Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Newly minted features...

It has been a while since I've posted any updates here. Which is too bad, because there have been some exciting things happening with Googawho lately. In this post I would just like to run down the list of Googawho's goings on during the last year or so. They include a bunch of new features, Mashup awards, some interesting Tweets and a favorable mention on an Italian blog (I think).

  • As of June this year, Googawho has utilized the bit.ly API, which means a shortened URL is provided at the bottom of the page when you search. JavaScripts will gracefully select the text of this URL for you when you move your mouse over it, making it easy to copy and share your searches with others.
  • Also in June 2009, a link to automatically share your search terms and bit.ly URL on Twitter.com was added to the bottom of the site. This means once you've found a cool search that's worth Tweeting, you can use the TweetIt! feature to post your search terms, bit.ly URL and #googawho reference right to your Twitter profile with just a click.
  • 2009 saw some huge consolidation in the search engine world as Microsoft's MSN Live Search became the hot new Bing. Just a month later we watched in astonishment as Yahoo! simply  sold off its entire search business to Microsoft. Both sites now use the bing search engine, luckily, the two sites utilize very different search algorithms and each still offers very different search results. Why not see for yourself today at http://www.googawho.com
  • Googawho no longer offers Cuil.com as a search comparison option. Unfortunately, according to Cuil technical staff, their site implemented some new "server side click-tracking scripts" which cause the Cuil engine to open in a new window, rather than display in the side-by-side comparison format offered on Googawho. However, these things have a way of just working out - because the very next day, InfoSpace re-launched their site with a completely new look, and tons of cool new search features. InfoSpace has become a shiny new facet of Googawho.com.
  • The Googawho Tabulizer! feature was given greater prominence. Now, after a search is performed, a new button for the Tabulizer! appears to the right of the Double Your Search! button. To ensure that the Tabulizer! behaves as expected, this button is hidden the moment you change the search terms, and will not reappear until the new search has been loaded.
  • Feedback is now an option. We've added a feedback feature to the About Us page through UserVoice.com. It's a simple way to offer suggestions, or just gripe about what we're doing and how we're doing it.
  • In August 2009, Googawho was featured as ProgrammableWeb.com's "Mashup Of The Day". Even though this is a daily award we were honored to get it, and our traffic spiked to over 2,300 unique visits and we've enjoyed a sustained bump in our daily hit rate since the award.
  • A recent twitter search reveled quite a bit of Tweet and re-Tweeting regarding Googawho and it's features. But, in classic Twitter Fail-Whale style, older posts are "temporarily unavailable". If you are a twitter user, please give us a follow here:
    http://www.twitter.com/googawho
  • October 7th, Googawho was featured (favorably I think) on the Italian blog, Posizionamentoo which even included a 3 minute video demonstration of Googawho.com. Here is a link to the translated blog. Just awesome.
  • You can now buy Googawho branded merchandise from our CafePress shop!


        


Well that's it, thank you for reading!  We'll will try to be better about keeping things current out here, but no promises! If you are interested in more frequent updates, please follow us on twitter at http://twitter.com/googawho or, you might also become a Facebook fan at http://www.facebook.com/googawho