Monday, December 17, 2007
Amazon's Author Search Needs Improving
When looking for a book by Thomas Moore - the author of popular spiritual books including the New York Times best seller, Care of the Soul (1993), Amazon also lists "Utopia" by Sir Thomas Moore, who died in 1535.
I know that Amazon is not able to tell which Thomas Moore I was searching for. But when I find the Thomas Moore I am after, I would like to see just books from that specific Thomas Moore.
Currently Amazon cannot tell one from the other. It might be too difficult to achieve using a computer algorithm. But it could be done manually, and even if they did just the most searched for authors, manually created authors' biographies and bibliographies would add real value to Amazon as a great book resource. Maybe they could make a wiki of authors?
I know that Amazon is not able to tell which Thomas Moore I was searching for. But when I find the Thomas Moore I am after, I would like to see just books from that specific Thomas Moore.
Currently Amazon cannot tell one from the other. It might be too difficult to achieve using a computer algorithm. But it could be done manually, and even if they did just the most searched for authors, manually created authors' biographies and bibliographies would add real value to Amazon as a great book resource. Maybe they could make a wiki of authors?
Labels: amazon
Friday, December 14, 2007
Live Cricket Scores in Google Results
How cool is this... the live cricket match between Australia & New Zealand wasn't on - they had a replay of an old AU/England match on instead. The first step in finding out whether the game had finished early or not was to do a Google search for "cricket".
The results had at the top:
Current Cricket Matches
Eng 351/10 | SL 548/9 | Eng 250/3 (Match drawn)
PD Collingwood* 23, KP Pietersen 45 - scorecard
NZ 254/7(50) | Aus 154/2(26.3) | RR: 5.81 (Match is delayed due to rain)
RT Ponting* 51(61), MJ Clarke 33(54) - scorecard
ws-4.willow.tv
How cool is that!
The results had at the top:
Current Cricket Matches
Eng 351/10 | SL 548/9 | Eng 250/3 (Match drawn)
PD Collingwood* 23, KP Pietersen 45 - scorecard
NZ 254/7(50) | Aus 154/2(26.3) | RR: 5.81 (Match is delayed due to rain)
RT Ponting* 51(61), MJ Clarke 33(54) - scorecard
ws-4.willow.tv
How cool is that!
Labels: sports
Friday, December 7, 2007
You Can Adjust Google Search Results!
(if you are one of the lucky ones...)
It seems that a few users are getting to vote on sites that appear in the search results, and that will change the results that they see. More here...
If a search engine gets this right, it could improve results, or at the very least get rid of spam. This is what the wikipedia guy is aiming for with his new search engine.
Google's method is flawed. The best way to judge a site is to visit it, and it's a hassle going back to the search results to vote. It needs to use a toolbar, floating window or the like - where one can quickly click on a button without disturbing their browsing.
A simple "report spam" button in the Google toolbar could help remove spam from the search index - all it needs is lots of votes and the verification of a Google human. It only takes 10 seconds to recognise spam, so at $20/hr it would only cost 10c per site. This would be valuable for sites that get hundreds of spam votes.
It seems that a few users are getting to vote on sites that appear in the search results, and that will change the results that they see. More here...
If a search engine gets this right, it could improve results, or at the very least get rid of spam. This is what the wikipedia guy is aiming for with his new search engine.
Google's method is flawed. The best way to judge a site is to visit it, and it's a hassle going back to the search results to vote. It needs to use a toolbar, floating window or the like - where one can quickly click on a button without disturbing their browsing.
A simple "report spam" button in the Google toolbar could help remove spam from the search index - all it needs is lots of votes and the verification of a Google human. It only takes 10 seconds to recognise spam, so at $20/hr it would only cost 10c per site. This would be valuable for sites that get hundreds of spam votes.
Labels: experimental
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