Image via Wikipedia

Are you using the all new Internet Explorer 8? Of course you aren’t. But, just in case you are, Alex Chitu at the unofficial Google Operating System blog sets out some new search features in IE8 that make it just a little more “spayshul.” Check out the link for screenshots and more detailed explanations. However, if you just want the quick lowdown, check these out:

• prefix a query with a “?” in the search bar to find results from your default search engine;
• see previously visited pages matching your typed text (titles and URLs only);
• use as search engine direclty without typing the query in the IE search box;
• find matches of the query in search results, using “find”;
• automatically apply distinct colors to tabs to facilitate identification;
• employ “search provides” to familiar sites, such as Wikipedia, Yahoo, Live Search and Amazon;
• use “accelerators” to secure added useful information about selected text on a page, such as address mapping, translation and bookmarking from a little menu overlay;

Nice for IE8 – these tweaks get it a bit closer to the competition, which is still enjoying a commanding lead.

Hat tip to Lifehacker.

Image by Mark Coggins via Flickr

Everyone who is anyone in tech or an afficianado with respect to Dancing With The Stars knows Steve Wozniak, the Segue-loving, polo-playing, ever-smiling computer genius co-founder of Apple. Apparently Steve still knows a good thing when he sees it: he has just accepted a position on the advisory board of the research engine DeepDyve.  DeepDyve is a semantic search engine that scours the elusive deep web. I touched on it in an earlier post on semantic search engines and I have used it several times with decent results.

The deep web is as vast as our own ocean depths and, like the depths, is not easily accessible. Sarah Perez at ReadWriteWeb estimates that 99.8% of the web consists of this elusive data.

I didn’t realize this, but DeepDyve’s search algorithm was developed by scientists that originally worked on the Human Genome Project. DeepDyve uses similar pattern matching and analysis across large amounts of data in a very unique and effective way.

Another unique quality: Perez notes that the more text you enter into the search box, the more relevant the results. This is contrary to the usual experience with search engines, where more text tends to skew results in unintended ways.

The biggest complaint about DeepDyve to date appears to be its user interface, which is less than compelling. Never fear, though, as Woz has been tasked with improving the DeepDyve user experience.

How cool is that?

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

While Google apps like Gmail and Reader seem to get all the love and press, Google has been tweaking its search function in little ways and is testing the semantic waters with its big toe. There are two new features that the casual researcher may notice. Google searches will now yield longer “search snippet” results when more complicated queries are submitted. More importantly, Google will now offer semantically-related results for some search queries. The bottom of the page will include suggested searches that are related to your original search. When you follow the links, you may secure even further related searches at the bottom.

How will these tweaks aid you, the humble searcher? The more specific your search query, the more likely the related semantic searches will yield additional research fruit. And the more context your complex query affords, the easier it is to find results that fit your parameters.

Good for you, Google! Welcome to Web 3.0!