Getcy blog

While we are keeping quiet, doing work behind the scenes, more and more and people discover the excellent Google Co-op technology.  We came across yet another project, which is similar to Getcy - Cyprus2007.com.

In that regard here is a little quiz for you:

Question 1: How many Google Co-op Cyprus related search engines will we have by the end of 2007?

Question 2: How many Google Co-op Cyprus related search engines will we have by the end of 2007 if you will help us to promote Getcy?

Homework: Show Getcy to one of your friends today.  If he doesn’t like it - show it to another one.  If he likes it - ask him to spread the word.

Getcy development slowed down a bit for the last month.  And, is with any healthy market, it showed.  We came across another effort for Cyprus search engine - Cyprus Only.

There are similarities and differences between Getcy and Cyprus Only.  Both projects use Google Co-op technology.  Both projects are very young.  And both projects are trying to make it easier to search through Cyprus resources.

The principle difference between these two search engines, is that Getcy searches only through manually selected resources, while Cyprus Only searches through the complete Goolge index, increasing the priorities of the Cyprus resources.  In other words, if you can’t find something in Getcy, it’s because we haven’t (yet) added it.  While if you can’t find it with Cyprus Only, it means that the resources is way too down in search results, and Cyprus Only team haven’t increased the priority of the resource.

To each his own, they say.

We have contacted Cyprus Only team with an invitation to join forces and work on single Cyprus search engine.  So far we haven’t got any reply though…

There are many ways people use search engines.  One of them, is to link to search results for some query from articles and blog post they are writing.  Or even from forum discussions.

Until now, URLs of Getcy search results were as ugly as they can get.  And nobody wants to link to an ugly URL.  We knew that ourselves, and you reminded us about it a few times.

So, today we are introducing easy linking to searches.  From now on, whenever you want to link to some search results, you don’t have to perform the search yourself and then copy an ugly URL and paste an ugly URL into your link.  You can link to an easy URL.

Easy URLs are constructed in the following matter:

1. Type http://getcy.com
2. Add the forward slash and lowercase name of the search category, e.g. /technology
3. Add the forward slash and your search query, e.g. /printer

Examples #1: Link to search results for “printer” at Getcy :: Technology will look like http://getcy.com/technology/printer .

Example #2: Link to search results for “president” at Getcy :: Government will look like http://getcy.com/government/president .

If you want to link to search results for a query that consists of several words, then just use plus sign (+) to connect the keywords of your query.

Example #3: Link to search for “limassol detached house” in Getcy :: Property will look like this: http://getcy.com/property/limassol+detached+house .

Please let us know if we can make this feature anymore intuitive.

How would you feel if we opened Getcy search statistics?

We keep track of all search queries and Getcy categories in which these queries were executed.  We use this information to add more resources for the most requested topics, and to make sure that search results are relevant and up to date.

How would you feel if we made this statistics public?  Are you interested in these numbers and trends?  Would you feel insecure about your search privacy?  Do you want to see all stats in raw, as they are, or, maybe, a smaller, but aggregated set of data?

Please, let us know via comments or the contact form.

Getcy has been spotted by Co-op search blog.  We have received a fair review which describes the search engine functionality, as well as things that we did good and things that we missed.

We can get a bit slow at times, but having widely pointed out weaknesses is not something that we want to have.  So we jumped on it and quickly fixed the issue.  From now on, whenever you search for something in one section of Getcy (say Getcy :: Property), you can quickly switch to another section (for example, Getcy :: Government) without the need to type your search query again.  Just click on the section link and you will be transferred to a page with results for your query from the selected engine section.