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Search Engine Learns From User Feedback

Posted by simoniker on from the double-meanings-never-so-confusing dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Ian Clarke, founder of the Freenet project, has set up a web search engine that allows users to rate each of the search results it returns. WhittleBit will use your feedback to determine which keywords should be added or removed from your search, then you can search again to get more accurate results. This could be useful for those cases where Google just refuses to return the search results you want. Could improved interactivity be the next big search engine advancement after Pagerank?"

10 of 269 comments (clear)

  1. I doubt this will fly by The+Bungi · · Score: 5, Informative
    People have been doing experiments like these since the first search engine was rolled off the assembly line. They're prone to abuse and dependent on the goodwill of the user. Imagine of PageRank was based on this - that "SearchKing" dude would have a bot searching for crap and then voting "yes" every time.

    Won't work. Goodwill as we knew it in '95 is gone from the Internet.

  2. Similar concept... by X86Daddy · · Score: 4, Informative

    I think I found the link somewhere on Slashdot once:

    Gnod.net is a learning system like a search engine that allows you to put in your three favorite authors/musicians/movies and it returns a series of "suggestions" that match, asking you if you like/dislike/haven't heard of each result in series.

    This sort of creature has the potential of placing the final nails in the media cartels' coffins, as it provides what's missing from current P2P and self-production techniques: a recommendation/promotion mechanism.

  3. Ouch - major slashdot - mirror of page by Sanity · · Score: 5, Informative
    The server is down - it was totally ill-equipped to handle a slashdotting unfortunately, I was hoping it would get some testing, but this is a bit much ;-)

    As a poor substitute to being able to play with it (try bookmarking whittlebit.com and coming back in a day or two) I will try to answer people's questions. For the moment - here is the blurb from the front page:

    What is WhittleBit?

    Have you ever searched for something and wished you could tell the search engine that it was totally on the wrong track and it should try again? Well now you can! WhittleBit works much like most other search engines, except it can help you to refine your searches by allowing you to give positive or negative feedback on each search result.

    Simply rate the search results by clicking on the "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" buttons then click on Whittle to get a refined set of search results based on your feedback.

    Tips

    • Even if you visit another site and then return, WhittleBit will remember your search query until you explicitly click the "New Search" button.
    • You can either rate a search result on the results page itself, or visit the page and rate it using the buttons at the top of the page. You will return to the WhittleBit search results after clicking one of the buttons.
    • WhittleBit requires a browser which supports "Cookies" and "Frames" such as Mozilla or Internet Explorer.
    - Ian Clarke, creator of WhittleBit
  4. Kartoo by SillySlashdotName · · Score: 2, Informative

    I have used kartoo and like it.

    It does not "learn" per se, but allows you to select from multiple possibilities using a GUI - and it has been available for a while.

    If I have problems finding something with Google, I use Kartoo.

    --
    Acts of massive stupidity are almost never covered by warranty. --me.
  5. Ok, back up - kinda by Sanity · · Score: 4, Informative
    Ok, it is back up after I killed the "whittling" engine - feel free to play with the UI, but it won't do anything intelligent.

    This was more intended as a proof of concept - rather than an all-out replacement for Google. I was frustrated with the way that Google works really well if you are looking for something easily defined and-or well known, but trying to find something obscure that was "masked" by more popular sites with similar keywards could be a real PITA. Whittlebit is designed to automate the manual process of trying to refine your keyword choice to get the search results you want.

  6. Google do this by Richard5mith · · Score: 2, Informative

    I'm sure I've seen Google do this. I've occasionally seen that links I click on in Google search results get forwarded through another Google URL which is no doubt tracking what I'm clicking on.

    Like a lot of Google features they're testing though, it's very much random and it's been a month since I've seen it.

  7. Google has this too by acm · · Score: 3, Informative

    If you install the google toolbar you can vote for or against pages on an individual basis.

    acm

  8. Netnose! by notsoanonymouscoward · · Score: 4, Informative

    Not trying to steal the show too much from whittlebit, but theres another new search engine recently released. Netnose lets the users decide which keywords a web page should be listed under. The search results also include handy identifiers about the page content like whether it has popups, or contains adult material (as decided by the raters).

    --
    I ate my sig.
  9. Google phoning home... by presroi · · Score: 4, Informative
    Could improved interactivity be the next big search engine advancement after Pagerank?"


    Well, actually, Google does receive feedback. Once in I while, google changes its result page in a way alexa is doing every time:

    You don't get a url to the result back but rather a pointer in a way like www.google.com/result?target=realurl.

    I'm sorry that I can't provide you a real url but I'm confident that someone in this /.-crowd can help me out. Thank you in advance.
  10. Abuse by sageFool · · Score: 2, Informative

    Seems totally open to abuse, and there seem like their are issues with people not rating results and keeping the statistics meaningful. If they can get something up for doing ratings and figuring out if a user thinks a result is 'good' or 'bad' that is easy for the user to use, isn't abuseable, and has some kind of statistical validity I will be impressed, but I think it is much harder to do than most people think. Yar!