Monthly Archives: July 2013

Gigablast goes open source

31 Wednesday Jul 2013

Posted by in Academic search, Spotted in the news

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The Gigablast search-engine has open sourced its search-engine code and technology at GutHub…

“An open source web and enterprise search engine for Linux on Intel/AMD. Currently in use on Gigablast.com. A robust, scalable search solution in 100% custom C/C++ that has
been in development and used commercially since 2000. Distributed web crawler. Supports any document conversion plugin to convert PDF, etc. to HTML”

Code currently lacking, though, any “Boolean query support”. That probably doesn’t matter, though, since only a miniscule fraction of seachers actually use Boolean.

Bing Images introduces CC filters

27 Saturday Jul 2013

Posted by in Spotted in the news

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Bing Images has added a new “License” drop-down menu item, allowing a modified search for public domain and Creative Commons images. UK users won’t see it, unless you tell Bing you’re located in the USA, via the settings. I’m in the UK, and Bing accepted my country change without query, and without having to “sign in”.

A test search for “Lovecraft” then showed that the straight Public Domain filter is useful with the right keywords, but that the other CC search modifiers give deeply misleading results. Even the Public Domain filter can be misleading. For instance, a simple search for “monster” brought up the logo for the KISS rock band, screenshots of Monster High and Sesame Street, and Japanese anime.