Author Archives: jeremy

Speed Matters. So Does the Metric.

Posted on June 29, 2009 by jeremy

Via Greg Linden, I came across the following experimental result from Google as to the importance of quickly returning results to users.  The gist of the experiment is summed up in the abstract: Experiments demonstrate that increasing web search latency … Continue reading →

Posted in Information Retrieval Foundations | Leave a comment

Semantic Technology Search Panel

Posted on June 19, 2009 by jeremy

On Wednesday I attended the Executive Round Table on Semantic Search, at the 2009 Semantic Technology Conference.  Researchers from Ask, Hakia, Yahoo, Google, Powerset/Bing, and True Knowledge were on the panel.  In the next few days I hope to give … Continue reading →

Posted in Exploratory Search | 7 Comments

Exploratory Food Search

Posted on June 17, 2009 by jeremy

I came across an interesting article today in the New Scientist on the topic of mass-scale food annotation.  The idea is that we can instrument our food, so that we know much more about its origin and manner of production: … Continue reading →

Posted in Exploratory Search, Social Implications | 3 Comments

200 Signals, Still Only One Route

Posted on June 16, 2009 by jeremy

Via Paul Lamere, I came across this recent Google blogpost on large scale graph computing.  I started reading, and quickly became excited by what I was hearing: A relatively simple analysis of a standard map (a graph!) can provide the … Continue reading →

Posted in Information Retrieval Foundations, Social Implications | 6 Comments

Compare Google Yahoo Bing

Posted on June 8, 2009 by jeremy

I would like to point to a post worth reading, over at Blogoscoped, about personal, blind side-by-side comparisons of the various contending search engines.  I have seen studies like this for years, both on the web and in published, academic … Continue reading →

Posted in Exploratory Search, Information Retrieval Foundations, Social Implications | 1 Comment

Bing = Bing Is Not Google

Posted on May 28, 2009 by jeremy

As reported by Scoble: http://friendfeed.com/scobleizer/01bbb409/i-love-that-bing-means-is-not-google-very I agree — very clever and quite funny.  A recursion that all computer scientists should appreciate, tipping its hat to similarly-constructed acronyms, such as GNU (Gnu’s Not Unix) and Pine (Pine is not Elm). It’s … Continue reading →

Posted in General | 1 Comment

Wired Article on Bing

Posted on May 27, 2009 by jeremy

I just came across a Wired article today on a new search push from Microsoft, which will supposedly be named Bing. It touches on some of the issues that we were discussing in yesterday’s comment thread, in particular:  People thought … Continue reading →

Posted in Exploratory Search, General | 2 Comments

Machine Learning and Search: Action or Reaction?

Posted on May 26, 2009 by jeremy

I have a question that has been bothering me, kicking around in my head, for at least half a decade now.  And I can’t seem to come to any solid conclusion on it. I suppose it can’t hurt to throw … Continue reading →

Posted in General, Information Retrieval Foundations | 13 Comments

Week Links, Volume 1

Posted on May 22, 2009 by jeremy

This was a particularly busy week, and I did not get a chance to post many thoughts.  Instead, I’ll do a quick roundup of articles that I enjoyed reading this past week+. First, a tongue-in-cheek post from Nick Carr entitled … Continue reading →

Posted in General | 2 Comments

Google Search Options and the Paradox of Choice

Posted on May 15, 2009 by jeremy

Google finally acquiesces, and starts exposing more advanced, user-controllable search result refactorization options.  See here, here, and here: But as people get more sophisticated at search they are coming to us to solve more complex problems. To stay on top … Continue reading →

Posted in Exploratory Search | 1 Comment