I managed to get a little time the other day so i decided to check up on what was one of the biggest stories of last year that being the IRSeek IRC based content search engine, thankfully Ariel and Eran we're happy yo entertain my questions once again and below is another interview with the IRSeek visionaries. This email was conducted via email and once again we would like to thank them for there time - we're aware people out there are very busy but to get two interviews and prompt responses its kickass ( had to add that since half the developers out there are too busy to talk! )

1. How are things with IRSeek on the whole ?
As you may know, we have made a lot of changes to the service since the last time we've been in touch. But, as a whole, the service is constantly growing both in channels and in users.

2. When IRSeek was launched it was met with a fair few privacy rants, how has this effected your service ?
The service has gone through some serious changes in order to comply with the concerns and requests of the users. As you can see in our policy page and blog (http://www.irseek.com/blog), the service is now based on the approval of the individual channel operators (or contacts).

That is, channel operators have to specifically opt-in for a certain channel in order for it to be archived. Furthermore, the operator can choose to opt-out and remove historical data if they see fit. Finally, the content also has an expiry time.

3. IRSeek appears to be one of the few "content based" IRC search engines that has been accepted by IRC users, any thoughts on why this is the case ?
We think that it's mostly due to the fact that we are constantly conversing with the community and listening to their concerns and request. After all, we are doing this for the benefit of the community and want their support for the service.

The changes have been mostly policy oriented. Aside from minor changes, the system is still based on the same architecture: LAMP + Sphinx + a proprietary backend-loggers-management.

5. Can you reveal or hint on any future plans ?
We are still trying to increase the popularity of the service by archiving more content and constantly conversing with the community to improve the service further. We truly believe that the service can be of great service to the community and the content is useful for both IRC and none-IRC users, it's just matter of making it more available to
users. Furthermore, we are working on better search options, multi-lingual support, and other features in order to make the content more easily available to the users.

6. How many networks/channels does IRSeek on average watch now ?
Our focus is mostly on Freenode at the moment, with about a hundred channels, and several other smaller networks with several channels each.

7. After some 6 months since our last interview, do you still feel that an IRC Search engine is the right direction ?
Yes, definitely. As mentioned before, we believe that this search-engine can be of great benefit to the community as a whole.

8. How are your servers/bots handling the IRC load ?
In order to share the load, we are using multiple bots. Each bot handles a certain number of channels.

9. Where do you see IRSeek in say 5-10 years
It's hard to say at this time, things have been changing rather quickly. As you probably know, the privacy issues have caught us unprepared and we had to make some quick decisions and major modifications to the service as it was. However, due to support from a lot of users, and the Freenode's staff (which was, and still is the most dominant network of IRSeek) we have decided to continue the service at its new form.


10. any feedback/information/notes you would like to offer our userbase ?
Opt-in:) Our short term plans are to extend to additional networks and improve the website in terms of usability, functionality, popularity.

Thanks,
Ariel and Eran.
IRSeek visionaries ;)

big thanks to Ariel and Eran once again and remember to check our IRSeek @ http://www.irseek.com and get the latest information from those very people @ http://www.irseek.com/blog/