entities

Google's revamped search engine sees lots of action

It's been two weeks since Google embarked on its biggest overhaul since its inception and...so far so good.

The Internet giant said it has had a clear increase in search activity over the past couple of weeks, according to The Wall Street Journal.

"Early indications are that people are interacting with it more, learning about more things...and doing more [search] queries," top Google search executive Amit Singhal told the Journal in an interview. "It's stoking people's curiosity."

Google spokesman Jason Freidenfelds also told the Journal that more people are doing more … Read more

Google plans major revamp for search engine

Google is about to embark on its biggest renovation in history. In order to keep up with increased competition and new technology, the Web giant is working to keep ahead of the pack by completely revamping its search function, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Google search executive Amit Singhal told The Wall Street Journal that the new Google search will look more like "how humans understand the world."

Changes are expected to roll out over the next few months, the Journal reports, but the full makeover to "next generation of search" will likely take years. … Read more

Microsoft labs tests a Wikipedia of average Joes

Think of Microsoft's latest labs effort as the software maker's attempt to give everyone their own Wikipedia entry.

Dubbed EntityCube and now live to try out, the research project pulls together biographical information on anyone found on the Web.

Similar in some ways to other people-search projects that have been around for some time, EntityCube tries to cull the Web to build a dossier on whomever you can think of. Among the interesting features is the social graph that EntityCube builds, as well as its effort to automatically sort out information about different people with the same name. … Read more

Borg-like cybots may patrol government networks

The Oak Ridge National Laboratory has created software that uses colonies of borg-like cyberrobots it says will help government agencies detect and fend off attacks on the nation's computer network infrastructure.

The Ubiquitous Network Transient Autonomous Mission Entities (Untame) differs from traditional security software agents in that its cybot "entities" form collectives that are mutually aware of the condition and activities of other bots in their colony (PDF).

When these cybots detect network intruders, they communicate with one another, preventing cybercrooks from creating and using a diversion in one spot within the network to then break through … Read more