Microsoft’s Local Search Algorithm A Privacy Nightmare?

Local search is big and everyone is jumping into this segment. And for a fact, we all tend to realize that the local results from major search engines is nothing to brag about; except if you are in a high internet density area like New York or San Francisco.

While companies have been devising different ways to go local, Microsoft’s new technology seems to offer you very relevant local search results; except that it can be a privacy nightmare.

In a patent filed recently with the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), Microsoft has described a new way to rank local search results. The inventors cite the following issues with current search results

• Search engines make use of link authority to rank results. While they are good for most cases, they are not exactly relevant when a person is searching for say ‘Italian restaurants near MG Road, Bangalore’. This is because restaurants around MG Road in Bangalore might not necessarily have good PR value
• Some search engines make use of  ’click popularity’ where sites which have been clicked a higher number of times tend to be ranked higher. These sites create a positive feedback loop which does not help in showing the relevant results

To overcome these, Microsoft has proposed the usage of the users’ access log in order to study the pages visited in a specific time period and build an implicit pagerank for pages from the user log which will be used as a factor while  displaying search results. So in the earlier example, if the user has visited BangaloreRestaurants.com, results from this website could fetch higher weightage than results from a site like Yelp.

Microsoft says this technology will be particularly useful while ranking pages from intranet websites. While the algorithm sounds interesting, making use of a user’s access log sounds scary. Users are not always comfortable giving third party websites access to the sites they visit. Something does not sound right in Microsoft’s plan to record this log, processing them for implicit pageranking and delivering results back to the user.

What do you think? Are the fears justified or are they unfounded?

Zune Phone : Further Evidence That It’s Coming

If Apple, Google can make their foray into the handset business, why can’t Microsoft do the same? Now there is further evidence that the much rumored Zune phone might actually be coming.

Folks at IStartedSomething have detected a few lines of code referencing to the elusive Zune Phone in a recently updated Zune software. This Zune.INF file, which is responsible for devices connected to the Zune driver explicitly mentions Zune Phone as one of the devices recognized. Here is an excerpt of the code from the file

%Zune.DeviceDesc% = ZuneMTPZUSB, USB\MS_COMP_MTPZ
%Zune.DeviceDesc% = ZuneMTPZUSB, USB\VID_045E&PID_0710
%Zune.DeviceDesc% = ZuneMTPZUSB, USB\VID_045E&PID_063E
%Phone.DeviceDesc% = ZuneMTPZUSB, USB\VID_045E&PID_0640
%Phone.DeviceDesc% = ZuneMTPZUSB, USB\VID_045E&PID_0641
%Phone.DeviceDesc% = ZuneMTPZUSB, USB\VID_045E&PID_0642

With an announcement regarding this very much expected during the Mobile World Congress to be held next month, this discovery has reignited hopes of us being able to see a Microsoft phone soon.

[via I Started Something]

Windows Seven To Launch In Q4 2010?

There has been a lot of confusion regarding the release dates of Windows 6.6 and Windows Mobile 7. DigiTimes has now revealed that its sources have confirmed that Windows 6.6 shall launch during the Mobile World Congress to be held next month while the date for Seven’s launch will be announced at the same time.

It is believed that Microsoft’s Windows Seven will be available to the manufacturers by September 2010 who will then be able to launch Seven powered devices by Q4 2010. Apparently, there are a lot of manufacturers here – Samsung, LG, HTC, Toshiba and Asus to name a few. Windows Mobile Seven is also expected to support Zune, Xbox and Silverlight.

[via Digitimes]

Microsoft-Facebook Ad Deal : There’s More To The Story

The blogosphere is abuzz with the news that Microsoft has lost a significant chunk of the advertising partnership that it had inked with Facebook and is renegotiating the deal.

You might recall that all of this follows Microsoft’s investment of close to $240 million in the world’s biggest social network when they also subsequently clinched a deal to display Microsoft ads in some markets.

So why has the deal fallen through now, and is this permanent? The answer is possibly NO to both these questions. Firstly, the Facebook of today is not the same Facebook that Microsoft invested in. When Microsoft pumped its money into Facebook back in 2007, the social network had less than 100 million users. Today, it is inching towards 400 million users. With a diversified user base, Microsoft’s predominantly US-targeted ad network does not make much sense.

However, this might not be a permanent reversal as well. You might remember that Microsoft is working on a social network targeted advertising platform which will promote products to users based on thei product’s recommendations from the visitors’ friends and network. It is possible that once Microsoft launches this technology, Facebook could, in all probability, replace its existing ‘Like’ option on ads with Microsoft’s recommendation feature.

What do you think?

Internet Explorer To Come With A Dashboard To Manage All Open Tabs?

The default windows of Google Chrome and a few other browsers show a thumbnail of all the recently viewed websites. Taking this a step further, Microsoft wants you to be able to organize your open-tabs better.

In a patent filed recently at the US Patent and Trademark Office, Microsoft writes that the purpose of a ‘Quick Pick’ interface is to help users who have several dozens of tabs open a quick way to surf through all open tabs and pick the right window.

Here is what we know about the Quick-Pick Interface

• A Quick-pick button shall be available on the navigation menu of the browser and it could additionally come with a hot-key
• Pressing the same will open the Quick-Pick Interface which will display the open tabs in thumbnail fashion
• Hover your mouse over any of the thumbnails to see a bigger picture of the window

• Reorganize your tabs by dragging the thumbnails across on the Quick-Pick interface
• Close all unwanted tabs from the Quick-pick interface
• Click on the tab you want to go to on the Quick-pick interface

The Quick-Pick interface appears to serve as a dashboard from where you may manage all your open windows. But I wonder how many users will actually need such an interface to manage tabs. Except for the power users (who I believe have migrated away from IE a long time back), not many would see a need for this. What do you think?

