New services in the search landscape
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Bing recognises the on-line task with minimum effort
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Though Google continues to be the favourite, Bing cannot be ignored.
This edition of NetSpeak takes a look at the evolving search space and discusses the features of two such new services launched recently. We access the Net to accomplish a task — like purchasing a laptop, writing a research paper or just obtaining the latest cricket score. Generally, we enlist the services of search engines to carry out many on-line tasks. Traditionally, a search engine comes up with web pages that contain a search string.
Whatever be the purpose behind a search, the search engine does the same thing — it just produces a set of links to web pages with the search string. But behind every search there is a purpose. Search engines should not fail to see this.
For instance, a researcher exploring a subject would like to see all the related content weaved together on a single interface. Let us take the case of a journalist, doing a story on the current recession. He/she has to study the recession indicators, the historical background and the like. With a search engine like Google, a search on recession produces a set of web pages that contain the word recession and the researcher has to wade through each of the links to access the relevant ones. Had the results been displayed under relevant categories or with search refinement options, information retrieval would have been a lot easier and more purposeful.
So the point is this: when a netizen seeks the help of a search engine, his/her intention is not just to collect a list of web pages but to fulfil an on-line task. The function of the search engine is to help him/her do this with the minimum of an effort. Search services should evolve in this direction. It seems Bing ( http://www.bing.com/), the search engine recently rolled out by Microsoft, has recognised this market requirement reasonably well.
Bing analyses the search results and along with the usual results it displays a menu of related categories too. If the search is on a product/place/celebrity this feature becomes much more pronounced. For instance a search on “laptop” presents different categories that include the price, brands, reviews and the like. This kind of segregation enables you to take an informed decision on purchase with ease.
Answers many queries
Like Google, Bing also answers many queries — the cricket score, time and weather of a city instantaneously. In fact, here it performs a little better. For instance, just type a flight number in the search box; you will immediately get the latest status of that flight. In addition, if you type “flight status”, Bing displays an interface in which you can enter flight details and obtain the latest status.
Another advantage of Bing is the facility that provides RSS feeds for the search results. The best match, deep links and quick view (useful for obtaining a summary of the site without having to visit it) are some other Bing features worth a mention. Though Bing has options for searching images, videos and news, Netspeak could not find an option for Blog search.
At present Bing’s full features are available only with Bing — USA. When you access Bing, by default it shows the version pertaining to your country. To access the U.S. version, just click on the country name (displayed at the top right corner) and access the option, United States-English.
Services that let us easily compare the features of Google and Bing are also in place. BingandGoogle (http://bingandgoogle.com/) is one such application.
This author started using Bing without any expectation. Unlike other search engine alternatives, Bing has some features worth emulating.
Though Google continues to be the favourite, Bing cannot be ignored. With its huge user-base and massive support from the geek crowd, it may not be easy for anyone to steal Google’s search engine thunder; but it cannot be complacent anymore.
Yet another significant development in the search realm is the emergence of WolframAlpha, the search engine launched by the promoters of the famous Mathematica software.
When searching for information that involves data you should certainly not forget WolframAlpha (http://www 56.wolframalpha.com/). The advantage here is that besides the factual information, WolframAlpha presents lots of related data too. For instance, if you type “Population India”, this service immediately displays the population of India in numbers. In addition, it displays the population history graph, parameters such as population density, population growth and median age. If the purpose of your search is something related to numbers, WolframAlpha could come in handy.
Of course, Google is also not keeping quiet. Its new service Google Squared ( http://www.google.com/squ ared) is an attempt to provide us results in a more organised fashion. In response to a search query, Google Squared collects the relevant pages, analyses and presents them as a spreadsheet with a set of rows and columns. Each of the rows contains a search related item and the corresponding columns contain different types of information pertaining to that item.
The columns/rows of the spreadsheet are configurable. This means you can refine the spreadsheet by adding/removing items (rows)/ columns.
J. MURALI
He can be contacted at: jmurali@gmail.com
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