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Visual Search The Future? Spare Me The Eye Candy
Visual search engines like Searchme, Viewzi and Cooliris are still far away from replacing general-purpose search engines like Google. Coverflows, thumbnail galleries and timelines are pretty to look at, and they often work well for image and video searches. But so far nothing beats the old list of 10 blue links when it comes to efficient web search. Page titles and text summaries with highlighted keywords are far better (general) indicators of relevance than small thumbnails. A combination of text and thumbnails works quite well, though. I’m very pleased with the GooglePreview addon for Firefox, and I encourage everyone to try it.
Visual Search The Future? Spare Me The Eye Candy
Visual search engines like Searchme, Viewzi and Cooliris are still far away from replacing general-purpose search engines like Google. Coverflows, thumbnail galleries and timelines are pretty to look at, and they often work well for image and video searches. But so far nothing beats the old list of 10 blue links when it comes to efficient web search. Page titles and text summaries with highlighted keywords are far better (general) indicators of relevance than small thumbnails. A combination of text and thumbnails works quite well, though. I'm very pleased with the GooglePreview addon for Firefox, and I encourage everyone to try it.
Carrot2 – Open Source Search Results Clustering Engine
The Carrot2 clustering engine caught my interest today. It's an "open source framework for building search clustering engines". Carrot2 will basically take search results, analyze these on the fly, and group them according to most common concepts and keywords. Clusters can then be used for navigation and visualization (see the demo at http://search.carrot2.org/stable/search). Grokker (http://www.grokker.com) is using parts of this framework, apparently. Carrot2 can be integrated as a Java API, or you can interface with the standalone clustering server via XML or JSON. I hope I get to play with this technology sometime soon.
Carrot2 – Open Source Search Results Clustering Engine
The Carrot2 clustering engine caught my interest today. It’s an “open source framework for building search clustering engines”. Carrot2 will basically take search results, analyze these on the fly, and group them according to most common concepts and keywords. Clusters can then be used for navigation and visualization (see the demo at http://search.carrot2.org/stable/search). Grokker (http://www.grokker.com) is using parts of this framework, apparently. Carrot2 can be integrated as a Java API, or you can interface with the standalone clustering server via XML or JSON. I hope I get to play with this technology sometime soon.
The Future Of Social Search (Or Why Google Should Buy Facebook)
While we’re working on the big haul, have a look at Sidestripe. It’s a Firefox plugins that brings together Google and Facebook in something of a social search experience. Sidestripe indexes your friends on Facebook and parts of their profile. When you later search on Google, friend search results appear after the third natural result. It may be rewarding to discover friends who share one of your particular interests. Search on Facebook is not a very satisfying experience in itself. Social networking is on the other side not one of Google’s strengts. Perhaps a joint effort may breathe some life into social search?
The Future Of Social Search (Or Why Google Should Buy Facebook)
While we're working on the big haul, have a look at Sidestripe. It's a Firefox plugins that brings together Google and Facebook in something of a social search experience. Sidestripe indexes your friends on Facebook and parts of their profile. When you later search on Google, friend search results appear after the third natural result. It may be rewarding to discover friends who share one of your particular interests. Search on Facebook is not a very satisfying experience in itself. Social networking is on the other side not one of Google's strengts. Perhaps a joint effort may breathe some life into social search?
Top 10 Alternative Search Engines of 2008 – ReadWriteWeb
ReadWriteWeb gives us their round-up of the Top 10 Alternative Search Engines of 2008. These are not at all like Google, but it may be worth leaving your comfort zone in order to try out some of these innovative alternatives. My favorite on this list is TagGalaxy. The market shifts slowly, given that the four major search engines get over 98% of all US search traffic. Some change and variation is definetly called for.
Top 10 Alternative Search Engines of 2008 – ReadWriteWeb
ReadWriteWeb gives us their round-up of the Top 10 Alternative Search Engines of 2008. These are not at all like Google, but it may be worth leaving your comfort zone in order to try out some of these innovative alternatives. My favorite on this list is TagGalaxy. The market shifts slowly, given that the four major search engines get over 98% of all US search traffic. Some change and variation is definetly called for.
Faceted Search: An Interview with Tito Sierra | findability.org
Peter Morville shares some thoughts on faceted search. Lessons learned at the NCSU Libraries address: 1) users suffering from "facet fatique" when exposed to a large number of facets, 2) space efficient presentation with collapsible facets, quickfilter checkboxes, and stacking breadcrumbs, 3) grouping and ordering facets according to popularity and type [exploratory vs. known item search], 4) facets triggers.
Faceted Search: An Interview with Tito Sierra | findability.org
Peter Morville shares some thoughts on faceted search. Lessons learned at the NCSU Libraries address: 1) users suffering from “facet fatique” when exposed to a large number of facets, 2) space efficient presentation with collapsible facets, quickfilter checkboxes, and stacking breadcrumbs, 3) grouping and ordering facets according to popularity and type [exploratory vs. known item search], 4) facets triggers.
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