Wondering if some celebrity is Gay, Lesbian, Straight or Bisexual? Plenty of people do and turn to Google to find out. But the search engine just stopped offering direct answers about these questions, after they became more noticeable. Google's "Best Guess" About Sexual Orientations Here's an example of one of the answers that were being shown, in response to a search for is anna paquin gay: You can see that Google provided a direct answer: "Best guess for Anna Paquin Sexual orientation is Bisexual." This worked for Paquin and other some other celebrities up until a few hours ago, when [...]

Related Topics: Features: Analysis | Features: General | Google: Suggest | Google: Web Search | Search & Society: General | Search Features: Shortcuts

Bing announced a new feature in the search results named "Action Buttons." Action buttons give you quick links to perform specific actions on specific web sites. IF you are searching for an airline, the Bing action buttons may include items like check flight status, book a flight or check in to a flight. If you are searching for a car rental company, Bing may offer you action links to rent a car, find locations or contact the company. If you are searching for a hotel, Bing may offer you action links to book a room, locations and their reward program. Here are some pictures: [...]

Related Topics: Microsoft: Bing | Search Features: Shortcuts

There are lots of different ways to speed up searching. Google, Bing and Yahoo all offer browser toolbars -- no need to visit their home pages, just search wherever you are. Google and Yahoo both have their own versions of "instant search," where search results appear as you type. Google's Chrome web browser lets you search right from the browser address bar. And they all fall short of my new favorite search tool: Slashtag.it. If you're really looking to search faster, this is the way to do it. Slashtag.it isn't a search engine; it's an interface that lets you access several dozen se [...]

Related Topics: Features: General | Search Features: Shortcuts | Toolbars & Add-Ons: Firefox Browser

The first game of the World Series is underway, as I write this. Curious about how it's going, I turned to the search engines to see if they'd knock it out of the ballpark with some instant answers. Yep, if you're a San Francisco Giants fan. Not so much, if you're a Texas Rangers fan. Google & The World Series Batting first is Google, where I did a search for giants, as a Giants fan might to get the score: Nice. Just what I wanted, the current score right at the top of the page, where the first arrow is pointing at. You Got Footballolate In My Baseballbutter! Notice the second a [...]

Related Topics: Features: General | Search Features: Shortcuts

While Bing is throwing a star-studded party to announce changes to its entertainment-based search results, there are several other changes that deserve a close look, not the least of which is the amount of deep content -- including full articles with thousands of words -- that Bing is now hosting in its search results. More on that in a bit. Look & Feel Let's start with the overall new look and feel that Bing has announced. The biggest change is that search options -- or, Quick Tabs in Bing-speak -- have been moved from the left-side column to immediately under the search box at the top [...]

Related Topics: Microsoft: Bing | Search Features: Shortcuts | Top News