A great article on the BBC website about the amendments to the Google search algorithm. The new “Knowledge Graph” means that Google can link words together to form a greater meaning more focused results to search queries.

The official Google blog has full information.

“Google has revamped its search engine in an attempt to offer instant answers to search questions.

A new function, the Knowledge Graph, will make the site’s algorithms act “more human”, the site said in a blog post. The feature will at first be available to US-based users, but will be rolled out globally in due course. It follows similar efforts by rival Bing to provide added search content beyond the typical list of links.

Microsoft’s search engine launched its “snapshot” column last week as part of a wider site redesign. Google’s senior vice-president of engineering, Amit Singhal, explained that, until now, the search engine had been able only to match keywords, rather than understand context. Mr Singhal said the words “Taj Mahal” could mean different things to different people. “You might think of one of the world’s most beautiful monuments, or a Grammy Award-winning musician, or possibly even a casino in Atlantic City, NJ. Or, depending on when you last ate, the nearest Indian restaurant,” he said.

Key information

Google said the Knowledge Graph has been programmed to use around 3.5 billion different attributes to organise results, meaning it could now group results according to those various alternative interpretations.

For some searches, such as on prominent people, Google will automatically pull up a summary box with key information on that topic. The next step, Mr Singhal said, is to look at how the site can answer more complex questions, such as “What are the 10 deepest lakes in Africa?”

In doing so the search engine would need to draw on multiple sources and factor in many different criteria. This kind of computational, intelligent search is currently pioneered by the likes of Wolfram Alpha – a site that gathers verified data, such as from the World Health Organization, to provide statistical results.

It has long been a technological goal to produce search engines that could react entirely naturally to human-like queries. One such effort includes the search engine Ask Jeeves, where users can ask a stereotypically English butler for help.”

exSite designed and developed a website that is complex, but still controllable with a simple to use WordPress content management system. exSite also manages their emails, and advised/enabled them to also register the domain jlg.ie to provide an easy to use @jlg.ie email address. exSite now provides complete website management outsourcing.

Cartoon thanks to Private Eye, 6 April 2012

We designed, developed and launched the Young Fine Gael referendum website http://yfg.ie/euref/ in just 3 days thanks to Ricardi (our new designer), Graz (our legend Lead Designer) and Sarah O’Connor – the uner organised and professional National Youth Officer of Fine Gael.

Last week was great fun as we had a couple of high pressure projects on around the EU Stability Treaty Referendum that is coming up at the end of the month.

We designed, developed and launched the Young Fine Gael referendum website http://yfg.ie/euref/ in just 3 days thanks to Ricardi (our new designer), Graz (our legend Lead Designer) and Sarah O’Connor – the uner organised and professional National Youth Officer of Fine Gael.

The IE Domain Registry has noted a steady demand for .ie domains from Irish micro-businesses and sole traders in the first quarter of this year.

Register your .ie Irish domain with exSite!

We have a lot of experience registering .ie domains. The Irish top-level-domain is among the best regulated in the world. Talk to our domain specialist Sarah (sarah@exsite.ie) about choosing the right domain for your business (with your future SEO strategy in mind), and then getting the support to register it. exSite can manage the entire process for you, including registering a company name.

See also http://businessetc.thejournal.ie/rise-of-12-2-per-cent-in-ie-domain-registrations-421582-Apr2012/