As Yahoo, Google and MSN continue to tweak their engines, jux2 users reap the benefits!

Google has been making big updates to their index recently. “Big Daddy” as it’s been named is a major update to how Google ranks sites. Matt Cutts said that Big Daddy “has some new infrastructure, not just better algorithms or different data.” It’s been around since January and Google is still tweaking it to make it better.

Yahoo the other hand seems to be cranking out index updates about once a month. Weather Reports as they are refereed to “are occurring more frequently; this is the result of improvements to the indexing system” says Yahoo.

And even though MSN doesn’t have a fancy name for updates, their search engine continues to expand every month.

With each search engine updating their indexes and modifying their rankings factors (for the better of course) jux2 users see even better combined results giving jux2 users the best of all searches.

Tags: google, yahoo, msn, matt-cuts, big-daddy, search, meta-search

Recently we came across a great widget for Apple’s Dashboard. It’s called Jack of all Widgets and it gives the user easy access to all sorts of search engines. From Google and Yahoo to Amazon, Barns & Noble, Map Quest and many many more. So we shot off a quick email asking if could get jux2 included and the author added us in no time.

Thanks to Jack of all Widgets, if you are running a Mac OSX 10.4 you can now access jux2 from your Dashboard.

Don’t have a Mac? Or want to use the official jux2 widget? Check out our cross platform jux2 Meta Search widget for Yahoo Widget Engine.

Tags: yahoo, google, apple, dashboard, widget, mac

1. Users are guided to results from the top three mainstream engines.

2. Most corporations are now converting over to an overt, cross-referencing advertising strategy (a la the new X – Men™ face of Myspace.com). This massive media synergy allows for a “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” ideology where both producers and consumers benefit.

3. The abundance of information returned by meta engines allows for a wealth of informed and educated consumers. Returned searches are ranked by relevance (and notated by the order in which they appeared on each specific engine), not by opinion.

As search aficionados, we have watched recent changes in the search industry with great interest. Yahoo! launched its own search algorithm in February 2004. MSN previewed its proprietary search algorithm in July 2004, and is expected to roll it out soon. That will give Internet searchers a choice of four different major search algorithms (Ask Jeeves, Google, MSN, and Yahoo). It also made us wonder: how different are the search engines, and is one any better than the others?

We created jux2 as a comparative research tool to answer these questions. Using jux2, we learned that search engines are more different than people think, typically sharing fewer than 3.5 of their top 10 results (see the other statistical data). We also found that a comparative tool like jux2 gives users far more control over their searches and, in many cases, better search results than from any single search engine.

Our hope is that the community of advanced search users finds jux2 an interesting and useful tool. Try it out, and let us know what you think.

We’ve added yet another way to access the jux2 meta search engine. Now you can search from your desktop with the jux2 Widget for Yahoo Widget Engine.

Simply download the jux2 widget to your desktop and open it up. You’ll then be able to quickly access the jux2 search box from the comfort of your desktop.

Yahoo Widget Engine is required. It’s a free download from Yahoo that works on Mac and PC.

What is Yahoo Widget Engine and Widgets?
The Yahoo! Widget Engine (formerly known as Konfabulator) is a JavaScript runtime engine for Windows and Mac OS X that lets you run little files called Widgets that can do pretty much whatever you want them to. Widgets can be alarm clocks, calculators, can tell you your WiFi signal strength, will fetch the latest stock quotes for your preferred symbols, and even give your current local weather. -From Yahoo

Here’s another tool that many of you have requested. We’ve recently added a toolbar for Internet Explorer so now you can enjoy Jux2 goodness wherever your browsing takes you. It’s quick and easy to install.

System Requirements

* Microsoft Windows (98, ME, NT, 2000 or XP)
* Microsoft Internet Explorer version 5.0 or greater

A Mozilla toolbar is on the way as well. We are very much open to feedback, so please leave comments.

In response to this common request, we’ve added MSN’s search results to our results. We are now combining the results from the four major search engines. Happy New Year!

There have been a couple of minor issues with the jux2 blog in the past couple of days that have been fixed.

We have fixed a small code issue that was not allowing visitors to comment on a post. We also fixed a URL issue in the chicklets in the sidebar. If you had trouble subscribing to our feed or commenting on a post we’re sorry. Hopefully we have them all fixed now. If not, leave a comment.

Thanks

Kim featured us as the Kool Site of the Day for Wednesday, December 28th, 2005. The Kim Komando Show is a nationally syndicated radio show about computers and technology. Thanks Kim!

jux2 Simple Search Box :

To add the jux2 Simple Search Box to your website, just copy the code below:
<form action=”http://jux2.com/best.php” method=”GET” name=”f”>
<input value=”" name=”q” id=”q” type=”text”>
<input type=”hidden” name=”e” value=”0″><br>
<input type=”hidden” name=”src” value=”box1″><br>
<input id=”searchsubmit” value=”Search with jux2″ type=”submit”><br>
<a href=”http://www.jux2.com”>Meta Search Engine</a>
</form>

jux2 Arrow Search Box :

To add the jux2 Arrow Search Box to your website, just copy the code below:
<form action=”http://jux2.com/best.php” method=”GET” name=”f”>
<div style=”background: no-repeat url(http://www.jux2.com/blog/images/orangelogo-small.gif) #FFFFFF; border: 1px solid #ffad38; width: 150px; padding-top: 50px; text-align:center; font:10px Verdana; “>
<input value=”" name=”q” id=”q” type=”text” size=”12″>
<input type=”hidden” name=”e” value=”0″><br>
<input type=”hidden” name=”src” value=”box2″><br>
<input id=”searchsubmit” value=”Search with jux2″ type=”submit”>
</div>
</form>