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Computer Scientist Calls For Web Search Shake-Up

Posted by samzenpus on from the what's-wrong-with-repackaging dept.

alphadogg writes "Given the seemingly non-stop battle between Google, Microsoft and others in Web search, you might think this is a pretty fertile area for new ideas. But a University of Washington computer science professor thinks otherwise and is calling on academia and industry to get way more creative. Timed to coincide with this year's 20th anniversary of Tim Berners-Lee springing the World Wide Web upon us, Oren Etzioni Thursday will have a commentary titled 'Search needs a shake-up' published in the journal Nature. The main obstacle to progress 'seems to be a curious lack of ambition and imagination,' Etzioni writes in the piece, which he acknowledges 'is meant to be provocative.'"

14 of 141 comments (clear)

  1. David vs Goliath vs Goliath's Goliath by WrongSizeGlass · · Score: 2

    I think this idea is DOA. A startup vs Bing vs Google. Enough said.

    1. Re:David vs Goliath vs Goliath's Goliath by WrongSizeGlass · · Score: 2

      Yeah, just like Google vs. Yahoo. Do you charge for investment advice?

      It's a very different landscape now as compared to when Google had to climb Mt Yahoo to the top. Google is much larger than Yahoo ever could have been and it has its tentacles in so many pies that we'll be using Google as a verb for the rest of our lives (at which point Google will be streaming ads into our coffins just in case). Google succeeded at diversifying but not at the expense of its core service.

      If Google hits a rough patch they'll just reign in some of their experimental spending and squeeze profits out of their search business. They'll start subsidizing Android phones with ads in order to get them in the hands of more and more people in poorer and poorer areas. I wouldn't be surprised to see them co-branding phones in third world nations were they don't have much disposable income but they consume cigarettes, alcohol and sugary drinks.

    2. Re:David vs Goliath vs Goliath's Goliath by MightyMartian · · Score: 2

      Could you define what "design" even means in this context?

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    3. Re:David vs Goliath vs Goliath's Goliath by RobbieThe1st · · Score: 2

      Exactly. I'm betting they don't realise that the average person *likes* simple, consise websites. JS and Flash just slow things down and generally don't add much to the usability of the site.

    4. Re:David vs Goliath vs Goliath's Goliath by gstrickler · · Score: 2

      Flash (almost?) never adds usability. Flash may add some level of interactivity, but usually no more than JS can and JS will do it with lower CPU utilization and fewer security vulnerabilities.

      --
      make imaginary.friends COUNT=100 VISIBLE=false
    5. Re:David vs Goliath vs Goliath's Goliath by That+Guy+From+Mrktng · · Score: 2

      Because everybody knows smarthphones are a priority in third world nations and it's wooping full coverage WIFI/4G internet connectivity.

  2. They are already perfect ... for making money by tp1024 · · Score: 2

    Search engines aren't about finding stuff, they are about shoving stuff into you in a way that maximizes ad-revenue. And as far as I can tell, they couldn't do that any better than they currently do.

  3. Re:There's a battle between M$ and Google? by gstrickler · · Score: 2

    What's "Bing"?

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    make imaginary.friends COUNT=100 VISIBLE=false
  4. Binspam by blair1q · · Score: 4, Informative

    Shenanigans!

    http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/decidecom-launches---helps-consumers-purchase-electronics-with-no-regrets-124179959.html

    "No other team has the technology, talent and experience in predictive systems to solve this problem," says Oren Etzioni, Decide co-founder and computer science professor at the University of Washington. "We've built the only broad-scale model lineage, text and data mining systems that predict future price and model releases to address this complex consumer problem."

    The dude is just plugging his shopping-search engine, and astroturfing a computing conference as part of his marketing campaign.

    What a cock.

  5. Re:Before that... by 0123456 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Maybe Search needs a Problem shake up. Innovation is great, but when I search now, more than ever, I quickly find what I am looking for.

    I don't. The harder Google and co try to do 'smart' searching the more problems I have finding the things I'm searching for.

    All I want it to do is actually, you know, search for the thing I entered in the search bar, and not try adding or removing 's', picking similar words, picking words that mean the same as the words I'm typing in.

    Google's smart searching may be fine if you're looking for the latest Nataly Portmun hut grit pictures, but for technical queries with acronyms it's increasingly becoming a fscking disaster.

  6. Re:Before that... by Obfuscant · · Score: 4, Insightful

    All I want it to do is actually, you know, search for the thing I entered in the search bar, ....

    Did you mean "starch bear"? Showing results for "starch bear"...

  7. there is room by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    I've been steadily using Blekko more and more as an alternative to Google. Its back to simple, with the addition of slashtags to refine searching. The complete banning of content farms caught my attention. its still not ideal but it is growing.

  8. Yahoo was dominant? Altavista was better by billstewart · · Score: 2

    Yahoo may have been in more things, but Altavista was really the search engine to beat, and Google beat them. And of course there were other search/portal companies (like Excite, which @Home unfortunately decided to buy/merge for $Nbillion.)

    --

    Bill Stewart
    New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
  9. Re:There's a battle between M$ and Google? by jo42 · · Score: 2

    What's "Bing"?

    But it's not google.