Finday's new feedback widget.

Starting Monday you’ll see a brand new little red tab on the left side of your browser, called feedback. If you click on it, you’ll be able to rate our website and make any comment you’d like on Finday: Do you find it useful? How do you think we could improve our service? Have we forgotten something? Have you spotted an error on the site? Don’t be shy, we want to hear what you have to say!

This new function has been added to the constant improvements we’re making on Finday so it can deserve a place on your browser’s homepage. And if not, what are you waiting for? Use the feedback tab and tell us what you think of Finday!

Zeitgeist U.S. overview.

There’s no doubt that everything that’s “social” is hip on the Internet. At least that’s what the Google Zeitgeist 2009 study has shown.  This study captures the fastest rising (or falling) queries for each quarter of the year, queries which show the most popular searches on Google in the U.S. in 2009.

According to this data, Twitter and Michael Jackson were the leading searches on Google, holding the top two positions in the Fastest Rising category, coming closely behind in third, was of course, Facebook. The second quarter of 2009 had a sharp peak with the breakout of swine flu cases, making swine flu the most searched query in the Google News ranking. The rest of the queries in this category are mostly comprised of references to reality television, something that has inevitably become an integral part of television and American culture. Searches of singing sensations like Britain’s Got Talent’s Susan Boyle or American Idol’s Adam Lambert, in second and fourth place respectively, show that Americans still can’t get enough of these so-called “rise to fame” stories that come from reality talent searches.

With data like this, obviously our interest isn’t so much on knowing what words are the most searched ones, but to analyze why they are the most popular. It’s striking to know that, at a point in time where browsers themselves self-complete the URLs typed in, taking user navigation history and the integration of practical functions such as bookmarks into account, people readily continue to use Google to target sites which they probably visit on a day-to-day basis, like Facebook.

A search engine, is it really the best way to access our favorite sites?

If truth be told, the use of Google “as a starting page for everything” is most evident where societies with lesser developed telecommunications technologies are analyzed. Why is Peru’s third most searched word “peru”? What motive led Uruguayans to look up not only “uruguay” (also in 3^rd place in the popularity rank), but “google” in Google (in 9^th place)? Information provided by Google undoubtedly gives us many clues as to what’s on peoples’ minds at any given time (swine flu, New Moon, the Gosselin family or Lady Gaga), but also how to use new technologies and navigation and search tools on the Internet.

Analysis of this data goes far beyond what these preliminary thoughts attempt to claim, and their study should be serious and in-depth. But it is a worrisome fact that at this point in time, we have many users who still use Google the way they do. This should lead us to reflect on whether user interface browsers are truly oriented towards “real” users (the Google Chrome project would be an approach to this problem), or if the whole of society still needs more time to assimilate online digital life as a tool for knowledge and universal communication.

In any case, at Finday we work to bring the Internet to our users in a more practical and natural way. Clearly, browser bookmarks don’t properly meet the needs of the modern Internet user, who usually accesses the Net from multiple locations and different devices. Having an online profile where we can center all our personal starting points on the Internet is, in this context, a very basic part of the process. But until now, the idea of integrating a social aspect to a search engine had not been seriously considered. Democratizing Internet searches will not only help us find better things in less time, but who knows, it might even contribute to change the basic guidelines that Google Zeitgeist’s data shows in a not so distant future.

In order to add some new and cool images to your wallpaper collection, we’ve prepared three cute desktop wallpapers with a theme that we love: Finday! You can choose between two different screen resolutions, 1,600 x 1,200 and 1,920 x 1,200, so you can adapt them to your screen’s proportions.

To save these images on your computer, choose the design you like best, open the link corresponding to the screen resolution you need, right click on the image and choose Save image as…

According to Google, PageRank resolves an equation that contains more than 500 milion variables.

The Internet is the Internet, a place with so much going on in and around it like new start up companies, updates, applications, websites, sharing sites and ever so popular social networks, whether an online newbie or an avid surfer, it can tend to feel like you’re logging onto the “Wild Wild West” than onto your PC. Inevitably, those three W’s we type in can make our options seem so vast that it makes the not-so-internet or tech savvy, shy or inhibited at trying new things for fear that it might take us to places unknown or unsafe.

Our web surfing has become such a normal, day to day activity that we have inherently developed techniques like keyword searches, that have optimized the way we surf the net, although most of those techniques are self-taught along the way. Case in point, being monogamous to specific search engines and web pages we know and recognize is common but unrealistic; because unlike real life, in virtual life there really is always something bigger and better out there, it’s just a matter of going outside the box and trying it out for yourself.

A trusted and independent filter

The term social search or social search engine began to emerge around 2004 where the concept “social ranking” turned out from Google´s PageRank algorithm. This marked a difference in who analyzed and assigned the importance of web pages, software-based indexing systems or human judgement.

Through user participation, Finday acts as an independent and objective filter.

