17/04/2008 by swordfish.

A concerted international effort could see the end of websites that profit by selling images of child sex abuse, a leading action group has said.

The UK’s Internet Watch Foundation conducted research to identify how many sites trade such images and concluded there are 2,755 such sites worldwide. Of these, 80% are judged to be fully commercial operations.

The IWF said this “manageable” number could be eliminated if net firms, governments and police worked together.

Source: BBC News

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27/09/2007 by swordfish.

Microsoft has unveiled major changes to its Live Search service intended to give it a better foothold in its ongoing battle with Google.

The Redmond giant has concentrated its improvements on the nuts and bolts of the search engine, enhancing its core search technology and strengthening the vertical search areas of entertainment, shopping, local and health.

“With this update, our engineering focus is on the areas that matter most to the 185 million consumers who use our service every month,” said Satya Nadella, corporate vice president of Microsoft’s Search and Advertising Platform Group.

Up to 40 per cent of searches fall into the categories of entertainment, shopping, health and local search, and the enhanced Live Search is geared towards delivering relevant content in a compelling way across these key vertical search areas.

A new video search feature offers smart motion previews, facts and news on celebrities and a new xRank celebrity ranking tool. The shopping and health searches have also been refreshed to derive the most relevant content from trusted sources, allowing consumers to refine searches faster and with more accuracy.

Source: Yahoo News UK

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22/09/2007 by swordfish.

A new search engine has launched in the UK that lets users win prizes as they search.

Wabbadabba is powered by Yahoo and will award up to 15 prizes at random times throughout the day, ranging from Amazon vouchers to TV sets.

Every time a user enters a search on the site, they have chance of winning one of the prizes even if they do not click on any of the links.

“Wabbadabba finally proves that there is such a thing as a free lunch,” said Ben Akin-Smith, head of innovation at Wabbadabba. “We aim to add a bit of fun to a task that has become a part of every day life for most people who use a computer either at work or at home. The average person typically does 10 to 12 searches a day, so that is a lot of chances to win.”

Prizes are limited to three per household per month. The vast majority are £5 and £10 Amazon vouchers, but the company insisted that higher value prizes will be given out. Future prizes could also include vouchers for retailers such as Play.com, iTunes and Argos.

Source: Yahoo News

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