There is a lot of buzz around the web about Twitter and Real-Time Search. In June of 2007 we launched the TWERQ Hive, which is a Real-Time Collaborative Search. The TWERQ Hive allows groups of people searching for the same thing to easily contribute to a Hive List of useful results in Real-Time. This completely different then Twitter but there would be a number of benefits to combining the functionality of both systems.

Today, I am happy to announce the launching of a new test feature, and the beginning of this integration into TWERQ and the Hive. I see Twitter as not only as a great way to communicate, search and discover interesting things but also as a way to assist people in finding useful information and in using the TWERQ Hive. For example, one feature of the Hive allows you to invite people to collaborate on a particular search. This could easily be translated into a “Tweet for help” or something to that effect. It would also be useful to be able share Hive Lists and results found on TWERQ through Twitter. These are just 2 of many examples where integrating Twitter into TWERQ just makes sense.

We have lots of ideas but with this early test feature launch we want to know how you think Twitter should be integrated into TWERQ. By releasing this now, while not yet fully developed and functional gives us a great opportunity to collect your feedback and build in all the functionality that you the users will find useful. Please visit TWERQ to give it a try!

We have been very busy planning and developing the next major release of TWERQ. Since starting TWERQ in March 2006, I have been focused, and have not taken on many other projects.

Last Friday, while checking the latest tech news I found a post about DataPortability’s Logo Contest. Being a graphic designer for over 15 years, I am no stranger to logo design. In fact I would say I enjoy logo projects the most. I have never been one for contests, but due to the nature of the contest and after seeing all the contest sponsors, I saw this as not only an opportunity to contribute, but also a potential opportunity to generate some exposure for TWERQ.

I dugg in and have submitted a number of concepts. You can check out my entries here. My Entries

I also feel this is this is the perfect time to announce that TWERQ will soon support both the DataPortability and OpenID standards. This allows users that already have a OpenID, to seamlessly login to TWERQ without going through a sign up process. It will also allow users to have complete control of their data.

-Wesley Long

As online searching evolves many industry experts are speculating that algorithmic search is beginning to see the end of its days. The new web (Web 2.0) is founded on user interaction and involvement in not only receiving information on the web but in helping to create that content. This has been done in video, “print“, and various other forms of online media. Why can’t it be done in search? Well, it can - and TWERQ is on the front lines.

It is safe to say that algorithmic search results (ie. results generated by an automated system) will never go away. The web will always be too large for every site to be indexed and graded for relevancy by people, there simply isn’t enough manpower for that. That does not mean, however, that human involvement in search results is impossible.

The secret of social search is to combine algorithmic search with human-edited results - and that is exactly what TWERQ is doing.

Introducing Hive

TWERQ Hive is the ultimate combination of manpower and algorithm working together to create the most relevant results on the web.

The TWERQ Hive is people working together in real-time to find and share relevant results. Users collaborate relevant information they find to what is called a “Hive List”. This Hive List is a collection of various forms of information such as web results, images, rss feeds, stories and videos. This allows everyone to collectively find what they are looking for faster. It also helps people who search for the same information in the future.

Ranking of Hived results is determined based on hive activity and user feedback, both assisted by a unique scoring algorithm. Participation features of the hive are opt-in only. If you do not wish to collaborate anything you can take on more of a spectator role an watch relevant information appears before you eyes as it is collaborated.

Get Involved with Hive

The cornerstone of social search is user involvement. The next time you do a search on TWERQ, take a second to participate in Hive. Tag relevant or irrelevant results and help other searchers find the best information fast and efficiently. It’s easy to learn and takes very little time and work on your part.

By supporting Hive you’re not only helping TWERQ grow, but you’re a part of the ongoing evolution of search technology - specifically social searching.

Matt Coddington

When TWERQ first launched its main feature (well pretty much the only feature at the time) was tabbed searching. Since then TWERQ has come a long way in developing new technologies, but tabbed searching remains as one of the best, but often most overlooked, features of the site.

