May 14th, 2009

Google has revealed new products that will push search in a new direction using the so-called semantic web technology to pull the underlying data on websites in a bid to improve results.

Google said it could not afford to rest on its success in its effort to build the perfect search engine. It said that search is still young and the company’s engineers are worried about the next big thing in search and how they will find it.

Last year Google launched more than 360 products and in the first quarter of this year it had issued 120. Google said earlier that despite its lead in the marketplace, users were not easy to switch to other alternatives. Google’s ability to continuously innovate has brought the company to a leading edge. The company has more than 63% of the US market versus the company’s rival Yahoo which has 20%.

Recently the company introduced four new products that will give users a different way to look at the web. The first is Rich Snippets, search results that return more information in every listing. For example, users looking for reviews of a new restaurant might get a “rich snippet” of average review scores, number of reviews and the restaurant’s price range.

The second is called Google Squared, which will go public in the next month or so. It takes information from the web and displays it in a spreadsheet in “split seconds” and will normally take someone half a day to do.

During the demonstration, a query for “small dog” was typed into the search box. Seconds later a table popped up showing photographs of various dogs, their origin, weight and height in a clear and simple layout.

The third is Google Search Options which is a tool that is aimed at letting users “slice and dice” results so they can manipulate the information and get what they want faster.

They come into play after a normal web search and allow users to drill down into the results by offering an option for different genres like product reviews, forum posts or videos. Other choices include recently added blogs, images, timelines and so on.

The final product is Skymap which displays the constellations. By using the smart phone’s GPS capability, it offers the user a dynamic star map that knows where they are standing and which way they are pointing.

The feature came about as a result of Google’s 20% time, which allows engineers to spend one-fifth of their time working on pet projects. The app is now available on the Android app market.

The US health technology plan which is part of the economic recovery package consists of incentive payments for taking up electronic health records which are worth more than US$40,000 per physician and up to some million dollars for hospitals.

The payments are based on meaningful use of such records, although the Congress has left the definion of that term to the Department of Health and Human Services.

How the government defines and measures meaningful use will determine whether the US$19 billion in incentives is an important step in reforming US health care or a high-tech disaster.

The professional organization of people responsible for putting electronic health records to use, the Association of Medical Directors of Information Systems, is wading into the discussion on Tuesday with a Web site named www.meaningfuluse.org.

This public site is an aggregator of information and news regarding the developing debate over the best policy path for implementing electronic health records, and it also has forums for discussion. The consensus of the expert comments will be conveyed to the government.

Passengers of AirTran Airways, a subsidiary of AirTran Holdings Inc, can now enjoy a wireless, broadband Internet access on every flight, as the airline has set up a cooperation with Aircell in offering passengers full inflight Internet service across its entire fleet of Boeing 737 and 717 aircraft.

AirTran, which has been ranked the number one low cost carrier in the Airline Quality Rating study for the past two years, will be the first major airline to offer passengers wireless, broadband Internet access, after its cooperation with Aircell, which is the leader in airborne communications for business and commercial aviation.

Having this access, AirTran Airways passengers will have full Internet access including: Web, e-mail, instant messaging and access to corporate e-mail and network systems (virtual private networks) — through their Wi-Fi enabled laptops, smartphones and personal digital assistants (PDAs).

Gogo Inflight Internet will be available for a small fee based on the length of the flight. AirTran is known for catering to the needs of its passengers with style. Both its choice and rapid deployment of Gogo Inflight Internet service are testaments to AirTran’s long-standing commitment to offer the best inflight experience possible.