SensoryMetrics

A few weeks back I wrote a post about improving Google’s search engine by allowing users to blackball search results. I surmised that allowing users to vote on the results would improve the search results. Now Jimmy Wales, the man behind Wikipedia plans to launch a new search engine named Wikiasari which will allow users to rerank search results. Each new search will then be reordered based on the most popular order. I think it’s an interesting idea and can’t wait to start using it when it becomes available. Furthermore, Wikiasari’s search engine will be open source exposing the search ranking formulas.

This is an excellent start, however I can already think of some ways to improve it further. It seems to me that everyone is different. In my original post, I spoke of a Google blackball option which would be specific to me not to everyone. What I see as off topic might be exactly what others see as on topic. I think the way to solve this would be to allow people to take on different roles when they are searching the web for content. For instance, when I’m searching for things to buy, I’m in a very different mode than when I’m searching for news to read. Of course, the usual way to solve this using Google is to be as specific as possible and to put as many words as possible into your query. Most of us quickly learn that if you type the word ‘apple’ into Google you’ll get several pages returned about Apple computer, if you want to information about the fruit, you need to type in ‘apple fruit’. It works for the most part. Most people get the hang of it pretty quick. What I’d like to see is how Wikiasari will handle results for ‘apple’. Will the fruit come up first or will it still be Apple computer? Will it be a diverse list of results, or will it be very narrow? This is where having different roles might come in very handy. I think there might be a big difference between what a person is looking for if they’re an electrical engineer, a poet, a doctor, or a six year old. And I’m not saying you always have to be an electrical engineer or a poet, I’m sure there are plenty of engineers out there that are both. Having the results filtered to a specific role might be very useful. I think it really depends on whether the search tool is being used to browse the web or search the web for a specific thing. Google is already very good at finding results if you’re looking for a specific thing. The more narrow the search, the more specific the keywords, the better the results. However, I wouldn’t use it to browse a given topic. Here I’d much sooner turn to Wikipedia to give me a decent starting point for exploring the subject matter. No doubt, Wikiasari will find its place as it’s community base develops.

Plurk This Post Buzz This Post Facebook