Windows Mobile 7 To Come In Two Versions?

Folks at WMExperts are reporting that they have heard from several sources that Windows Mobile 7 shall actually come in two versions – Business Edition and Media edition.  It is also said that the official name for WinMo 7 shall actually be “Seven” and also it is possible that the two editions are referred by more fanciful names and not just ‘Business’ and ‘Media’ plainly.

So, what else do we know? Here are some specs gathered from another rumor posted at MobileCrunch

• Very different from WinMo 6.X and is also backwards incompatible
• Very close to Zune HD kernel and shall work best on OLED screens
• Seven will use Apple-like notification system
• Will not have background processing
• It does not come with any customization – No system resource access, threaded processing
• Based to a major extent on Silverlight and .NET and will not run WinMo 6.X code
• Focused majorly on Business functionalities and Gaming (including Xbox Live functionality)

The actual announcement is expected to happen on February 15.

[via WMExperts, MobileCrunch]

Microsoft Developing User-Generated Advertising Model

You could soon be seeing your friends recommend products for you on your social network. Microsoft has filed a patent for a new advertising method for generating User-Generated-Advertisements.

The patent elaborates on the low engagement level in ads on social networks because of the low relevance factor. To solve this, the patent calls for a new technique wherein the original ad can be supplemented with user reviews – positive and negative.

In the filing, the inventors say that subsequent visitors to the website could be shown few of those reviews based on relevance (reviewer is the new visitor’s friend, they have similar interests, etc.). Here is an example quoted in the patent

” Advertisement 400 includes objective information 401 describing a product or service that is the subject of the advertisement 400. The objective information 401 is generally provided by a promoter of the product.”

“In other information fields 403, 405, and 407, information is presented that was provided by users of the social networking web site. This information can be subjective in nature, such as the accolade provided by “USER1″ in other information field 403.”

“if both the user which provided the information and the user to whom the advertisement is being presented are both members of the same social network (e.g., the users are “friends” or a functional equivalent within the social networking site), the information provided by the user is presented as part of the advertisement. Other criteria can also be applied in determining the amount of information to present.”

The patent emphasizes the use of reviews from users of one social network elsewhere in other websites or networks.

This looks a more exhaustive ads-review system that is currently used in Facebook. On Facebook, users may choose to ‘Like‘ an ad which is possibly used in determining other ads to be shown to the same user; though in Microsoft’s case the reviews are stored to be displayed to other users of the same social network or elsewhere.

Windows Mobile 7 Actually Releasing Only In 2011?

Earlier this week, we had rubbished reports of Windows Mobile 7 not launching this year. The line of thinking had been that Microsoft had already confirmed the launch of the next edition of Windows Mobile next month at the Mobile World Congress.

Now, it appears that Win Mobile 7 might not actually release next month. But Microsoft is indeed launching the next edition of its mobile operating system – Windows Mobile 6.6.

The DigiTimes reports

“Microsoft reportedly plans to launch Windows Mobile 6.6 (codenamed Maldives) in February 2010 to strengthen its competitiveness against iPhone- and Android-based platforms, according to industry sources.

Sales of Windows Mobile 6.5 have been flat since the platform was launched in the fourth quarter of 2009, pushing Microsoft to bring forward Windows Mobile 6.6, which supports capacitive touchscreens, the sources noted.”

Support to capacitive touch screens could boost the  saleability of Windows Mobile to a great extent. What do you think?

[via DigiTimes]

Windows Mobile 7 Delayed Till 2011?

There are rumors and baseless rumors. Put this in the latter category. Folks at UberGizmo are pointing to a report on another website that claims that Windows Mobile 7 is all set to be delayed yet again and it wouldn’t launch until Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in 2011.

Why is this baseless? Because we have already had reports from Microsoft that Win Mobile 7 will debut next month at the Mobile World Congress. Earlier this month, ZDNet wrote

“After the no-show (and no mention) of Windows Mobile 7 at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this week, Microsoft officials have begun touting theMobile World Congress (MWC) event in mid-February in Barcelona as the place that Windows Mobile 7 will finally be on public display in some way for the first time.”

[UberGizmo via BrightSideOfNews]

Bing Uses Collaborative Search Behavior To Rank Results

If you think the results that you click on Bing search engine is not actually watched by anyone, you  might be wrong. Big Bing actually makes use of your click behavior while delivering search results for other users.

In a patent published recently by Microsoft, the company has sought rights for a technology which will study click patterns of search engine visitors to understand which links are relevant in order to give these results a higher weighing factor for future search queries (of a similar nature).

The inventors of the patent write

“[T]he method may include receiving a search criteria from a user, identifying one or more agents who have performed a search using the search criteria, the agents and the user belonging to the computing network, identifying one or more search results that the agents have previously selected as being relevant to the search criteria, ranking the search results, and displaying the search results according to the ranking.”

While this does sound interesting, there are two questions here:

1. Will privacy advocates cry foul at Microsoft’s attempt to track user behavior?

2. How detrimental can this be to real time search considering a lot of clicks at one point in time might not be relevant later on?

What do you think? Let us know in the comments.