Google Inc, seeking new ways to make money from its search technology, introduced a service that lets shoppers get faster results when they hunt for items at online stores.
The service, which Google will sell to companies for use on their sites, lets shoppers get search results in less than one second, said Nitin Mangtani, a lead product manager for Google. That compares with a delay of two or three seconds on some sites, he said.
Google, owner of the world’s largest search engine, is trying to branch out beyond search advertising — its main source of revenue.
The company is taking its search know-how and tailoring it to e-commerce, which entails sorting through cataloged products, Mangtani said. The new service will start at US$50,000 annually, which includes customer support.
“We are in a much better state to understand the intent of a user query,” he said. “We get such a high query volume on Google.”
The company already lets companies put a Google search box on their sites. By fine-tuning the service for retailers, Google aims to win more of those businesses as customers, Mangtani said.
The service will help shoppers with their searches by checking spelling and offering synonym suggestions. Google also can adjust the service’s capacity during heavier shopping times to ensure it runs smoothly.
Meanwhile, Microsoft is rolling out a revamped MSN home page that incorporates its new Bing search engine and easy access to trendy online services Twitter and Facebook.
“Now is the time to clean up the mess on the Web; people need less clutter and less hassle to find what matters most to them,” Microsoft corporate vice president Erik Jorgensen said in a blog post.
Microsoft hopes to enhance the popularity of MSN and drive traffic to Bing by weaving the search engine into home page features including shopping, travel, trends, people and “hot topics.”
MSN’s “smart design” includes news and entertainment from online sources such as MSNBC, Fox Sports, Hearst and Hulu.
The home page integrates links to social-networking community Facebook and wildly popular microblogging service Twitter.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)