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Windows will let you search your computer using everyday language
If you've ever searched a computer's apps or settings, you know how frustrating it can be to guess the keywords you'll need to get a result -- why can't you just say what you want and let the PC figure it out? Microsoft must have asked itself that same question, as it's rolling out an update to Windows 8.1 that introduces natural language searches for common tasks. You only have to phrase your statement in a way that a human could understand to get useful links. Gripe that "my screen is too bright," for example, and you'll get a shortcut to the display settings. The new search feature won't help you find everything you'd want, but it could save you precious time when it reaches Windows systems this week.
Microsoft ties Bing Ads into Windows 8.1 Smart Search
With Windows 8.1, Microsoft made a significant change to the way users search: it unified the experience to include web, cloud, app and system results. Now, the company's putting something else into Smart Search: Bing Ads. It's okay if this strikes you as a bit troubling -- most users are accustomed to seeing ads display within browser-based search, not OS-driven queries. But that's the new face of Win 8.1, like it or not. So the next time you use that convenient all-in-one search sidebar, expect to see sponsored results like the one above appropriately highlighted and packed with site previews, links, addresses and phone numbers. Basically, it's no different than what you're getting from a regular Bing search, only now it's baked into your live-tiled OS. You can thank Microsoft in the comments below.
Google launches Knowledge Graph today, wants to understand real things (video)
Americans and Brits might chuckle at their respective understandings of words like chips, pants and biscuits -- a search engine, however, can't be quite so discerning. As it turns out, Google actually thinks it can, and has been working on its Knowledge Graph project to prove it. Beginning today, English searches from Google.com might start seeing a new box appearing alongside (unless you happened to see it via the live-trial). If there is more than one potential meaning to your search term, Google will ask you to specify (trousers, not underwear, for example). Likewise, when it's more confident it knows what you mean, you'll get a summary box instead. (A celebrities place of birth, favorite cheese etc..) Google's Shashidhar Thakur, tech lead for search, told us "We think of this as our pragmatic approach to semantic search." And by pragmatic, he means that for the last two years, Google has been working to map the "Universe of things," not just webpages. Over 500 million things, in fact, creating a total of 3.5 billion attributes and connections so far. The hope is, that as this technology evolves, you'll be able to ask more complex questions, like "Which US airports have a Cinnabon stall." Or, you know, other such deep and meaningful queries. If you see some info, and happen to know better, there's a feedback system, so you can let Google know, hopefully making Knowledge Graph continually evolve in accuracy. While it's only rolling out for English searches, it's not just desktop, with mobile and tablet search getting the goods too. There are plans to spread this out to other languages, but no specific dates for this just now.
DirecTV adds YouTube video streaming to its DVRs
DirecTV owners may be interested in learning their DVR has a new trick, it can now view videos directly from YouTube. As long as your HD DVR or R22 DVR is connected to the internet, just hit menu, select Smart Search and you'll find YouTube videos among the results. that's all there is to it since there doesn't appear to be any options for viewing your own favorites or playlists at this time, check DirecTV's site for the step-by-step if you can't quite figure it out -- the rest of us have some internet memes to catch up on. [Thanks, cypherstream]
