Sphere (Website)
Encyclopedia
Sphere was a blog
search engine
. The Sphere search engine delivered blog posts based on algorithms that combine semantic matching
with authority factors to deliver results relevant to the search query.
Sphere also organized bloggers by topic.
The company produced an application called Sphere It! allowing users to seek blog posts related to news articles based on the contents of a particular web page they're viewing. The function was accessed from a browser navigation bar
plug-in. Upon clicking the plug-in button, a semantic analysis was performed on the text within the page and blog posts related to the text of the article were returned. The search engine required that Javascript
is turned on in the visitor's browser.
Sphere had a variety of content distribution venues among major publishers where blog results from Sphere were presented, contextually, within news stories or other content.
Sphere was founded by Tony Conrad, CEO, Martin Remy, CTO, Steve Nieker, CIO and Toni Schneider, Advisor. The company was based in San Francisco, CA.
In April, 2008, Sphere was acquired by AOL
to be operated as a wholly owned subsidiary.
In 2010, Sphere was merged into AOL News.
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
search engine
Search engine
A search engine is an information retrieval system designed to help find information stored on a computer system. The search results are usually presented in a list and are commonly called hits. Search engines help to minimize the time required to find information and the amount of information...
. The Sphere search engine delivered blog posts based on algorithms that combine semantic matching
Semantic matching
Semantic matching is a technique used in Computer Science to identify information which is semantically related.Given any two graph-like structures, e.g. classifications, database or XML schemas and ontologies, matching is an operator which identifies those nodes in the two structures which...
with authority factors to deliver results relevant to the search query.
Sphere also organized bloggers by topic.
The company produced an application called Sphere It! allowing users to seek blog posts related to news articles based on the contents of a particular web page they're viewing. The function was accessed from a browser navigation bar
Navigation bar
A navigation bar is a sub region of a web page that contains hypertext links in order to navigate between the pages of a website....
plug-in. Upon clicking the plug-in button, a semantic analysis was performed on the text within the page and blog posts related to the text of the article were returned. The search engine required that Javascript
JavaScript
JavaScript is a prototype-based scripting language that is dynamic, weakly typed and has first-class functions. It is a multi-paradigm language, supporting object-oriented, imperative, and functional programming styles....
is turned on in the visitor's browser.
Sphere had a variety of content distribution venues among major publishers where blog results from Sphere were presented, contextually, within news stories or other content.
Sphere was founded by Tony Conrad, CEO, Martin Remy, CTO, Steve Nieker, CIO and Toni Schneider, Advisor. The company was based in San Francisco, CA.
In April, 2008, Sphere was acquired by AOL
AOL
AOL Inc. is an American global Internet services and media company. AOL is headquartered at 770 Broadway in New York. Founded in 1983 as Control Video Corporation, it has franchised its services to companies in several nations around the world or set up international versions of its services...
to be operated as a wholly owned subsidiary.
In 2010, Sphere was merged into AOL News.