Author Topic: For Discussion: Search engine query repository and bookmarking service (Read 19102 times)

Veign · « **on:** August 31, 2007, 03:43 PM »

Create a bookmarking system where the user no longer bookmarks a single website but instead is bookmarking a highly perfected (over time in the system) search engine query. What this does is prevent the annoying 'page not found' you get when you recall a bookmark. Instead you are always presented with the best possible websites for your topic.

Read the full idea here:
http://www.veign.com...-repository-and.html

Mouser wanted me to post this to get others thoughts on my idea. I was going to keep this idea a secret and develop the website but I have come to the realization that I just don't have the time and wanted to put it out there.

I would love to hear your thoughts and feel free to ask questions if I failed to explain anything well enough.

Laughing Man · « **Reply #1 on:** August 31, 2007, 03:56 PM »

I don't get it? Could you explain it to me? It sounds confusing. Is it like using Firefox and Opera and creating a specific search function at each site. Then compiling them all together into one area? Or are you talking about bookmarking the sites into a search engine?

Veign · « **Reply #2 on:** August 31, 2007, 04:11 PM »

You aren't bookmarking a single website you are bookmarking a search engine query.

So, instead of bookmarking a website on starting a small business like:
bookmark: http://SmallBusinessWebsite.com

You would bookmark a search engine query like:
bookmark: start "small business" how-to

or if you're looking for articles on Horses you could bookmark something like:
bookmark: ~horse articles

Obviously the stored queries would evolve over time and get better results when others use your stored queries.

The main reason I thought this would be useful is as time passes I use my bookmarks less and less and often rely on Google Search to locate websites again. In fact I have a ton of PHP websites bookmarked that I never use because its easier to go and search Google (and I can get better results as search engines identify better results for queries)

Does that better explain.

nudone · « **Reply #3 on:** August 31, 2007, 04:51 PM »

i also find myself completely ignoring my bookmarks (favorites) and just doing the search in google again. so i understand the redundant nature of all those saved links.

but as you can create google search result shortcuts like any other saved link why would you need to code something special?

Veign · « **Reply #4 on:** August 31, 2007, 05:04 PM »

I see the system helping you create optimized search queries either from internal to the website or by other members. There are so many ideas in my head about why this would work that goes so far beyond what you can currently do with Google and Browser bookmarks.

Like most user don't know of, or don't use, advanced search parameters and methods. This is the part that needs to be fleshed out better as to how queries go from basic and useful to optimized and perfected.

Veign · « **Reply #5 on:** August 31, 2007, 05:06 PM »

The funny thing is that to this day I am still bookmarking things that I know I will never go to and use since Google will provide me the results better and give me more options (additional information besides the site I was originally looking for).

I see the site changing the way we bookmark and store useful websites.

nudone · « **Reply #6 on:** September 01, 2007, 03:41 AM »

i think i don't understand or appreciate the flexibility of what you want to incorporate.

i'm probably repeating what you've described but is the aim to have the 'perfect' result? so, you want to find a page or bit of information but you want it to be the ultimate find - kind of, without question, there'd be no need to spend time searching for anything other than this result as it would exactly fit your needs.

its perfection is tuned via the feedback of users looking for and finding similar results - combined with the advanced search features of google... ?

mouser · « **Reply #7 on:** September 01, 2007, 05:01 AM »

tuned via the feedback of users looking for and finding similar results

this is the part that kind of appealed to me -- the idea that it might have a way to look at what you are searching for and suggest new community-built searches which could get you closer to what you were really looking for.

most of us have developed a kind of searching "skill" where we know lots of little tricks to get a search engine to return what we want and bypass many irrelevant results. but there are always cases where you can't find what you want and you could benefit from some domain expert knowledge about how to refine your search to get what you want.

sri · « **Reply #8 on:** September 01, 2007, 05:09 AM »

When I want to research on a topic, I do a search in del.icio.us rather than in Google because the results del. throws out are hand picked by people like you and me.

All my public bookmarks are stored at http://delicious.com/sridhar.

del. is an excellent free service.

Veign · « **Reply #9 on:** September 01, 2007, 11:53 AM »

The main reason for a website, like my idea, is as teh web grows and more and more websites come online there will be more need for fined tuned search queries to find even more relevant websites. I just see bookmarking single webpages as a method that attempts to let you find the 'best' (for a lack of a better word) website out there with blinders on. The question that could be answered by the idea is 'What better website came online since I set a bookmark?' With normal bookmarking methods that can never be answered.

Laughing Man · « **Reply #10 on:** September 01, 2007, 02:27 PM »

Wait, so the bookmarks would be kinda like del.ic.ious?

Veign · « **Reply #11 on:** September 01, 2007, 02:47 PM »

Not sure what you mean?

