Slashdot Mirror
Google's Test Search Engine
Bengt noted Google's SearchMash which is a testbed search engine. Google spokesbot says:
"The goal of Searchmash is to test innovative user interfaces in order to continually improve the overall search experience for our users.
The experimental search engine looks very different from Google's Web sites and lacks Google branding. In this way, Google believes the site will yield more objective feedback from users."
I just tried it and gave a search "NASA shuttle" (on topic...) and it gives a page displaying search results, image results and wikipedia results.
There is a small area asking for feedback:
Were these results useful to you?
Web Pages Yes / No
Images Yes / No
Wikipedia Yes / No
Well, The page results were as expected so Yes, as was wikipedia (even though it was closed to start with) and the results for images would be useful if I could see them (they were at the bottom of the page and not visible at first, so I clicked no).
How can I tell them that the images would be really good if they were somewhere else on the screen?
If they want feedback, they should let people give feedback.
liqbase
- Search in wikipedia: http://www.google.com/search?q=%25s+site:en.wikip
e dia.org
- Go to wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%25s
- Go to wiktionary: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%25s
DoTry searching for "google censorship" and it shows:
Web Pages - about 190,000
And relevent wikipedia articles
I guess it works.
from the colors to the little "x" in the rounded edge search box, strikes me as very mac like. Very interesting considering the other cozying up Apple and Google have been doing lately...
we speak the way we breathe --Fugazi
I'm a bit surprised that TFA has no mention of what must be the most controversial feature: integrated wikipedia. Does the foundation get anything from google for this?
"How To Google Without An Ads"
There's nothing really innovative about it, besides asking for feedback. It's what would have happened in A9 and Google had a baby.
I wonder if I use bold in my signature, people will notice my posts.
Lets see, theres a box to type text, and you hit search, and you get some results. Next?
How is this revolutionary?
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
It requires javascript for some reason. I think I prefer the original google interface.
It doesn't work in Links.
It needs JS enabled to work.
Most people have no idea what they are doing, and are silently panicking on the inside.
Very nice with the wikipedia links. I have been using googlepedia (https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/2517/) but with something like this I could skip that all together.
If man has no tea in him, he is incapable of understanding truth and beauty
This is OLD OLD OLD news. I think this was NEW news a month ago, or at the best a few weeks. SearchMash was up that long ago, I'm sure of it.
Nice. Just unfortunate that the results page looks uncannily like on of those domain leech default pages.
It looks pretty much like google.com but with a different brand and logo. Even the colours in the result page are the same....
The one "new" thing are implicit image search in each search...and google was already doing that with some searchs
So how is this a "testbed search engine"? And why the article writes "the experimental search engine looks very different from Google's Web sites", when from a first look it clearly isn't?
... is a boolean search engine, "à la" altavista. I _loved_ that one.
This site requires JavaScript to be enabled to work. I don't usually complain about that, but every other search engine (including Google) that I've ever used works just fine without it enabled.
Without Javascript it's a very impressive result: No results.
That will boost minimalsitic web design...
I found this out. It seems relatively hidden.
Googles Web Help Center There is a link at the bottom of the page, that will allow you to send them comments ala suggestion box style. I already suggested that being able to move the content around ala the google.com/ig site, would be nice, as well as a link or webform, that would let people truly feedback would be great.
I have mod points and I am not afraid to use them.
To be fair, Google is not the only cuprit, just a high-visibility repeat offender. Time was, when companies paid people to be in focus groups and help them market-test new ideas.
Am I part of the core demographic for Swedish Fish?
Including Wikipedia makes sense. I now rely on Wikipedia way more than I rely on Google for my informational needs, because it isn't cluttered with pseudo-information that has no other purpose other than sell me something. To me, although perhaps not to Google, this is spam and it makes me not want to use Google. Of couse I can exclude pages involving "buy" or "customer service" from my results, but this is an inconvenience and I rarely bother to do so if (more often than not) I can find what I need on the wiki.
And when I want to use Wikipedia, I do not need to go via Google. Google would make themselves useful in a more unique way if they offered optional filtering of sales sites. Let me see pages on Catholic Saints that don't involve "special price" candles with pictures of them, give me information on my car without hundreds of businesses offering to replace it. And when I do want to spend money on the web (which is way less often than the times I look for information), I'll tell you Google, thank you very much.
blow your mind already
The image results should really be in a sidepane just below wikipedia results and wikipedia results that are shown on the side should be limited to 2 max. I searched for Katie Holmes and got [i]"Katie Holmes Peer Reviewed"[/i] lol. The images at the bottom dont make much of a sense to me. But I guess they have to keep the sidespace free for [i]"Sponsored Results".[/i]
That's right, a contest or better yet a ul/dl your customized search engine interface to google engines?
You know, like firefox has skins and other goodies the users create and share.
So how about an easy to use skin development package to the google APIs?
I like the idea of seeing samples of other searches, like images and groups though I might be doing a search on web.
I know google is about advertising for their income so somehow thats gonna need to happen.
It requires javascript so it gets a thumbsdown from me. I have NoScript installed so when I would search for something I got the home page over and over. No search results. No thanks.
I like it. I know, javascript isn't everybody's favourite, but still, it really increases search speed and even though you can't bookmark page X of your search result, at least the results per se are bookmarkable (i.e. not loaded using javascript).
There's also a firefox search plugin, btw.
When searching for myself, Google and Searchmash both show the same images; Searchmash simply moves them to the bottom of the screen where I can't see them.
Images: yes / no / dumb location?
