Pamela Statz

Search 2.0

In a piece on Richard MacManus's Read/Write Web, Ebrahim Ezzy of Qelix Technologies has coined a new term: Search 2.0. He defines the new movement in search as the "third generation" of the search engine. We're seeing this emerge as we move more and more towards tagging architectures, clustering and resource sharing. To quote: […]

In a piece on Richard MacManus's Read/Write Web, Ebrahim Ezzy of Qelix Technologies has coined a new term: Search 2.0. He defines the new movement in search as the "third generation" of the search engine. We're seeing this emerge as we move more and more towards tagging architectures, clustering and resource sharing.

To quote:

* First-generation search ranked sites based on page content - examples are early yahoo.com and Alta Vista.

* Second-generation relies on link analysis for ranking - so they take the structure of the Web into account. Examples are Google and Overture.

* Third-generation search technologies are designed to combine the scalability of existing internet search engines with new and improved relevancy models; they bring into the equation user preferences, collaboration, collective intelligence, a rich user experience, and many other specialized capabilities that make information more productive. Examples: Swicki, Rollyo, Clusty, Wink, Lexxe.

Plainly, tagging has played a pivotal role in this trend towards social search. Tag clouds are a form of third-generation search, even if they are more along the lines of "relevancy models" than actual search methodologies.

These new technologies offer a some features that traditional search engines don't provide, but I feel like it's mostly a matter of time before we see Ebrahim's "second generation" search engines taking up some of the methods of the third generation. Maybe tagging in its purest form wouldn't work on Google, but different weighting models could be applied to search results based on user preferences, filters, or community recommendations. While Google's emphasis on links has served them well, what harm would adding recommendations do to the relevancy of their results?

Also, I really can't say enough about Rollyo, which has proven to be an exciting search model. It's basically a "U-Pick-It" search engine that lets you narrow your searches to a customizable list of sites that you choose. Anyone can create and edit their own filtered search engine. You can also embed the engine in your web page or in your Firefox toolbar.

Ebrahim's article is part one of a two-parter. The second half of his piece will appear on MacManus's blog soon.