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DARPA Seeks the Holy Grail of Search Engines

Posted by samzenpus on from the find-it-now dept.

coondoggie writes "The scientists at DARPA say the current methods of searching the Internet for all manner of information just won't cut it in the future. Today the agency announced a program that would aim to totally revamp Internet search and 'revolutionize the discovery, organization and presentation of search results.' Specifically, the goal of DARPA's Memex program is to develop software that will enable domain-specific indexing of public web content and domain-specific search capabilities. According to the agency the technologies developed in the program will also provide the mechanisms for content discovery, information extraction, information retrieval, user collaboration, and other areas needed to address distributed aggregation, analysis, and presentation of web content."

3 of 78 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Join the slashdot farewell: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Gee, I can't wait to participate in an echo chamber made up exclusively of nerds that got pissed to high hell when a UI redesign was _proposed_ on a site thats totally fucking free to them and will still work the same way in the future with regards to content (gripes about content aside)... What a joy it will be:
    [dream twinkles]

    "The scientists at DARPA say the current methods of searching the Internet for all manner of information just won't cut it in the future" What the fuck are they thinking? If they can't just use GREP to find what they need they must be some serious federal fuckups! Get Ron Paul down here to stop this!!!!!!!!!11

    [/dream twinkles]

    Ah what a lovely place, indeed.

  2. They might want to be careful. by mmell · · Score: 4, Interesting
    First, remember that this is essentially where the world wide web of internetworked computers began. The words 'unintended consequences' come screaming to mind . . . (although I have to admit - I love those wicked pipes!)

    Second - we (common netizens) may welcome the sort of information availability DARPA is seeking - sort of like the scifi future where you just ask the nearest terminal whatever you want to know and magically get the answer you need - but there are lots of bad people still running around on this planet (scamsters, governments, jilted ex-lovers, religious extremists, etc.). The problem isn't the technology, the problem is our ability to handle it.

    I very much suspect DARPA may be onto something. I wonder if it will be as beneficial as the WWW has been.

  3. Re:Join the slashdot farewell: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    You're a fucking idiot. Slashdot isn't about the articles and it isn't about the fucking pathetic summaries. Slashdot is about the user-generated content. Slashdot is the comments.

    Now, you think all that time spent by knowledgable members posting all that good stuff comes free? People invested their time, care and attention here. Slashdot isn't a fucking TV. Slashdot is a community.

    The reason the response was negative and loud is because the beta makes it harder to follow threads. It makes it harder to follow discussion context. It makes it harder to comment within the discussion context.The beta redesign ruins the community experience. Dice is trying to turn Slashdot into another Digg or Reddit. Soon, you'll be flooded with ads you can't turn off, looking for the useful, informative and interesting comments that used to be posted here. Fuck that shit.

    TL;DR: FUCK BETA!