search - page 5

Yahoo announced tonight the launch of its new search platform, Axis. The idea here is that users can search the web using their iPad, iPhone or computer and then pick up that search when they move from one device to the next. It’s a cool idea, and one that we hope other search companies pick up soon.

Yahoo is touting Axis as a one-step search solution, allowing users to visually search the web from any other web page without having to leave that page to search. The visual layout on the app looks a lot like the Pulse News app, with previews of web search destination sites listed in swipe-able rows on a black background.

Google Chrome is quite possibly the best web browser you can install on your Mac or PC, and it could soon be the best browser on your iOS device, too. According to one analyst, Google is “definitely” bringing Chrome to the App Store this year — possibly before the end of this quarter — which is bad news for Apple.

Dolphin Browser is arguably one of the best third-party browsers for iOS, and the iPhone version just became even better with its latest update. Version 4.0 brings a stack of new features including Dolphin Sonar voice controls, a URL keyboard, and a night mode — and it’s available to download now.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has subpoenaed Apple to give the details of its iPhone search deal with Google. The request is a result of the Google antitrust probe the FTC is currently conducting. Apple has been required to reveal the agreements it made to make Google the preferred search engine on the iPhone.

Android and iOS users will now be able to quickly access the places they have searched for on Google thanks to Google’s new “Recent” icon on their mobile search page. Any user who has Web History enabled and is logged into Google when searching for a place will have that search saved and accessible via the “Recent” icon. Searches will be saved for approximately 24-hours and will give users the convenience of starting searches from their desktop and later pulling up that information while mobile.

The latest update to Alfred adds a selection of smart new features, one of which is a new way of grabbing selected text from any Mac app and pushing it straight into one of your other Alfred actions – such as a web search, for example.

Sometimes within an OS X application you might want to search and replace all single tabs with two tabs, for example, or remove double carriage returns. However, if you type a Tab or hit Return in the search field of an app, it won’t have the desired effect. There’s a simple trick that can be used.

Spotlight is a love it/hate it experience. Don’t stop reading if you hate it, however, because here’s a tip that shows how useful Spotlight can be if used correctly. A simple trick lets you search for emails or documents by a particular author, which can be extremely useful when trying to track down that elusive file or message.

Google has issued an update to its official Google+ app for the iPhone today, and in addition to a fancy new icon, the app now allows full resolution photo uploads, searching, and more.

Kim Kardashian and Justin Bieber can’t touch the iPhone’s popularity, at least if Yahoo’s top search term results for 2011 are to be believed. Apple’s coveted smartphone edged past celebrities and major news topics to become the most-searched term on the Yahoo search engine.

I’ve had a few friends experience a problem with their Spotlight search results after upgrading to Mac OS X Lion and at other times for other reasons. They claimed to search for items that they knew were somewhere on their computer, but Spotlight wasn’t able to find them in both cases.

Here’s a down and dirty fix for Spotlight that is useful when Spotlight seems to stop providing the results you expect. It is also useful when you just want Spotlight to re-index your system.

The revamped Google Search app for iOS, which we reported on yesterday, is a huge improvement on what went before.

Google’s been redesigning many of its web services like Gmail and Reader lately to follow its new Google+ UI template, and now it appears its time for Google’s apps to get the same new coat of paint. The newest version of Google’s official Search app for iOS not only gets a new design for the iPad, but a fullscreen mode for iPhone and numerous other fixes and additions.

For the last few weeks I’ve been using DuckDuckGo as my search engine, not just on my Mac but also on my iPhone.

The iPhone app in particular was a delightful eye-opener.

Google’s former CEO and executive chairman Eric Schmidt told U.S. Senators Apple’s voice-recognition system is an “interesting development,” suggesting the iPhone 4S feature posed a “competitive threat” to its search business. Schmidt’s written comments come as a new survey finds Siri drastically reduces the number of Google searches, many times to none.

Suzanne Michel, a high-level employee in Google’s legal department (and former FTC Official), testified in court today at the Senate Judiciary hearings that Google, Microsoft and Yahoo all bid to become Apple’s default search engine in Safari on iOS.

You’d think that Android would hold a considerable chunk of Google’s mobile search, due to the integration that Google has with the OS and Android’s substantial market share. That doesn’t seem to be the case.

Before being cut off at the end of her testimony, Michel said that 2/3rds of Google’s mobile search comes from iOS devices.

That says something.

(via 9to5Mac)

Spotlight, the search tool built into Mac OS X is extremely powerful if you know how to use it. Unfortunately, many people don’t realize the true power of it, and therefore lose out on a lot of functionality. In this video I’ll show you how to use Spotlight to its full potential.

Speculation that Apple may build its own maps application into iOS 5 and ditch its partnership with Google has now been put to bed, after Google’s Executive Chairman confirmed the two companies are still buddies.

Say hello to Hound, a new free app from the people at SoundHound. What’s it for? It’s a voice search app for music and musicians. But it aspires to greater things.

If you’ve been one of the many people who has expected Apple to drop Google as the default search engine in iOS due to the escalating rivalry between the iPhone and Android handsets, think again. According to Business Insider, Apple and Google have just agreed to extend the deal that makes Google search reign supreme on iOS devices.

The news comes from Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who revealed the extension in a recent interview with Charlie Rose.

The iPhone Spotlight search feature has been improved yet again.

Universal Search, a jailbreak app from Efiko Software, takes searching with Spotlight to a whole new level. With this add-on installed, Spotlight can access mobile search sites and generate location-based results all from within the Spotlight search window.

Universal Search’s smart input monitoring allows the user to enter a phone number or url directly into Spotlight and options to call, text or visit the url pop up in the results. It also searches Google Maps and mobile sites directly rather than going through a search engine’s web results.

Search sites include Wikipedia, Google Maps, Twitter, CNN, ebay, IMDb, flickr, and ESPN.

Universal Search is available for $4.99 in the Cydia Store.

Searching the iTunes app store is much easier when you’re not using the iTunes app store. Launching today, uquery.com aims to be the vehicle for the app discovery process.

The site uses its own system of algorithms called “AppRank” to make it easy and fast to find the right app for certain tasks. Search results appear in a easy-to-navigate center column along with options to refine your search.

Unlike the iTunes App Store, you can use your browser’s “find in page” command to pinpoint your search term in the search results. It’s the little things.

At the moment, uquery.com appears to generate search results from the full text app descriptions. As the site gains visitors, search queries and tweets, the “AppRank” system will improve its ability to make the app discovery process more intuitive.