“What is so good about tabbed searching?” asks skeptical Sam. Good question!

Tabbed searching allows you to:

1. Quickly start a new search without having to disregard your old one or open a new browser
2. Do bulk searches faster than any other service on the net
3. Go from one search to another without switching browser windows
4. Compare results of one search to another, even across different search engines with TWERQ’s API selection

Just about all of the benefits of tabbed searching can be summed up into one word: fast. Tabbed searching is simply faster than normal searching.

For example, lets say that you are an SEO consultant who does a lot of competition and keyword analysis for clients. One of the things you have to do (or should do) is compare your client’s rankings with his competitors for targeted keywords or keyword phrases. When comparing results for a dozen keywords in Google you have to open a dozen browser windows (or tabs in FF) and do dozen searches. With TWERQ you open a single browser window and do a single search.

See? TWERQ tabs are good.

Tabbed searching is no longer the main selling point of TWERQ, in my opinion. It is, however, still an amazing feature and just one more thing TWERQ has that the competition doesn’t.

Matt Coddington

To most of us online searching is essential to our everyday lives. We search because it is the most effecient way to find information, but what if you could get something more with your searching?

TWERQ works hard to make your searching experience not only effecient (by delivering quality results faster than the competition) but also an enjoyable one. How enjoyable, you ask? That all depends on how much you enjoy free money.

Last week TWERQ gave away a $1,000 grand prize to Patrick McFarland through LuckyDay@TWERQ just for doing his normal searching. And there is more out there just waiting to be collected. At the time of this post, I’m told there is a little under $1,000 still left unclaimed within the TWERQ system!

How Does it Work?

LuckyDay@TWERQ is simple:

1. You search as your normally would
2. You find cash
3. You withdraw it into your PayPal account.

The prizes will be hidden under the Spotlight Ads on the right side of the screen, so keep an eye out with every search you do. You have to register an account to cash out, but you don’t have to be logged in to find the prizes.

How Can TWERQ Afford to Give Away Cash?

The money for LuckyDay@TWERQ comes from our advertising revenue. Everytime an advertiser purchases a Spotlight Ad, 30% of that revenue is put into the LuckyDay@TWERQ fund to be dispersed to our searchers. There is no limit to the amount of cash that can be put into the fund and shared with our users.

What makes the system even better is that for every new person who joins TWERQ and uses the system, the value of our Spotlight Ads increases which means the total LuckyDay@TWERQ fund goes up as well. So the more people using the website, the more money there will be to find!

Get Started!

What are you waiting for? You search anyway, so why not search with TWERQ and have a chance to cash in on top of enjoying all of the great features we have to offer? All you have to do is search, keep an eye on the Spotlight Ad, and win! Start searching with TWERQ today.

Matt Coddington

Search engines need to be fast at helping people find information, not create more searching. When people talk about the speed of search or how long it takes for them to find information, more often then not they are talking about how long it takes for results to display from the time you click search. Other times the conversation is likely to become about result relevancy and ranking. While both are extremely important there is another factor to consider. Collectively the amount of time that is spent entering, re-entering, refining and paging through literally millions of results on any given search, is counter productive with the shear volume of information available. Both novice and savvy users are frustrated with this.

The problem is user interface and the interaction of re-entering keywords or refining one search at a time. While this was less of a problem in the earlier days of the internet, today there is simply too much information for one person to search through using conventional means. Many times finding the best keyword or search term to use is in itself a search. This entire process is often combined with misleading results that essentially send users on a wild goose chase which of course adds to the time it takes to actually find the information. What starts of at 0.4 seconds can quickly turn into minutes, hours and in some cases days, even for the savviest user.

People have high expectations. Time is valuable and they want to find information fast. The perception of speed when using any search engine is that if results can be displayed in 0.4 seconds, you can find what you are looking for faster. This may have been true at one point however, is no longer the case.