Previously, the analysis of the link structure of a site or links, gave out the positive votes we needed from various webmaster communities on their favourite sites. With a social search engine like Finday, we don’t just cancel out the ability of algorithms to find meaningful information for us and replaced it with a user’s voting mechanism. What we’ve done at Finday is fused the two together, but placing prime importance on the relevance of a website and how people can influence and enhance our searches based on personal reviews and experiences.

One of the many benefits Finday has as a social search engine versus conventional search engines is precisely this: its ability to show the relevance of a website from the reader’s perspective rather than the webmaster that creates the links or the author who, through various SEO techniques, attempts to position his website so that his content can be viewed first. Constant feedback from registered users helps Finday stay completely up to date and helps us and you act jointly as a collaborative filter, trusted and independent, in this massive place called the World Wide Web.

Finday in Wwwhat's new

We‘ve done it: You liked Finday and Finday liked you. Last week we had the worldwide launch of Finday in Spanish and English, and the response we’ve been receiving from technologically specialized media has been largely positive. One of them has come as far as describing us as “the Softonic of searches,” which fills us with pride and encourages us to continue building the world’s best participative search engine.

Truth be it, at Finday we are not resting on one’s laurels, and we continue working hard to incorporate substantial improvements as well as new and more interesting features in the very near future. And if you really think, like us, that Finday can dramatically improve your search experience of Internet content, you’ll surely be interested in keeping abreast of all our updates. With that in mind, we introduce you to 3 different alternatives (aside from this blog of course) to receiving our news and suggestions on time.

How to keep up-to-date with Finday

Finday on Twitter

First stop: Twitter. If you’re a regular user of this popular micro-blogging and messaging system, you’ll love knowing that you can become a follower of our @finday tweets.

Your second stop is Facebook. You can become a fan of Finday on our international page, or join the Spanish user group.

Finally, you can use Google alerts to keep you updated on everything that’s showing up on blogs, websites or news pages about Finday. To configure the alerts, you just have to visit the Google Alerts page, enter “Finday” as the search term, and indicate the search type, frequency and the e-mail address where you want to receive the news alerts. If you want to go even further, you can put the cherry on the sundae by creating a feed link and adding it to Google Reader or any other syndicated news reader.

Online, at last!

October 2009:  finally, after nearly a year and a half of intense but exciting work, it’s time, the time that the entire team has been waiting for, the global launch of Finday!

If you’ve been following us, by now you know Finday is an innovative web directory and social search engine that starts with a truly revolutionary proposal:  to democratize Internet searches. Because Finday isn’t just an advanced search engine based on Google’s technology, but also the first Spanish directory of websites commented and evaluated on by users, and the only website ranking system not based on statistics but on human criteria.

What’s the best site for…?

Our primary focus throughout the entire design process of Finday was that its operation had to be really simple and intuitive. The user begins the search for a word or phrase on the Internet as they would on any other search engine, Finday then uses the powerful Google engine to present the same results the user is used to getting. That simple. But we also wanted to introduce a system with which we could get to the best sites, a system that could answer the Internet user’s eternal question:  “What’s the best site for…?”  For this reason, not only have we included a score that users assign to each site in their search results, but we’ve also created what we call a “quick search“.

The “quick search” is a direct locating system that allows Finday users to obtain listings quickly and easily which include the highest rated technology blogs, the cheapest electronics stores, or the most reliable travel websites to name just a few examples, always according to the evaluations that you, the user, provide us with on each site.

Much remains to be done and a number of things improved. We know this, and we have big plans ahead in the very near future.  For now, we are convinced that at Finday you’ll find plenty of good excuses to make it your homepage and your default search engine in your browser. Create a user profile -it’s really fast and easy- and you’ll be on the right path to always find what you want.

Finday increases your productivity through the searches.

The launch of a website is just like the hours of build up before a storm. The atmosphere is charged with electricity whilst last-minute changes are being made, and the anticipation of knowing what the reaction of the users will be grows and grows as the echo of the first claps of thunder can be heard on the horizon. But in these moments that are so loaded with tension, there is also a certain sensation of calm, a strange peace that emerges from the certainty of having worked hard and having worked effectively.

Finday has been in incubation for more than a year, and now as it is just about to receive the public’s verdict, we realize the great leap forward that the website has seen since its first conception up to its current stage (albeit still the Beta version, let’s keep it real). Everyone on the Finday team has made, at one moment or another along the way, valuable contributions that have helped to improve the website to make it more functional, more useful, and generally definitively better.

An exclusive agreement with Google

Apart from this, we can’t disguise our pride at having secured an agreement with Google that is the first of its kind the world over, which provides our directory with the power of the most popular and effective search engine in the world. As such, the users of our directory won’t have to give up the power of Google in order to enjoy all of the advantages that Finday offers as your default search engine system.

