If you are looking for an alternative to the usual search engines, check out search engine Quintura. Quintura is a visual search engine that helps you refine your searches with related search queries appearing in a tag cloud of sorts. For example you can do a query on “technology” and next to the search results there is a visual representation of related expressions that help you find what you’re looking for. The “technology” search suggests technology services, review, computers, and other related terms. The key feature isn’t the search suggestions or search results (which uses a Yahoo feed), but rather the visual navigation through your searches. In that respect I can see Quintura being useful. Test it out for yourselves and see what you think.

The powerful new Astronomy.net search engine will be able identify any star or constellation from uploaded amatuer photos. You can take a picture of the night sky from almost any vantage point in the world, upload your photo to the search engine, and it will search through its massive database of constellations and stars and show you the details of what your picture contains. Additionally, your photo is also saved and used to expand the astronomy database. As more users upload photos to the search engine, it becomes even more powerful and precise.

The search engine uses astrometry, which is a branch of astronomy that studies star positions, motions, and measurements in space, to determine specific items in the photos. The stars in each photo are identified by taking 4 stars at a time and comparing that to their database of celestial positions and measurements. The search engine and database are currently in production and initial relase date is spring 2008.

Source: Yahoo News
Photo: Flickr

SearchEngineWatch takes a look at some major kid friendly search engines including: AOL for kids, Cybersleuth Kids, Fact Monster, Kids Click, Lycos for Kids, Quintura Kids, Yahoo Kids, and ZOO. They score these based on a five star rating through four categories: visual appeal, relevance, commercial vs. educational, and ease of navigation for 7-10 year olds.

Quintura (screenshot above) was the only one to get five stars across the board. And it really is impressive, with topics arranged in a cloud and easy to read results, I definitely think this is the best search engine for kids. Read [SearchEngineWatch]

When categorizing this post, I felt sort of odd checking ‘Search Engines’ since Google is so much more than that now. Today at Google Developer Day 2007, Google is set to announce it’s latest venture into the offline world, Google Gears.

Gears is, as they describe, an “open source browser extension that enables web applications to provide offline functionality using JavaScript APIs.” Google Gears is being offered as an open-source technology for developers to extend any web applications offline, not just Google products.

The Google Gears Beta is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

More interesting developments in the world of image recognition search. This one is specific to Google and is something a Lifehacker reader has found.

When you add &imgtype=face to the picture search string, only photos with faces are showing up.

An example used is when doing Google Image Search for “Paris”, the majority of photos returned are of the city. When you add the suggested string above in a search for Paris, you get a bunch of Paris Hilton images. Now it’s obviously not perfected, but there is no doubt that this sting is working to differentiate between human faces and none-human things.

I’ve been holding Google suspect to implementing a facial recognition search ever since the acquired Neven Vision in August, and in the same month also registered GoogleImageTagger.com.

EveryScape will basically allow you to explore both exterior and interior “points of interest” in a 3D environment. They claim users will be able to “window shop storefronts as well as tour the inside of those stores, see their offerings, and access published reviews and other information.” You’ll also be able to add your own content, like links, personal reviews, rankings and even add a “For Rent” sign and an apartment tour to sell your pad.

Another cool feature of their Flash-based user UI is the ability to ‘AutoDrive’, like auto pilot, or ‘YouDrive’, which lets you control where you go. Everyscape says “Images are captured with standard digital single-lens reflex (SLR) cameras, and then uploaded to EveryScape for processing. ” and they are looking to tap locals for media to upload.

San Francisco is the first city to be “scaped” (Union Square preview shown above), but EveryScape plans to launch 10 major metropolitan areas by the end of 2007. These areas beginning in September, 1. San Francisco 2. Boston 3. New York 4. Seattle 5. Chicago, with the remaining five to be determined by the public’s votes. Read [Red Herring]

Google is currently working on a new system to protect web surfers from malicious sites. This is one of the main reasons systems get infected, visiting plain old web sites that play host to malware.

Once the system is implemented, Google will automatically identify hazardous web pages and label them as “potentially harmful” in search results. The Ghost in the Browser, written by five people from Google, explains this in more detail.

There is one problem: “Because being labeled as suspicious by Google could devastate a site’s traffic, the move would raise the security stakes for site owners dramatically.” says Nick Carr of Rough Type. While this is true, the aim would be protecting the visitors who are prone to infection. The site owner needs to take action and fix their “potentially harmful” site. Once this is done, the site owner could submit their site back to Google for evaluation.

Google have completed their new London offices, near Victoria train station. As is customary, the place is awash with primary colours and furniture that looks like it came from the children’s section of Ikea. I can’t decide whether they’re trying desperately to hang on to some semblance of start-up culture, or if working there really is so fun and free that traditional office furniture would kill the mood. Either way, it has to be nicer to work in that environment than in a traditional, grey, fluorescent lit cubicle farm. No word on whether or not they get free candy like the US offices, but I know from personal experience that Microsoft’s UK office has ice cream. Surely they’ve kept up with the Jones’? More photos [Crave UK]

In other Google UK news, the mobile version of Maps has been released. The US version has been available for some time, but now there are little extras like local search and tube maps too. Download it here: google.co.uk/gmm.

Matthew Sparkes is a contributing author for MoT.

Microsoft is reportedly rethinking a possible acquisition of Yahoo for an estimated Wall Street price tag of $50 billion. According to the NYPost, “Microsoft has intensified its pursuit of a deal with Yahoo!, asking the company to re-enter formal negotiations…”

Ever since Google grabbed DoubleClick in April, the pressure has increased. Mashable, tells us, Microsoft and Yahoo! “combined would command 27% of the search market against Google’s 65%.” Obviously a smart by on Microsoft’s part.