TWERQ offers a unique and practical solution to this problem. Users can enter and search multiple keywords and phrases simultaneously rather the one at a time. For example, to conduct three searches takes on average 25-30 seconds, depending how fast you type using any conventional search interface. The same three searches can be entered and searched once using TWERQ in 10-15 seconds or less, again depending on how fast you can type. This difference becomes even more apparent when conducting more then three simple searches.

TWERQ is designed to save you time by…
- Searching multiple keywords and phrases simultaneously.
- Reducing the amount of typing required.
- Reducing the need to navigate to new browser windows or tabs.
- Making it easy to identify the best keywords and phases.
- Displaying clean organic results and only one advertisement.
- Collapsing descriptions to quickly skim through just page titles.
- Saving your search to continue later without starting over again
- Shortlisting results so you don’t have to search for them again.
- Collaborating with others to search for the same information.
- Easily access your information anywhere at any time.

For more information visit http://www.twerq.com

Wesley Long
[tags]Wesley Long, twerq, twerq search, search engine, twerq blog, blog[/tags]

The new TWERQ On-Site Widget is a great way to share information. The best way to describe it however is to talk about something else then demonstrate how it can be used.

With so much growth in mobility we have already started developing mobility features. The new iPhone of course makes me curious about how TWERQ will function on this and future devices like it. We have already be thinking about how the multi-touch interface can be taken advantage of. I was happy to hear that AJAX and Javascript both are supported in what apparently is the same Safari browser as for Mac, Windows and now the iPhone. If this is in fact the case, theoretically TWERQ should work perfectly on your new iPhone when you get it.

There is no lack of information about the iPhone. I have not even scratched the surface but as you can see with the TWERQ On-Site Widget below I have included some of the “relevant” material I have found on the iPhone if you would like to learn more.

You can tell whether a result is a website, feed, story, image or video by hovering over the listing with your mouse. This will display a icon indicating the type of information it is. A tool tip will also display with the full result title.

This is just one way to use the TWERQ Hive & On-Site Widget. You can also use it to create and distribute a LIVE list of your favorite websites, feeds, stories, images and videos. Results can be pulled from one or more hives and sorted by relevancy or date.

Learn more about TWERQ On-Site or the TWERQ Hive

Wesley Long
[tags]TWERQ Beta RC4 Hive Edition, twerq, twerq search, search engine, twerq blog, blog, Wesley Long[/tags]

Today was Patrick McFarland’s LuckyDay@TWERQ. Patrick is the lucky winner of the TWERQ’s first $1000 grand prize. He has been a TWERQ user since Beta RC1 and enjoys using tabs to search.

When asked to comment he replied “My reaction was, it was impossible that the grand prize was found only 6 hours into the day. My work at night and sleep during the day ethic has finally paid off.�

Not impossible, just Lucky! Congratulations Patrick!

This program is designed to make searching a fun experience and help everyday people benefit from the financial success of the internet. Patrick is the first of many big winners to come. 30% of the revenue generated by TWERQ SpotLight Advertising is given back to our users through the LuckyDay@TWERQ Program. The more advertising we sell, the more we give away!

Give TWERQ a try the next time you need to search the web, it could be your LuckyDay@TWERQ next!

Wesley Long
[tags]TWERQ Beta RC4 Hive Edition, LuckyDay@TWERQ, twerq, twerq search, search engine, twerq blog, blog, Wesley Long[/tags]

We are extremely happy to announce, today we have officially launched our most recent version of TWERQ, Beta RC4 Hive Edition. We have made many improvements to the over all functionality of the system. Over 70 new features and enhancements have been made. The most notable new feature is of course the TWERQ Hive. It allows users to collaborate while searching, marking useful results collaborating them to what is called a Hive List, so that other users conducting the same search can find these useful results quickly. Relevant sites, feeds, stories, images, and video results are added to each Hive list. Users can see these related searches, results added to the list in real-time. Another key feature we have added is Video Search powered by the blinkx.com API. For more information about the features of TWERQ visit http://www.twerq.com/help

TWERQ Partners with Picsearch to Power Image Search.
We are excited to now be working with Picsearch, a widely known and respected industry leader in image search and family filtering technology. Effective immediately all image searches will now display Picsearch image results. This partnership demonstrates TWERQ’s commitment to providing a relevant and family friendly image search.

