22 July 2008
Surf Canyon improves on Google. v1.1.2 out now!
Surf Canyon is a plugin for Firefox and Internet Explorer (does anyone use this?) which really does improve on Google’s search results in realtime. Using the magic of Ajax, when you perform a search every result will have a ‘bullseye’ symbol next to it. Click the bullseye and you will open up some recommended results from Surf Canyon. Best of all, you don’t move from Google - no new web page. It’s worth saying that it also works with MSN, Yahoo and Craigslist.
These results are found by Surf Canyon from the next 10-1000 results in Google. I’m not great at explaining so I’ll let Mark Cramer, CEO of Surf Canyon explain for himself…
"When you enter a query and then select a result (by either clicking it or clicking the bull’s eye), our “real-time relevancy” algorithm looks at results 11 to 1000, re-ranks them all “on the fly” and then brings forward the top 3 as “recommendations.” The process is cumulative, so as the user continues to select results, the user model grows and gets more precise enabling deeper digging into the result set. Subsequent pages of results (after “more results”) are all completely re-ranked based on all the behavior that occurred on the previous pages."
It works extremely well, quickly and smoothly. The results are there if want them, but if you choose not to use Surf Canyon’s recommendations, your page hardly looks different.
The new version of Surf Canyon was just released (v1.1.2) which includes compatibility with GooglePreview which inserts thumbnail previews of each search result into the SERP for Google and Yahoo. This version also includes a Russian translation and a new weekly contest to win a $25 Amazon voucher. Check the Surf Canyon blog for more information.
2 Comments currently posted.
Mark Cramer says:
Ed Hardy bags says:
i like this
Thank you, David, for the kind words and the help with the v1.1.2 announcement!