The bookmarks, instead of a website would be a search query that when 'clicked' would either call up a google (or other search engine) results page, or display the page directly within the website.

app103 · « **Reply #12 on:** September 01, 2007, 02:57 PM »

tuned via the feedback of users looking for and finding similar results

this is the part that kind of appealed to me -- the idea that it might have a way to look at what you are searching for and suggest new community-built searches which could get you closer to what you were really looking for.

most of us have developed a kind of searching "skill" where we know lots of little tricks to get a search engine to return what we want and bypass many irrelevant results. but there are always cases where you can't find what you want and you could benefit from some domain expert knowledge about how to refine your search to get what you want.
-mouser (September 01, 2007, 05:01 AM)

This is why I used to love AOL's search. It had a feature like that, where it gave a list in a sidebar of similar and related searches that you could click if you didn't easily find what you were looking for.

AOL's results were all from Google, but it had a few extra features that really enhanced the standard way of searching.

In addition to that one, they had a 'clipper' that allowed you to mark particular results as you went looking down the page and when you moved to the next page, the clipped results would follow you, being placed in a top section of the page, above the 2nd page's results. (you could also 'unclip' them if you later changed your mind)

You could do this for page after page till you had one giant page of what you found to be the most relevant links for what you were looking for.

Then you could just save the page to your hard drive and/or send the page to someone else that might have needed it. It made sharing and saving large batches of good results a snap.

Then they changed it all and became almost identical to Google in every way they could, doing away with all the great power search features that made it unique and I haven't had a use for the regular AOL search, since. (I am pretty much a Google user 100% now)

If there was a way to add some sort of feature like this to searching, in addition to the saved and refined searches, I'd jump all over it.

nudone · « **Reply #13 on:** September 01, 2007, 03:13 PM »

ah, so the idea is to create the best search term that may or may not link to the same page over time.

the term would be open to fine tuning to provide the expected best result. i now see why you meant that there would be no 'page not found' problem - the finely tuned search term would always result in something because the search engine would always have a match.

so even someone completely new to the internet could search for something and instead of receiving a search result list that was full of rubbish - because they used a terrible or simplistic set of keywords, they'd find a page that was exactly what they were after. they knew what they wanted but didn't have the experience to set up a clever enough set of search keywords (or switches).

your service would provide the interface that allowed someone to obtain a finely tuned search term without necessarily knowing how to create it.

i think i've got the point now - is that correct?

Veign · « **Reply #14 on:** September 01, 2007, 10:27 PM »

Exactly correct. Dead on.

I think its a great idea and as more and more pages are indexed a bookmarked query (and thus result) makes more sense then a bookmarked page.

Imagine how many pages will be indexed in 5 or 10 years and as pages indexed increase it would make sense that bookmarked pages would increase also. By bookmarking a query you greatly reduce your bookmarks since a single query, on a topic, can replace large groups of page bookmarks.

nudone · « **Reply #15 on:** September 02, 2007, 01:05 AM »

it's a potential revolutionary idea. i can imagine that is how newcomers to the internet think that google works anyway. (well, that is how my father seems to understand things - i've given up trying to explain to him.)

you should do it - and then sell it.

Veign · « **Reply #16 on:** September 02, 2007, 10:51 AM »

I think the idea could make some a lot of money. I see the idea as attracting 100K's of users.

I have sat on the idea for a couple months and came to the realization that I just don't have the time and probably will not for 6+ months.

I just felt like I would rather release the idea into the wild and let someone else develop it.

I am also not above donations if someone develops it and makes millions :-)

Wonder if I should protect the idea in someway and try to keep some rights to it. Ehh. At least I, and we at DC know, who had the idea first since its now well documented through my blog and through here.

Veign · « **Reply #17 on:** September 02, 2007, 10:54 AM »

Also, I have so many ideas in my head that I decided to release them through my blog in an idea tag. So, hopefully overtime I will continue to make posts that outline my thoughts for websites (typically) that I think need to be developed that I just don't have the time to do myself.

nudone · « **Reply #18 on:** September 02, 2007, 11:55 AM »

is this a flaw in the idea or is it irrelevant - if you are searching for something that has been done very well on many websites - how will the search pick the right one?

if several sights are equally good and the general opinion is that each one has something good to offer - what comes up as a result?

or does the super search term return a list of several results - maybe with a bit of info for each one?

i'm just thinking how i search most of the time - no one website usually fits the bill (i'm sure it must sometimes but i can't think of any) and so i'll flick through several of the results that come up in google - not just on page 1 either.

(if you've already explained that it won't return just one result i apologise for not paying attention.)

Veign · « **Reply #19 on:** September 02, 2007, 03:29 PM »

The goal is the 'super search, as you put it, should return those websites in its result set. The whole point is the result set should *always* be the best, or an ongoing effort to be the best.

The goal should always be a result set where the top 5 return website *all* should be viewed for your topic as they all provide something important and relevant.

Keep in mind that this was nothing more than an idea of mine that I never really fully fleshed out. So, there would be a lot of things to work out.