Bing the new bling is live !!!

It really bothers me when I try to search for something, cant find it and will have to try numerous permutations of search patterns to find the answer I need. Enough ! with the learning of how to search. I am really tired of it and would like to see the search engines to be more intuitive in helping me to refine my searches.

Enter Bing, the new bling !!!

Bing stands for But It’s Not Google (not sure if this is official). Kudos to Microsoft for coming up with what seems to be a wonder decision engine. Bing was presented to the world for display for the first time last Thursday. Finally we have a search engine a.k.a decision engine that would return more than just blue links. Bing seems to be a nice concoction of the following search engines: Regular, News, Travel , Health, Local and shopping search engines.

I call Bing the new bling because of the potential it has in making a lot of Ad revenue for Microsoft. I think Microsoft did a very clever upgrade to its LIVE search and can’t wait to get a hands on experience with this rich search engine on June 3rd when it is made public. In the mean while check out the cool video presentation of Bing in action here.

We all understand that it is not just enough to have a great product in your shelf. All that matters is; how deep can Bing penetrate into rivals territory? With a wonderful product like this I am more than positive that this will happen soon. There is no doubt that this is a major improvement over the current version of MS-Search a.k.a Live. Getting this product out into the market is the easiest part, it will be a very tough task to coax people to start using Bing instead of Google. With a well placed awareness campaign and an appealing advertising strategic (not like the dumb PC- Apple ads) this can be achieved.

Update: 06/01/09 – 9:00 pm

Bing is live now and it is as good as it was in the preview video. After the first few search’s, I have already started liking the quick view, the related searches, advanced search options and the search history sections on the results page. My searching experience has definitely gotten more richer today and refining the results got much simpler. If you have not tried binging yet, I am sure you will soon enough. Happy Binging !

A couple of other features that might give more mileage would be 1) to let users who to save their searchs, 2) to let the users to bookmark the desired results. Just think about it how many times would you have searched for the same thing over and over again. Saving the search results and bookmarking will totaling eliminate this headache. This way the user is kinda forced to not leave the Bing for another search engine, coz of the saved stuff

The way the results are presented is very impressive. The results page has the following features:

1. Best Match – Provides useful links and information for definitive sites.
2. Quick Preview – Summarizes a Web site at a glance, before the searcher clicks through to the site.
3. Instant Answers – Serves up information within search results, eliminating the need to click on anything.
4. xRank – Lets you quickly see if your favorite celebrity is hot or not.
5. Quick Tabs – Tailors search results with one click.
6. Related Searches – Offers a list of queries that are relevant to your topic; in this case, a search for U2 delivers some of the band’s popular videos in the search results page.
7. Rich Listing Results – Offers a quick snapshot of information relevant to your decision, such as restaurant location, phone number, one-click directions and menu.
8. Sentiment Extraction – Bing summarizes user and expert reviews from across the Web to help you make an informed decision.
9. Hotel Rate Key – Uses a color-coded rating system that indicates whether the current rate for a specific hotel appears to be a deal.
10. Health – Bing provides access to medical information on symptoms, diagnosis and medical procedures from nine trusted medical resources.
11. Travel – Shows the best deals on flights and hotel accommodations so you can make informed decisions about your travel arrangements.

On a lighter note: What does Chandler in Friends and Microsoft Search have in Common? Answer: Bing !!!, it appears as though the person instrumental in naming this searching engine, is also a big fan of the character “Chandler Bing” [2] in the famous TV sitcom Friends [3].

References:
1. Bing Visual Presskit
2. Chandler Bing
3. Friends – Wikipedia

Do you know what “Wi-Fi” stands for?

I was watching Cash Cab [1], one of my favorite shows on Discovery Channel yesterday. One of the questions the host asked was “What is the full form of the abbreviation Wi-Fi [2]?” I thought I knew this for a second… yes it stands for Wireless Internet… then on second thought in a split second it did not make sense to me. I was surprised and angry that I did not know what “Fi” stands for. My guess was as good as that of the passengers in the cab and they got a second strike on that question…..

Wi-Fi stands for Wireless Fidilety according to the host of Cash cab. I was disappointed that I did not know such a simple thing after hearing this abbreviation for umpteen number of times. I did some research about this to know from background and it surprised me that the host was not entirely correct, read on, you will also know why:

Wi-Fi stands for nothing. It is a brand name, coined by a brand consulting firm called Interbrand Corporation that had been hired by the Alliance to determine a name that was “a little catchier than ‘IEEE 802.11b Direct Sequence’ [2]. Wi-Fi suggests wireless fidelity (Fidelity: to adhere to promises) and this slogan/meaning is not in use anymore.

A couple of more Fi’s:
1. Hi-Fi stands for High Fidelity
2. Sci-Fi stands for Science Fiction

References:
1. Cash Cab.
2. Wi-Fi: Wikipedia.
3. Interbrand: Wikipedia.

Sixth sense from MIT labs

I was totally amazed by watching this super cool video about the latest technological invention by a PhD candidate from MIT. Pranav Mistry [1] is the genius behind Sixth Sense, a wearable device that enables new interactions between the real world and the world of data.

This demo — from Pattie Maes’ lab at MIT, spearheaded by Pranav Mistry — was the buzz of TED [2]. It’s a wearable device with a projector that paves the way for profound interaction with our environment. Imagine “Minority Report” [3] and then some.

References:
1. Pranav Mistry
2. TED (Technology, Education, Design)
3. Minority Report

SQL Server: How to search for a number in a string?

Following is an efficient way of searching for all numeric values in a string using the PatIndex function:

–Create a table variable
declare @address table(addressId int identity(1,1), addressvalue varchar(50))

–Add some ficticious data
insert into @address values(‘James st, MN’)
insert into @address values(‘James st, CA’)
insert into @address values(‘6 James st, IL’)
insert into @address values(‘5 James st, VA’)
insert into @address values(‘James st, TX’)

–Query to return all the addressvalues with numbers
select addressValue from @address where patindex(‘%[0-9]%’,addressvalue) <> 0

–Result
addressvalue
—————–
6 James st, IL
5 James st, VA