Surf Canyon

Today Surf Canyon released it’s most important update since originally launching in February - version 2.0.0.

The introduction of my.SurfCanyon.com enables users to explicitly customize results on Google, Yahoo! and MSN Live Search by indicating domains that they prefer as well as those that they dislike. As a result, “preferred” domains will receive preferential treatment during re-ranking, while “disliked” domains will be removed entirely from the result set. User may either check boxes available on my.SurfCanyon.com or enter their own domains.

Furthermore, as show below, selecting a domain that provides news may add a customized “news block” to the top of the search results containing up-to-the-minute results from your preferred sources. Selecting either Amazon or eBay may also add, when appropriate, blocks of relevant product listings.

All of these settings can be changed by simply returning to my.SurfCanyon.com and saving new preferences.

Lastly, v2.0.0 introduces an “Odometer” designed to give users an idea of the “mileage” they’re getting from Surf Canyon. The “Search Boost” is simply an approximate measure of the rate at which Surf Canyon “recommended” results are selected when they are available. Values will naturally vary by individual, but 25 to 35% is a normal range. Buttons to disable and reset the Odometer are provided.

As for compatibility, Surf Canyon is now able to detect if SiteAdvisor is installed and active and, if so, will reposition the bull’s eyes. The application continues to be compatible with WOT and Google Preview. Finally, the “Settings” dialog box has been move to my.SurfCanyon.com.

Anthony Ha at VentureBeat covered the release:

“Cramer describes the distinction as real-time explicit customization (SearchWiki) versus long-term explicit (My SurfCanyon), but you don’t have to follow his terminology to see that SurfCanyon sounds easier.”

Jean-Marie Gall, a prominent technology blogger in France, added this:

“v2.0.0 is truly bursting with efficiency…  Congratulations to… Surf Canyon for all the remarkable work on this marvelous plug-in that I’ve been using since it launched.”

Update (12/17/08) - Vanessa Voltolina at FOLIO: magazine also covered the launch of v2.