Wesley Long, TWERQ Founder said “We want to offer users the best image search results. It is great to now be working with Picsearch. Their expertise and experience in image search technology is invaluable. They offer by far the best image search results and when combined with the unique functionality of TWERQ ultimately benefits our users.â€Â?

Robert Risberg, Picsearch’s CEO said “Picsearch provides multimedia search to many of the largest websites in the world. But we also work with newly founded innovative companies like Twerq. Twerq has some very interesting features in their user interface which are truly unique. Working with pioneering companies is inspiring.â€Â?

Approximately 11 percent of all searches on the Internet are image searches (Hitwise November 2006). Picsearch is the second largest image search provider in the world and has over 1.7 billion searchable images. Every month, several million new images are added to the service. Picsearch has, since its inception, strived for relevancy and family friendliness. High relevancy helps the user to find the image they are looking for. Family friendliness allows children to surf in safety as offensive material is filtered out by advanced filtering systems. For more information please visit www.picsearch.com.

$1000 Grand Prize to be found on TWERQ today!
There is $2000.00 US cash, ready to be found through out your searches. One thousand dollars is divided up into smaller prizes while one lucky searcher will find the grand prize of $1000.00. The name of our grand prize winner will be announced June 21st, 2007 on both our official blog and announcement section. Start searching now. Today could be your LuckDay@TWERQ!

Ready for your Feedback!
We would like to take this opportunity to thank you the users for taking the time to use our product. We value your feedback and want to here your comments and suggestions or answer any questions about this new release. If you would like to offer a comment, suggestion or have a question please contact us.

Wesley Long
[tags]TWERQ Beta RC4 Hive Edition, twerq, twerq search, search engine, twerq blog, blog, Wesley Long[/tags]

Today we reached a search milestone. More than 188,000 searches have now been conducted on TWERQ since our initial launch 9 months ago. Over 100,000 of those searches have been conducted in just the last 3 months since the launch of TWERQ TurboCharged Beta RC3. Over 900 new users have signed up for a total of almost 1200 members.

TWERQ Beta RC4 Hive Edition - Launch Update*
The newest version of TWERQ, Beta RC4 Hive Edition is extremely close to being ready for launch. So close in fact you can expect to see it within the next few days. Some of you may have noticed TWERQ was unavailable for the better part June 2nd while we conducted a transfer to load balanced dedicated servers hosted by industry leader RackSpace. This was done to ensure maximum performance and reliability of the site under high volumes of use in preparation for the launch. I am also excited to tell you that when Beta RC4 launches there will be $2000.00 in the LuckyDay@TWERQ prize pot to be given away to people using TWERQ. One extra lucky person will find the grand prize of $1000.00, so stay tuned!

Top 100 Alternative Search Engines
Read/Write Web recently added a new blog to it’s growing network, dedicated to it’s highly successful Alternative Search Engines list. This list fully demonstrates the endless innovation happening when it comes to search. The top 100 is picked from more then 1000 search engines and that number grows every day. TWERQ was first included on the Top 100 ASE in February of 2007 and was included again this June for the fifth consecutive month. Visit AltSearchEngines.com

Searchnomics Search Engine Awards 2007
WebGuild’s Searchnomics is hosting Search Engine Awards 2007 which takes place June 27 in Sunnyvale California. There are 78 engines listed at this point including major engines Google, Windows Live, Yahoo and Ask. TWERQ is currently placed 20th according to their online voting system with 61 votes scoring a rank of 4.5 out of 5. Vote for TWERQ

Wesley Long
[tags]Wesley Long, twerq, twerq search, search engine, twerq blog, blog[/tags]