Facebook Tweaks Search Suggestions For Relevancy

Facebook's search suggestions are about to get significantly better.  Rather than just suggest the names of people, events, groups, and Pages a person's already connected with, suggestions are going to draw from users' networks of friends and the entire site.

It is, of course, nice not to have to type out your closest pal's 17-letter last name multiple times a day.  But this change overcomes a significant flaw in Facebook's existing approach to making suggestions, considering that it's the things people aren't familiar with they probably need the most help spelling and/or tracking down.

As for how the upgraded system will work, Wayne Kao, a Facebook engineer, explained on the company blog, "[I]f you start typing in 'MGM' to find the Facebook Page for the band MGMT, you may see it as the first result in the drop-down menu because you or one of your friends is a fan of MGMT on Facebook."

Or, "If you are searching for something else, like the MGM Grand Las Vegas hotel or the movie studio MGM, you can select one of those instead from the drop-down menu."

Look for this change to roll out over the course of the week.  Then enjoy spending less time typing all sorts of stuff, and not just your best friend's name.

Possible Scenarios for Google in China @ SXSW

After a long morning of travel and SXSW preperation, WebProNews popped in on an interesting talk from writer and tech watcher, Kaiser Kuo (here's his bio) about what might happen with the whole Google/China situation, which has essentially remained at a stand-still for the past two months, since Google made its famous announcement about a "new approach to China."

Kuo said right out that he doesn't have the "inside dope" about what's happening within Google, but he did give a fascinating history of Google's efforts in China, as well as a look at some possible scenarios that could play out. Some he listed specifically, include:

Worst Case Scenarios

- Blow up: Google decamps in atmosphere of acrimony
- Google.com blocked, possibly even Gmail, Gtalk, Google Docs, Buzz, etc.
- All google products exit from China (partnerships with mobile companies end)

Moderate (and according to Kuo, most likely) Scenarios

- Google.cn shuttered
- Google.com, Gmail, Google Docs, etc. unblocked
- Google research and development and sales continue to operate in China
- Google continues mobile partnerships

Best Case (and not very likely, but not entirely far-fetched) Scenario

- Google.cn stops censoring and still stays in china
- Pigs fly over a frozen hell scape

The session was not without a sense of humor, but that's not to say Kuo doesn't take the situation very seriously. In fact, he appears to be putting much more time into looking at the big picture than anyone I've seen (at least those outside of Google itself and the Chinese government).

Perhaps the most interesting part of Kuo's talk was about how  the wetern media's attention focuses more on one of two kinds of censorship going on - the "Great Firewall" censorship, where many sites are blocked at the ISP level. He says it's fairly simple for Chinese Internet users to "hop" the Great Firewall through proxies and VPNs. The other kind of censorship going on in China, according to Kuo, is the kind that really matters. This is "self discipline", which is carried out by Internet companies themselves.

If companies don't follow through with this kind of censorship, they face the risk of being shut down, having servers seized, etc. Some have been shut down permanently in the past, and others have been shut down long enough that they lost most of their users anway.

"Sad story indeed," Kuo calls it.

As far as the Google situation, "Google is going to have to shit or get off the pot," says Kuo. "The ball is very much in Google's court right now." Bejing realizes it has nothing to gain by pushing Google on the issue or being openly hostile towards the company, he says.

This week, Chinese Minister of Industry and Information Technology Li Yizhong reportedly had this to say: "I hope that Google will abide and respect the Chinese government's laws and regulations. But, if you betray Chinese laws and regulations, it means that you are unfriendly, irresponsible, and you will have to pay the consequences." He also said, "What needs to be shut down will be shut down, what needs to be blocked will be blocked."

Kuo says this is just more of the same stuff we've been hearing from China for the last 2 months.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt recently said, "Something will happen soon." Days ago, Google gave a congressional testimony saying they still intend to stop censoring results, but as Kuo notes, shutting down Google.cn would be a very involved process with large logistical challenges.

Update: The Financial Times is reporting:

Google has drawn up detailed plans for the closure of its Chinese search engine and is now “99.9 per cent” certain to go ahead as talks over censorship with the Chinese authorities have reached an apparent impasse, according to a person familiar with the company’s thinking.

Stay tuned to WebProNews.com for more SXSW Interactive coverage as the event continues into next week. Watch for live streaming interviews with industry professionals at live.webpronews.com.

Yahoo Makes Strides In Entertainment Search

If Yahoo has its way, it'll soon be the place to go for information about movies, TV shows, and the celebrities who star in them.  Yahoo announced several upgrades to its search engine this morning, and they're all meant to make entertainment-related queries turn up much better results.

A Yahoo representative told WebProNews, "Today Yahoo! Search is unveiling new ways for people to explore information on their favorite celebs and TV shows by providing the most comprehensive and up to the moment entertainment news and content.  With Yahoo! Search's celebrity shortcuts, people can see news, photos, movies and even the celebrity's official tweets right on the search results page."

What's more, "Yahoo! is also introducing a TV shortcut so people can search for their favorite TV shows and see videos, episode lists, schedules and ratings from Yahoo! TV."  And "we are launching new celebrity-related suggestions on the left-side of the Yahoo! Search results page for entertainment queries, with links to results for related people, movies, etc."

You can see an example of how this all comes together below.  The results page packs in a whole lot of information, but still manages to not look overly cluttered or messy. 

Yahoo appears to have leapfrogged well ahead of Google and Bing with these upgrades.

Google Product Search for Mobile Showing When Items are in Stock

Users of the mobile version of Google Product Search can now see if items are in stock at a local store from select retailers. These retailers include: Best Buy, Sears, Williams-Sonoma, Pottery Barn, and West Elm.

Product listings from these retailers will have blue dots that can be tapped to see an "in stock nearby" link, which takes you to a seller's page where it will either say "in stock" or "limited availability". In addition, these pages will show you how far away the store is from your location (assuming you have My Location enabled or have manually specified your location).

The feature is available for iPhone, Palm WebOS, and Android users in the U.S. Users can hit the "more" link, and select "Shopping" or find the "Shopping results" section in Google's Universal Search results when searching from Google.com.

Google offers a form for retailers who are interested in participating in this program. Google says to make sure you have your Local Business Center data up to date and to ensure your Product Search data is in "great shape."

Next Page »