Microsoft Mapping The Real-Time World


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Tuesday May 09, 2006

Google may want to organize the world's information, but Microsoft wants to let you know how long you're going to have to wait for a table at Red Lobster on Friday evening.

Editor's Note: SenseWeb could offer a complete shift in the information available to people using online search. How willing are you to have your business contribute real-time data to SenseWeb if it arrives in your city? Tell us what you sense at WebProWorld.

Imagine a world where your Windows Mobile smartphone can pull up a Windows Local Live map with specific details about your city: which florist has peach calla lilies and birds of paradise in stock; where to find the closest Godiva chocolate boutique; and whether or not you can find a parking space near your date's apartment.

Technology Review reported that Microsoft Research has its eyes on that much detail in its Local Live maps, courtesy of a project called SenseWeb.

The project collects data from sensors, which people can place in a variety of places. It can also incorporate information contributed from people directly, and gather all of it into a framework that can be analyzed and made available to users of Live Local.

Real-time data provides the difference between accurate search results and timely, accurate search results. To paraphrase Technology Review's example, while local search can identify restaurants in a given neighborhood, a neighborhood equipped with SenseWeb and providing data to it will show just how long people are hanging around the bar waiting to be seated.

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That permits the user to drill down to an average for the neighborhood, or even farther to individual restaurants.

The article described SenseWeb's components in further detail:

SenseWeb is composed of three basic parts: sensors (or data-collecting units), Microsoft's database indexing scheme that sorts through the information, and the online map that lets users interact with the data.

The sensors used in the project can vary in form and function, and can include thermometers, light sensors, cameras, and restaurant computers. SenseWeb puts baseline sensor information, such as location and function, into a database that's searchable by location and type of sensor information.

Then, if someone wants to check traffic conditions along a stretch of highway, for instance, the database will direct queries to cameras ("Web cams") located along the route -- and an image of traffic shows up on the map.

Mapping has been a hotly contested area among the major web players. AOL has long held a strong position in maps and directions with its MapQuest service.

Google and Yahoo debuted competing maps with satellite imagery, and worked at integrating their products with local search. Microsoft upped the ante with the "bird's eye view" of a number of cities available in Windows Live Local. SenseWeb represents their next step.

The project's next step involves bringing more data into SenseWeb, and hammering out consistent methods of reporting data to make it usable across the SenseWeb platform. Even with consistent data though, SenseWeb won't be able to tell you that your date decided to get back together with her ex, now that he's out of prison.

It may be able to show where the nearest happy hour can be found after that revelation. So don't pitch the flowers and candy right away. The night is young.

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David is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.

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Newspaper Sales Fall, Web Traffic Increases

Newspapers' websites are receiving more hits than ever, but paper subscriptions are falling throughout the industry. Nielson and NetRatings report that traffic to newspaper sites increased roughly 8% from 2005 to 2006, with 56 million Internet users dropping by.

But in paper sales, weekday subscriptions have fallen 2.5%, and Sunday circulations have decreased even more, by 3.1%. This means that 45.4 million and 48.5 million readers, respectively, still buy the physical copies, according to the Newspaper Association of America (NAA).

Younger people are driving this development, as they increasingly prefer to reference cable TV and the Web for their news. This trend began in the 1980s, and as industry analyst John Morton says, "It isn't likely to change."

Paper sales did not uniformly decrease, though. A few of the major newspapers eked out minor gains, with USA TODAY's sales increasing by 0.1%, The New York Times managing a 0.5% growth, and the Chicago Tribune increasing circulation by 0.9%.

Other benchmark newspapers showed drastic declines. The Los Angeles Times lost 9.1%, The Boston Herald dropped by 9.1%, and The San Francisco Chronicle fell off a small cliff, with sales decreasing by 15.6%.

Despite these depressing numbers, investors seem optimistic. In the same period, McLatchy's stock price increased by 3.2%, the New York Times Co. rose by 4.6%, and Tribune Co. shares showed an increase of 6.5%. It remains unknown how much of these increases might be due to the increasing Web traffic.

The NAA advised watch groups to consider the Internet numbers in addition to paper circulation, which is usually taken as the key benchmark of newspapers' performance. It will be the NAA's mission in the future to convince advertisers that a strong Web showing can be just as important.

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Doug is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.

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How Do You Handle Link Exchange Requests?

If you are one of the many who have ecommerce sites and you spend time trying to improve your search engine standing, you know the importance of link building and to a lesser extent, link exchanges. One of the things that come with this territory, especially if you have a site that's performing well, is a seemingly unending amount of link exchange requests. The question for today is, how do you handle these? Do you place them in file 13 or do you actually entertain them? Take a look at how one of our posters deals with such requests and let us know what you think.

|| Chris||

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Link Exchange Legitimacy

Link exchanges with quality websites can sometimes be difficult at best. What I mean is that with all the hundreds of link exchange requests I get weekly, especially from so called SEO expert companies, I imagine most people do what I do.... take a quick glance at the email and right to the garbage can.

So when I send my link exchange requests out, I have to assume other webmasters do the same.... glance and trash. What do I do to at legitimacy to my requests? I simply add my phone number to my request.

If my request is legitimate then I shouldn't have a problem with speaking to a webmaster from a site I want to exchange links with. So I add my number to all my requests with a statement that says "Please feel free to call me if you have any questions or concerns about my request to enter into a link exchange with your website"

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