ought to be able to search for it within the PlusNet site Results for Google search for PlusNet
Nothing particularly huge about this feature for many folks, but it might make life a little easier.
I wonder if anybody can find other odd sites which you'd expect to be given their own search box in the results, that isn't.
A search for BT doesn't return a site specific search box ATM http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=bt&meta=
Nor does Zen , or *spits* Talk Talk, but a search for Tiscali does return a result with a site-specific search box.
I wonder if part of it is down to coding standards on sites? I thought perhaps that eBay didn't give a box as the content changes so frequently that indexing it reliably would take a lot of resource, but Google include eBay results elsewhere....
Anyway, you might get a few seconds of fun out of looking for sites that do, and don't get their own box..... I know it kept me amused for 20seconds or so (then somewhat longer to write this post....)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/03/06/google_second_search/
Basically it discusses a new feature of Google, whereby if you search for something, and Google thinks it likely that you'll then want to refine your search, it give you an extra search box specifically for searching that site.
The ability to use Google to only search within a specific site is nothing new, <site:plus.net Home Phone> for example.
What is new however is the way that it now automatically presents a search box for some sites that it thinks you might want to search for other stuff on.
Strangely, Google doesn't expect that you'd actually want to search for anything on a site such as eBay Results for Google search for eBay however it does think that if you want something fron PlusNet, you ought to be able to search for it within the PlusNet site Results for Google search for PlusNet
Nothing particularly huge about this feature for many folks, but it might make life a little easier.
I wonder if anybody can find other odd sites which you'd expect to be given their own search box in the results, that isn't.
A search for BT doesn't return a site specific search box ATM http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=bt&meta=
Nor does Zen , or *spits* Talk Talk, but a search for Tiscali does return a result with a site-specific search box.
I wonder if part of it is down to coding standards on sites? I thought perhaps that eBay didn't give a box as the content changes so frequently that indexing it reliably would take a lot of resource, but Google include eBay results elsewhere....
Anyway, you might get a few seconds of fun out of looking for sites that do, and don't get their own box..... I know it kept me amused for 20seconds or so (then somewhat longer to write this post....)