Does Google *really* need user feedback to know this is a dumb layout? Why not move the pics to the empty area in the right margin? Oh, that's right- that's where the ads will go...
barack to the future?
Other than the feedback on the RHS, how is this new and innovative?
"I threw up my hands in disgust and wondered if it had been such a good idea to have eaten my hands in the first place."
Ok,
Is this some kind of joke?
I just typed in "hd-dvd" on that searchmash.com website. And at the bottom of the page was a guy sucking another guys dick. Don't believe me? Try it yourself.. that's not the type of thing I'd expect to be seeing on a Sunday morning.
MrJynxx
Kind of cool that to get more results, it displays on the same page, and you keep scrolling down, instead of loading a new page.
Mainly in that you can minimize different sections. Now if only it would let you drag those sections around to be in a better order for you instead of their current piece of junk organization. Perhaps that's coming. Who knows. It also is starting to feel cluttered. Perhaps they'll let you get rid of sections and create buttons in case you want to see those.
Search for "failure" still brings George W Bush on top...(http://www.searchmash.com/search/failure)
So either searchmash's algorithm is still susceptible to the same Google bombing technique or Bush has actually failed.
--
I refuse to answer that question on the grounds that I don't know the answer.
Last time i was there you could reorder the search results to suit you... http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/tcmagazine/~3/38789 079/comments.php...look like that has been removed. Guess it didn't make it past the user responses.
I often use space bar to page down in my web browser. I like the way, if you hit space bar while already at the bottom of the page, it adds another 10 results to the list, so you can continue hitting space bar to keep looking at more matches. It works for both web search and image search. I hate having to reach for the mouse to get to the next page of results (or using the mouse in general -- it's too slow, compared to keyboarding).
Maybe that's why it uses javascript, which others have been complaining about.
For a while you could also rearrange the search results by drag and drop. Last month I wrote a little conspiracy theory about the true purpose of all this dragging. Seems like they removed that feature now though, so I guess that's a sign I was wrong. Or maybe they saw my blog and realized the secret was getting out and hid the feature... :)
Weird name. Anyway, I quite like it. It's streamlined, and most of the Ajax-y features are fast and useful. However, I don't like having the images on the bottom of the screen. Maybe the top or left side? It makes them hard to notice. Also, I don't like being limited to only 10 entries (my Google preferences are set to show 100 entries per search) as it increases the amount of clicks I have to make. I guess it makes sense at this point, though, because otherwise the images would be way too far down. The Wikipedia entries are very nice but would be better if they weren't hidden by default. The "hide details" and clicking on green urls etc. features are very nice and handy. The biggest gripe I have though is the fact that it looks like one of those advertisement search pages, probably because the text is small and at first glance the Feedback and Wikipedia entries look like ads.
If history repeats itself, why can't we study the future?
This doesn't work in Konqueror... the results flash up for a second then disappear. Oh well.
I'm scared of numbers that can't be written as a fraction. It's an irrational fear.
Strangely enough, I had trouble searching for C++.
For example, C++ jpeg gets turned into C jpeg, and returns a bunch of C code. If you search with quotes, "C++" jpeg, you get "C " jpeg. Search for "devc++", and you get "devc " and information on Devcon international.
This doesn't make the search engine particularly useful for C++ coders. ;) -- Paul
OpenSource.MathCancer.org: open source comp bio
I think that the "Did You Mean?" results should be broadened. Just because I am looking up a state such as Florida for example, it doesn't mean I am looking for just maps.
"Okay, who put a "stop payment" on my reality check?"
I discovered this by an accident... when you scroll to the end of the page, hit space bar and the next page of results will automatically open. Cool!
Searchmatch gives me 30 unique and relevent results. I even found a few pictures of myself I had never even seen.
See what other people are searching for, huh? Apparently people are searching for kari ann peniche.
"No freeman shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson
For those using Opera as their browser, this is something they've had for a while. In Opera, if you go to google, yahoo etc and reach the end of the page and hit the space bar, you will go to the next page.
This also works when viewing image galleries so instead of clicking "Next" or having to go back to the main page and clicking on the next image, the spacebar will take you to the next image automatically. I will go ahead and state the obvious - Opera makes surfing Porn too easy.
Trying to search using an HTML GET query (for instance by using the address http://www.searchmash.com/?query=foo) doesn't do anything.
:-(
This means I can't add it as a keyword search in Firefox.
http://www.searchmash.com/search/google
Web Pages - about 1,780,000,000
Images - about 1,140,000
Wikipedia - about 1,130,000
1.7 billion. that's an interesting statistic.....
compared to Microsoft's MissDewey: http://www.missdewey.com/ ?
was already possible if you use Bumblesearch with Firefox
Microsoft's MSDewey.com, a sexy search page with a really hot chick that teases you, requires Macromedia flash. Its sooooo slow on my Celeron, but its jolly-good fun when you call her a 'ho'
Set a background colour.
Im quite fond of the way they use adresses. A search for the word "bassoon" simply gets the adress http://www.searchmash.com/search/bassoon. I usually hate the adress of previous searches, because they don't fit in the location-bar. When you click the bar and type www.google.com you get a whole bunch of adresses that you have no idea where they lead.
i refox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Asv-SE%3Aofficial&q=basso on&btnG=S%C3%B6k&meta=
I definitely prefer
http://www.searchmash.com/search/bassoon
before
http://www.google.se/search?hs=L0w&hl=sv&client=f
Sorry for the bad english. I'm from sweden. Bork Bork
Seems that Google is not working in China right now, but searchmash is completely open, thanks google! ^^
Guess you are not THAT evil after all
MikMik Baby Organics Mikkaworks