And so here we are, opening the page to a section of the public (it’s not called a “closed beta version” for nothing ) but with the main features of the system already implemented. Amongst these features is also the option of saving website addresses onto a clip-board, writing notes about the websites that you visit, or having access to a complete and practical history of your Finday searches.

There is still a lot to do and a lot of improvements to be made, but right now I can say that I always use Finday to do my online searches. The fact is that Finday increases my productivity, and helps me to find the websites that I need to look up, in a faster and more effective way than any other Internet search engine, including Google. And those words, my friend, are forks of lightening.

Web 2.0 has democratized Internet use

So Web 2.0. Good or bad or simply where the Internet washed us up on the shore at the end of the noughties?

When you think about it, Finday is a definitely a child of this generation of Internet. And we’d like to say that this is, all round, a pretty good thing.

The Finday database provides a comprehensive directory of websites giving you the condensed information that you need, and shows you which useful sites other users have liked. In short, it delivers you the top sites available in whatever you might be looking for.

It really makes a difference to your Internet searching

Not only does it instantly save you the trawling process of checking out every website to eventually find a) what you’re after, and b) a site providing this in a decent and reliable way. It also gives you the chance to express your own opinions and share your experiences with the rest of the community.

In a few words, Finday puts the power in the hands of the people.

So you’re getting an incredibly useful, precise and well gestated search results. On top of this, the opinions and ratings come from other Internet users just like you. So no one is trying to sell you anything, or ram anything down your throat.

There is, without a doubt, a very democratic element to Finday.

And not only the concept, but the design and layout of My Finday is all meant to help you get the best out of your time spent online. To make it as easy as possible for you to make notes and navigate your way around the Internet.

To help you with your searches and the websites you like.

Which, in total, is a brief summary of what we are. So, friendly yet precise, powerful yet community based. Finday’s benefits are potent and touch many spheres. (Plus, you have to admit – the idea of a website basket is pretty cute.)

Finday includes a technical data file of each of the registered webs

Finday is a directory of websites that has been designed to improve your experience of Internet searching. It uses the powerful Google search engine in order to give you the most accurate search results, but also allows you to navigate through its hundreds of categories in order to find the websites that you need in any given moment.

Every website that appears in a Finday directory will have its own complete data file, which includes its own brief description of the website, and also a more extensive comment which evaluates the good and bad points of the site. As well as this, the files contain screen captures of the site’s homepage, and some of the other sections too, in the case of some of the larger websites.

Finday is a colaborative web guide

In fact, the files, alongside the system of channels and categories, form the framework of Finday. The files are complemented by the ratings and comments made by the users, which are, after all, our service’s main reason for being. Finday is a social search engine, and this means that just like other collaborative sites such as Wikipedia, it is continuously growing and improving with the input of its users. As such, in Finday, anyone can rate a website, write a comment, and even write a detailed analysis about its main features, services, or focus of interest.

Any user can make comments in Finday

However, there is more. The website files have two important aspects: on the one hand, they contain the technical information that sums up the websites, such as the name, URL, aliases, languages and a description of the services provided; but on the other hand they offer the ratings given by each one of our contents team and users that have made a visit to the site.

We currently have technical files on more than 2,000 websites, that include the most relevant sites based on the number of visitors, not only within the United States, the UK and English-speaking countries, but also within Spanish speaking ones.

Finday is an intuitive web directory

One of Finday’s main objectives is to provide the users with the best way of ordering their search results. In order for that to happen, we combine the search results from the Internet with our own database of websites, allowing us not only to ascertain which sites are the best from those that appear in the Google search results, but also which ones stand out amongst those within Finday’s multiple directories.

In this way, it is possible to separate the websites that have the highest ratings from the users in a Google search, or directly find the best sites about something specific by checking its corresponding directory. To achieve this objective, it is necessary to perform the methodical and exhaustive task of categorization and classification of websites. For us, it is vital to lay the foundations of our system of classification of the contents correctly, since the effectiveness of the personalized searches made by Finday users will depend, in large measure, on this classification.

An intuitive organisation system

In contrast to other directories based exclusively on the use of tags, Finday’s system of website classification combines the labels with a hierarchical and logical structure. In this way, it allows you to organize the websites in the most accurate way possible, and it makes the navigation between its many different categories as easy as possible.

Finday currently has 25 channels of content, and a system of 300 categories with 2 levels of sub-categorization, though which it classifies each one of the website that are featured in our directory, in the most accurate way possible. As well as this, we are in the process of introducing tags for each one of these categories, to ensure that locating specialized websites within defined topic areas is even easier and more accurate.

And so this is how we’ve envisaged Finday: a website directory designed to improve your experience of Internet searching. We use the powerful Google search engine to provide you with the search results that you’re used to, but we also allow you to find the websites that you need in any given moment – quickly, directly and accurately – through our own intuitive system of organization.

Joseph Artes