Today at SMX East, natural language search engine Hakia has launched a new search experience that enables searchers to view categorized results, as well as view “Trusted” Results” from “Credible Sites”.
The Trusted Results program is an initiative Hakia has developed with information professionals and librarians. As they note on their site:
A popular Web source may not always be credible, and a credible Web source may not always be popular. hakia is the first search engine to integrate librarians’ collective knowledge of credible Web sites into search results to guide searchers.
Powerset, the natural language search engine that’s been under wraps for a while, has just launched a test version of their product that searches Wikipedia articles. Danny Sullivan describes how Powerset’s search differs from a standard search over at Search Engine Land.
Key to the difference is Powerset’s ability to glean meaning from the sentences. While other search engines primarily look for instances of words on pages, Powerset understands those words. Or something like that. The Search Engine Land article illustrates the concept with a search for Henry VIII. The Powerset results include “factz” based on verbs, such as he “granted” land and “married” a bunch of times.
I was suspicious of the “z”.
But, I figured I’d try it out myself using the tried and true ego search method. If I there’s one search result for which we should be able to judge accuracy, it should be the one about ourself. (Keeping in mind that the current version of my Wikipedia entry is woefully out of date and has been flagged for depressing grammar issues.) So what does Powerset think that Wikipedia has said about me?
That I have declared bankruptcy and received email.
Sigh.
A recent Pew Internet & American Life Project study looked at how Americans use libraries and how libraries can better serve the one-third of the US population with low Internet access. The study surveyed 2,796 Americans and focused on how people use the Internet, libraries, and government resources when they need to solve problems. Those with high-speed access were more likely to turn to the Internet for answers and were generally more satisfied with their ability to get answers and solve problems. The majority of people said that they were very satisfied with results they received from government agencies (65%), libraries (64%), and the Internet (63%). Overall, the study is positive news for public libraries. And there’s great opportunity for librarians to become more useful and relevant in the lives of those who need it the most.
Many of you in the search community have seen and talked to Eytan Seidman as he’s been around writing on the Live Search blog and speaking at conferences (not to mention that he’s been spending most of his time working on search).
He’s been at Microsoft a long time, and the time has come for him to start his own company. Sadly for those of us in Seattle, for him that also means moving to New York.
If you are involved in search in any way, you should definitely check out the interview I just posted to Search Engine Land that talks about Eytan’s career at Microsoft and the evolution of Live Search. At the end, I’ve embedded a YouTube video with lots of Eytan’s search friends. You would think we might wish him well and give him advice. But mostly we talk about Buffy and his bad bowling skills. You don’t want to miss it.
Eytan, Live Search, Buffy, Bears, Bunnies, The Tin Man, and Root Shrews. Also Squirrels.
In addition to verticals that claim to generate entirely new approaches from the major search engines and “human-powered” sites, the newest buzzwords have been “natural language search” and “semantic indexing.” Natural language search engine Hakia has done a bit better, launching a search engine in 2007 that uses portions of its natural language technology. Hakia analyzes the query to determine user intent. Search engines are tackling the challenge of determining user intent in a number of ways, including using personalization, overall user behavior, and social networking. But even if search engines such as Hakia can engineer this breakthrough, they still need query behavior to change to bring true value.
Google actually tailors results for individuals to deliver the most relevant, useful results possible, which may sound like a good thing overall. Google personalizes search in the following ways. These are: 1. dealing with search history, 2. Web history, 3. use of other Google services, 4. previous search and click behavior, 5. location, 6. language and country restriction, and 7. fluctuations between data centers.
First it was the Jeeves, the Ask Butler. He was all sweet and helpful with his pinstriping and his red tie, and yet ask.com encased him in carbonite and he was never heard from again.
And now the Ask-powered Bloglines plumber is MIA.
Sure, he always seemed confused and not quite sure what the tools in his hands were for, but he had that cute hat and you couldn’t help but like him even though you had no confidence he could do anything other than look under your sink and shake his head in sympathy and you would have to assure him that it was OK. You didn’t really need running water anyway, and would he like for you to bake him a cookie?
