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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.
It doesn't work in Links.
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
Nice. Just unfortunate that the results page looks uncannily like on of those domain leech default pages.
It's the other things that are 'revolutionary'. 1. You can (or at least could at one point) rearrange the search results by dragging them up and down - Future application on influencing the ranking on sites. 2. Numbering of search results - not 'revolutionary' but useful i can tell you to search for nasa and see the 3rd result. 3. the options menu when you click on the green url. - I can imagine it will eventually include choices for mapping to address on site, site search (via coop) and so on. 4. start typing to search - fixes that issue with firefox where it tries to search and IE where sometimes goes up to the address bar and you end up searching using msn.com
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.
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.
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
That's a very good question.
I also wonder if Google, aside from this, has donated anything to the wikipedia foundation? Google does claim they support open products, and Wikipedia has been at the top of most regular search results for a while. That doesn't give them any obligation of course, but would be a good-will-promoting-and-tax-reducing-act towards a non-profit that complements Google's offerings.
Of course the real controversy here should be that does including Wikipedia as a special-case in search results lead to a greater trust in the accuracy of Wikipedia's content? And is that trust merited?
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.
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?
And as far as paying testers? Well, in those previous examples you spoke of, I imagine that software wasn't so much being given out free. I for one am quite happy when some new stuff comes out from a company that can improve my life in some way and they let me use it for free as soon as possible. If you don't like 'testing' it... (gasp..) um, just don't use it. D'uh.
Oh, and as I'm currently forced to use dialup internet, the javascript updates are *considerably* faster than the good old reload-the-whole-page approach.
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.
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... :)
You must be new here. Expect the mods at /. to post this same article at least 3 times, with the last one being 6 months from now.
You can do boolean searches with Google/SearchMash. By default everything is AND, but you can use OR (all caps) if you like.
Just because typing in words into the search field is so intuitive doesn't mean there isn't useful information in Google's help, you know...
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 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!
That's because the more easy-to-use "http://www.searchmash.com/search/foo" works instead. I just changed keyword.URL in Firefox's about:config to http://www.searchmash.com/search/
Now, I can just type the search in the address bar, no prefixes, and it works great.