A Search Engine For The Slower Net

Makarand writes "According to this BBC News article researchers at MIT are developing a search engine for people using the web on slower net connections. The software will e-mail queries to a central server and receive the most relevant webpages from the search results by e-mail in a compressed form. Since the program is too big to download over a poor net connection it will be mailed on CDs to libraries for people to borrow and install. They are also considering trying to persuade computer sellers in developing countries to install the program on machines."

Comments

Many problems with this idea

[hyrdra]

First, If you don't have enough bandwidth for even the most minimialistic google page with stripped graphics etc., you don't have enough bandwidth to view the sites attached to the results of your query. What good is a list of results by e-mail when you can't view the links to establish how accurate they are?

Also, the search process for the Internet is not only related to the quality of the search engine you use. It's an interactive process of finding what works best, refining your query based on results until you eventually find what you're looking for -- using this system would eliminate this aspect, at minimum making it painfully slow.

Can anyone give a useful application that many people could use and benefit from?