Now when you go to bloglines.com, you just see crazy bouncing colored balls that send mixed messages of “no feeds for you!” and “90s dance party for teens!”
Maybe the plumber has given up the pipe wrench and soldering gun and decided to try his hand at something more well-suited for him, like checkers. But someone might check the local carbonite supply shops and see if any largish orders have been placed lately…
Important things first! Joss Whedon, who surely you all know of Buffy fame, is gearing up to do a new show with Eliza Dushku on Fox! Eliza, of course, played Faith the kick ass vampire slayer on Buffy and if you’re saying wasn’t Buffy the slayer then yes, it’s confusing. I’ll loan you the DVDs. Or just come over to Buffy night on Tuesdays. It’ll all make sense. Anyway, this is fantastic news for sci fi fans and Buffy fans and really, anyone who’s a fan of good TV. You do like good TV don’t you?
In other news, I’ve teamed up with my twin potato fan, Greg Niland, for what was previously his show (and now is MY show, er, I mean our show, no evil laugh here, nu uh), GoodKarma, on Webmaster Radio. We’ll do the show live at the same time the show has always aired — Thursdays at 1pm Pacific, and we did the first one today. Check it out if you want to hear us ramble, I mean provide insightful commentary, on the recent very tiny (you may not have even heard of it it was so small) Google paid links controversy, the PageRank deductions, and how I feel about going from a PR 7 to a PR 6. (Toolbar PageRank means nothing! No one should even look at it! But why did I have to go down? *SOB!*) On the plus side, it’s hard to even see that diminishing green bar through the tears.
And in even more news, writing at Search Engine Land continues. Despite my mockery of Hakia’s musical efforts (but the mockery was all in good fun! I love that CD actually. How can you get any better than songs about search?), they let me into their offices a couple of weeks ago when I was in NY for SMX Social Media and we talked natural language processing and semantic indexing and social networking through search.
Told you there was something for everyone. What more could you want than Buffy, PageRank rants, and search? Well, maybe a robot butler who brings you coffee in the mornings.
Yesterday, I live blogged the Microsoft Live Search Searchification Day for Search Engine Land. Todd did some live blogging too. We both somehow managed to type actual words you find in dictionaries despite being in a room where no beverages — even coffee or diet coke! — was allowed.
I was blogging live and blogging Live and yes, we mocked our Microsoft friends a little about that branding, because even though the name changed a long time ago, mocking that just never gets old.
I have lots more to say about that when I’m not about to get on a plane, but for now, I only have time for links. I have also been continuing my people search series for Search Engine Land. I wrote about Spock last week and will be posting the next in the series shortly. I’ve also been talking on the Zillow blog about the NY Times opening up and how I’m speaking at the SMX Local and Mobile conference next week.
And if it seems like I’m just stealing writing I’ve already done to make it seem like I’m writing now, all I can say is remind you that I was allowed very little coffee yesterday and it takes a while to recover from that. I’m drinking some now, so I have confidence that I will overcome this non-caffeinated setback in no time.
I’ve been really interested in people search lately, likely as a tangential wandering from my endless love/hate relationship with social networks. I’ve been talking about people search sites and my struggles with them, as well as the bigger ideas around being identifiable online here on my blog, but I’ve now tangentially wandered right off the site and started writing about people search elsewhere.
The September issue of Information Today magazine includes an article I wrote on using social networking sites for search (typically people search). Information Today is aimed at information professionals, notably librarians. I’ve got an article coming up in the October issue on using people search engines for research purposes. As it’s an honest-to-goodness print magazine, you have to either buy the magazine in an actual store or buy the article online to read these.
I also started a series on people search for Search Engine Land. And if you call in the next ten minutes, access to that is free all free! Heh. I’ll be profiling individual engines in the coming weeks, so watch for that if you’re interested in the new wave of stalking, um people searching.
