Did Google Just Expose Semantic Data in Search Results? - ReadWr. In what appears to us to be a new addition to many Google search results pages, queries about birth dates, family connections and other information are now being responded to with explicitly semantic structured information.
Who is Bill Clinton's wife? What's the capital city of Oregon? What is Britney Spears' mother's name? The answers to these and other factual questions are now displayed above natural search results in Google and the information is structured in the traditional subject-predicate-object format, or "triples," of semantic web parlance. The answers aren't found structured that way on the web pages they come from - Google appears to be parsing the semantic structure from semi or unstructured data. We're sure that Google's been doing this analysis for some time behind the scenes, but for the company to expose the data in this structured way and to include a link to view other sources appears new to everyone we've asked about it so far.
Why is This Important? Pluggd Evolves, Re-Launches as Video Publishing Platform Delve N. What once was Pluggd is now Delve Networks.
And what once was an audio and video search and ad system, is now a full-fledged “breakthrough Internet TV and online video publishing platform.” While the company is a touch superfluous in its explanation of what its primary purpose is (it speaks of hosting content as well as uploading and managing it, which, let’s be honest here, is really just three ways of looking at the same coin) we get the gist. It’s looking to be a comprehensive publishing agent to all types of content producers.
Why, if only we had a dime for every time we’ve heard such ambition spoken ;) Peering back into the last year of Pluggd and Delve’s history, it’s somewhat difficult to determine whether the company has meant for the successive changes to its business model its made over the last 12 or so months or if its trying out new ideas until it comes to something that give its financiers something to truly smile about. Visually, Delve looks like a solid build. Google Asks: What Do You Want To Search Today?
Google has a new experimental feature, rolled out to a portion of users: Preferred Sites.
If the feature is enabled for you (it's not for me), you'll find it in the Preferences. It lets you choose sites which you want Google to search more often (if, of course, they're relevant to your search query). Personally, I don't see the point of the feature, and I don't like personalization of search. Right now, if your friend is looking for something online, for the most part you're able to tell him "just google xy and it'll come up as the first result. " If Google messes too much with customization and personalization, everyone will have different results, and I don't see the benefit of that; I've never been a fan of recommendation engines as they've never worked well for me. Google OS has tested it out a little bit, so you can check out how it works in practice over there.
[image courtesy of Google Operating System] VideoSurf: New, Genuinely Radical Video Search. I’m generally not given to hyperbole or breathless enthusiasm when writing about a new search service.
Quite the opposite, in fact—over the decade I’ve covered search I’ve seen so many so-called “radically new” approaches that are simply updates or spins on existing technologies that I’ve grown a bit jaded. But not after seeing a demo of VideoSurf. I’ll echo the headline for this post: VideoSurf is one of the most innovative, radically different approaches to video search (or any kind of search for that matter) that I’ve ever seen. Even better: It delivers highly relevant search results—something most video search services fall sadly short on for many types of searches. What’s different about VideoSurf, and why am I so excited by it? The problem with video search Search engines generally do a good job indexing text, but face greater obstacles and challenges in properly “understanding” and indexing video (or any kind of multimedia content, for that matter).