Search Party

The More the Merrier

The future of Internet search has come into debate this week after both Google and Professor Wolfram announced semantic driven developments that seek to understand queries and respond to them more precisely. Despite Google's commendable dominance in the search engine world to this point, let's be honest, customer loyalty and search engines do not go hand in hand because at the end of the day, it's about finding an answer, not the route you took to get it. If someone asks round the office for the time they'll listen to whoever answers the quickest.

Monday saw 'Wolfram Alpha' step into the ring and strap up their gloves with the intention of changing 'the search'. It claims to cut out the middle man. Rather than direct you to answers, it attempts to provide them, using a variety of related subjects. The example they give is a search for 'Manchester weather' returning a graph of average temperatures, rainfall and other data for the area.

Put simply, if you pulled over the car looking for directions, Google would point you in the path of a local information centre whilst Wolfram Alpha, like a helpful villager, would offer their best stab at the right route ('oh, I know where you mean, that's up by Bill's house I think.').

Will it change the search? Absolutely, but it will take time. Companies such as Artesian are already proving it is possible to *find without search* and semantic technologies are fast becoming more and more intelligent. Though it may be a while before Wolfram Alpha are serious contenders for the world title, they’re certainly in the right training for the fight.

To see how the semantic web can be your online business Sat Nav visit www.artesiansolutions.com