Month: July 2009

8 weeks since the launch of BlindSearch and I figured i”s about time to report some numbers back

Query count: 559,239

Results: Google: 41%, Bing: 31%, Yahoo: 28%

Top 10 search terms:

	Web	Image
12 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10	Mashablegoogle bing test sex michael jackson linux microsoft yahoo porn	sexporn google boobs megan fox bing pussy apple tits nude

5% of search queries come from the OpenSearch provider.

Served up 9GB worth of data, which is pretty amazing for a mostly text site.

Received major blog coverage from the big hitters like istartedsomething, Mashable, The Next Web, Louis Gray, Reddit, John Battell and Techmeme! And some major twitter lovin. All of which have great ongoing discussion on the subject of search minus the brand. To summarise the general commentary there seem to be a few categories:

• A “meh” button: Many have commented on how the results are too alike to choose from. Many seem to struggle to choose one result the others.
• More than “10 blue links”: Many have commented on how BlindSearch is interesting but search has evolved beyond a list of results. They commented on how they expected to do more with their results like view a map or images inline, preview results, quick access to related queries etc.
• Surprise: Many were surprised that Google wasn’t always their choice. There were many instances of surprise that Google wasn’t as superior as they thought it was.
• Who to hate: Possibly my favourite comments centred around some peoples intent not to pick Microsoft and being surprised when they did. Two if my fav comments ‘”How can we hate on Microsoft if we don’t know which results are theirs?”  and “OH GOD NO I VOTED FOR BING!!!!“

BlindSearch has been a great exercise and has really driven home that we’e only just begun with search. Thank to to all of you who keep using it and have found value in it. Please keep spreading the word.

-mk

We’re looking for a new Audience Lead at work. You will be managing many of the evangelists (including me) and marketers in DPE. This is a kick ass job, with great responsibility and frankly we want to ensure we get the right person for the gig.

The formal job description can be found here.

But Andrew Coates and I have put together a video to talk about what we expect from a lead. If this is you, pls apply for the role or contact your friendly evangelist.

Here’s your opportunity to join our team and if you’e ever hung around with us, you know this is one of the best jobs in the world!

UPDATE: I’ve published the results from the first 8 weeks of BlindSearch here.

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http://blindsearch.fejus.com

I thought i”d be fun to see what happens when you do a search that doesn’t have branding. Are we swayed by the branding of our favourite search engines?

To figure it out, I thought I’d try my hands at building a ‘“Blind Search”. Basically, you enter a query, get back three results in random order then select the column which you believe gave you the best results.

Will be interesting to see the results.

Check it out over at http://blindsearch.fejus.com/, Have fun!

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update #1: The poll has been compromised. Probably equally due to my lack of leet skills and to the malicious person gaming it.

I’ve removed the ability to see the results until I sort this out. Meanwhile you can still have fun playing with blind search. Feel free to blame the douche for ruining it for everybody. Meanwhile, I wouldn’t take this a scientific whats-e-ma-jing, it’s just a bit of observational fun.

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update #2: I have introduced a basic image search