Microsoft To Launch 'Question' Site

prostoalex writes "Microsoft will try to make the search process more social, Business Week reports, by creating a question-and-answer Web site. They certainly are entering a quite crowded niche." From the article: "It's one of the many ways that Web companies, including Yahoo and Google, are trying to set themselves apart with social search, a targeted pursuit of information that's influenced by the preferences of a person's peer group. Social search is a method whose time has come, Osmer says. Microsoft research shows that generic search engines can't answer 50% of queries asked, he says. The new tool, whose name he didn't disclose, will be 'one of the larger projects for us' this year, Osmer says."

Comments

Name?

[matt4077]

Hopefully not amateursexchange.com. Sounds like pain.

Perhaps generic questions

[mrowton]

Has anyone ever used one of these answer services?

Its probably more suited toward generic questions than technical questions.

Seems like niche forums/mailing lists are where most of the action is. Not sure what search engines are trying to accomplish here.

Re:Perhaps generic questions

[hotpepper]

I've been using http://www.answerbag.com/ since 2004 for my Q&A needs.

Where to start?

[Glowing Fish]

There are so many questions to ask about this...my first response is that attempts to make information more friendly don't seem to have that great of a track record. Does anyone remember "Ask Jeeves"? Compare how its interface competed with the super-minimalist interface of google.

Anyway, there is this one quote:
Microsoft research shows that generic search engines can't answer 50% of queries asked, he says.

What type of questions were they asking it? Were they factual questions, like "What is the Capital of Burundi?", or were they process oriented questions, such as "How can you make cookies that are not too hard, but are cooked all the way through?" The first question, if you type "capital Burundi" into google, you get an answer for. Trying to search for information on the second would be much harder, I imagine.

Re:Where to start?

[VJ42]

I typed your exact phrase without the quotes into google, and got this: http://www.baking911.com/cookies/chocolate_chip.ht m on the first page.

Peer group?

[Chemisor]

> targeted pursuit of information that's influenced by the preferences of a person's peer group.

Excuse me, but when I am looking for information, finding only what my peers think is good for me is the last thing I would want. Social conformity is the death of truth.

Re:Peer group?

[Woldry]

I think everyone should be a nonconformist!

You want answers?

[mrowton]

This has always been the best place to ask questions.

Dear Microsoft,

[Anonymous Coward]

Why do you suck so much?

Sincerely,
Anonymous Coward

If Microsoft has a question

[hackstraw]

I have the answer.

NO!

Now thats a good idea

[jlebrech]

but will it have the linux HOWTOs.

umm...it's time has come?

[padriec]

Haven't librarians been doing this since time out of mind? I don't see what all the hoopla is about. Ask a librarian and you'll get good, timely, factual information and a lot of it. Ask one of these services and I shudder to think what you'll get.

Re:umm...it's time has come?

[Woldry]

Whoops, forgot the URL: http://www.knowitnow.org/

Innovation

[munehiro]

Not to be a Redmond basher (well... I am).... but are they going to produce something innovative sometimes?
Because it seems that microsoft shut down the R&D department so long ago. Or maybe they never had one...
Probably they have a C&P department... who knows?

Filtering is the problem, not the answer.

[expro]

The filtering and social assumptions in searches seems to be the problem, not the answer.

Under Google's leadership, real raw search capabilities have regressed, and we are supposed to be happy with Google interpreting a simple search in a way that supposedly makes most searchers happy (happy compared to what?).

IMO, before further filters and dumbing-down are useful, you need a powerful basic search engine that allows you to ask advanced search questions.

Of course, this sort of open capability of search engines might reduce Google's proprietary control of the searches.

What if you could do a honest search that did not factor in the prior popularity of the site, but relied on other criteria, so that a new site with unique content might have a chance of getting found? What if you could make advanced characterizations of the sort of content you were looking for? What if any third party could make these characterizations for you so there could be competition in usage of the dominant search engines -- for example a better Froogle produced by just formulating advanced Google searches for users.

Re:Filtering is the problem, not the answer.

[Deep Fried Geekboy]

What if you could do a honest search that did not factor in the prior popularity of the site, but relied on other criteria, so that a new site with unique content might have a chance of getting found?

Oh, you mean, so my search results would begin with nineteen pages of splogs? Bright idea. I wonder why no-one's thought of it before.

What's the last digit of pi

[Anonymous Coward]

What's the last digit of pi, as best as can determined?

M5 Unit...working

Experts Exchange Blows

[VxJasonxV]

Experts Exchange is the most worthless tech site ever, for 1 reason:
Their policy.

I don't like seeing your results on my google searches, and teasing me with a question, and no answer.
I don't want to register, I don't like 'hit and run' registering.
I don't like you.

So what I did instead... is signed up for a google account, and filtered your site out of all of my searches.
COMPLETELY.

And guess what I'm doing?
I'm getting my answers elsewhere. For free. With no, god knows what privacy problem, registrations.

Experts Exchange... eat me.

I have a question too

[Launchpad Mcquack]

Why did you release the 360 knowing it could heat a 10x12 room.

Re:Another simple idea

[Woldry]

I can see you've never worked a library reference desk. Sadly, half the time the person asking the question doesn't understand the terms they're using to ask. Rule number one in reference work is never to trust what the patron gives you.

I've had people come in asking:

Where are your car books? (they wanted a bio of Mario Andretti)

"How do you burn stuff?" (they wanted info on pyrography)

"What do you have on crafts?" (they wanted to know how to carve pumpkins)

"I need a map of the world." (they wanted to plan a trip to Egypt ... and thought they could drive there)

"Where is that ambulance book?" (they wanted the World Almanac)

"What can you tell me about Greece?" (they wanted the price for a 1943 coin from there)

Now, being a librarian, I can ask clarifying questions and figure out more precisely what they're looking for. Thus far, search engines have proved to be very very bad at doing this. If Microsoft's upcoming site proves to be better at it, more power to it. But all the hype about AI notwithstanding, computers have a very long way to go to be able to do it half so efficiently or perceptively as a human being.

Putting the burden on the seeker to "reformulate the question" probably works well for most Slashdotters (given that they tend to show above average intelligence and articulation), but assumes far too much intelligence on the part of the average seeker.

yahoo's answer

[escay]

Yahoo's answers service is very neat - large community, quick replies and decent indexing. it's, AFAIK, the model solution for social search where you can ask arbitrary questions with no efficient formatting and still get results (if not a definitive answer) - because, let's face it, software (search engines) hasn't evolved to the level of understanding that a human has.

We all know the answer!

[manastungare]

It's 42. The hard part is knowing the question.

I Dunno, I've had Good Results with Google

[Greyfox]

It doesn't always work butI find that if you enter a plain english question as your google search, it often gives you better results than trying to think up the right keywords. I've tried it for questions as mundane as "Where can I find a breakfast burrito in boulder colorado?" to ones as esoteric as "Why does asparagus make my pee smell funny?" Sometimes you'll find out something suprising. Like it turns out there are a rather a lot of people who ask that second question.

A lot of beginners have problems coming up with good search terms, so I usually tell someone just starting out that they should try entering a plain english question before they try to get too fancy with their searches.

Another fine example.

[twitter]

I forgot to link in this study which showed M$ manipulating their results to favor IIS. The silly games those people play.