Google Squared
Launched with a lot of hype in early 2009, Google Squared, Google’s semantic search engine, failed to live up to expectations, often returning rather nonsensical results and unleashing a volley of criticism. The true power of Google Squared, which is still in Beta, lies in its ability to perform a grid search, i.e., in being able to gather and display structured data, turning the random information found on the Internet into computable data. Google Squared is very much a work in progress and Google recently announced updates to its Google Squared service that should hopefully make it more usable.The updates include the facility of exporting the data to Google Spreadsheets, from where it can be sliced and diced to mine information. The columns have been made sortable and the default number of facts per search has been increased from 30 to 120. Squared now has the ability to learn from the modifications and corrections made by users. It seems also that Google Square has become more selective and the quality of the data has improved.
There are other companies working on the semantic web, a key one being Wolfram, the publishers of Mathematica. Wolfram’s Wolfram Alpha is a semantic search engine (Wolfram call it a computational knowledge engine) focused on scientific and mathematical applications. Alpha’s approach is to build its own database of information from what is available on the Internet and then run the queries on the database. Google Square on the other hand deals with all the data available on the Web and tries to extract meaningful information directly from it.
Both are very different approaches targeted at very different audiences. Wolfram’s approach works best for a specialized user base that is looking for reliable and vetted results in specific areas such as astronomy or physics, etc. Google Squared is aimed at the common users of the Web who are try to extract meaningful information from the reams of data available on the Net. For example, a user who wants information about dog breeds will get a table that sorts the results in different columns by breed, images, description, size, weight, etc. The semantic web is the new frontier for cutting edge search technologies and search as we know it may be rendered extinct soon by these emerging search paradigms.
A new search tool from Google’s labs
Google has recently released a new tool known as “Google Squared”. It extracts data that you are looking for and shows results in an online spreadsheet-format. The square structures the unstructured data on the web. If you are curious about which mobile phones are the best, all you have to do is simply type “mobile” in the search box of Google squared and click the “square it’ button. It will return information in a spreadsheet format with names, images, description, weight, memory etc in columns and rows.
You can customize squares as per your desire. Remember common attributes for an item can be listed as columns in a square. You can delete the attributes that you don’t care about. If you want to expand your initial square you can use the add rows and add columns search boxes to see suggestions for other items and attributes that you can add to your square. You can also type your own items and attributes that you have in mind.
You can also save your square and share it with your friends. If you are signed into your Google account, you can save a particular squared search, then get back to it later, and share it with your friends by simply copying the URL from the address bar of the square that you have created and send it to them.
Like the Google square, a computational knowledge engine called Wolfram Alpha has came into the internet world. It is designed to make all systematic knowledge immediately computable to everyone. With Wolfram Alpha, you can calculate how many calories a man can burn if he swims for 30 minutes. The difference between the two is that Wolfram Alpha is simply based on its own database, while Google Squared gathers data from the entire web.
Firefox fluxes Wolfram Alpha with the search engine giant Google
Wolfram Alpha, a computational engine offers a single search result instead of thousands of web pages as offered by Google. If Alpha offers the right answer, then it will be the best way to gather data on the net. If it is not the right answer, then the search may end up in vain and user will have to go for another search engine which most commonly is Google.
Even with Google, people might not get desired results on the first page; they have to explore the thousands of search results to get the answer. Both have pros and corns, so Firefox has come up with the brilliant idea of blending Google and Wolfram Alpha, through its new add-on “Wolfram Alpha Google”. Just imagine how useful it will be for surfers to have both kinds of search results on the same page.
The downside of the add-on is that it can clip off the bottom of the Wolfram Alpha results when the search result of Alpha is longer. This can be overcome by setting Google to show 20 or more search results per page. Also the add-on comes with a quick link called ‘Open Wolfram Alpha in New tab’ which allows surfers to view the Alpha results in a different browser tab so that they don’t miss out on any important information.
This plug-in facilitates Google surfers to get the best of both worlds. It is also an ideal solution for comparing the results between these two engines. This add-on is still experimental; you need to be registered with Mozilla’s add-on to be able to instal it in your browser.
What is Wolfram Alpha? Is it a ‘Google Killer’?
British scientist Stephen Wolfram, inventor of Mathemetica, will unveil his latest creation Wolfram Alpha on May 15, 2009. Alpha is a computational knowledge engine, and it uses built-in models of different domains that represent real-world knowledge, for computing the answers to factual questions.
It understands and then computes answers for questions using the built-in domain knowledge models without searching for answers in a big database. It provides textual results along with graphs, charts and other graphical elements necessary for the search query. For instance, if the query is “current American economy”, Alpha will offer numeric details along with comparison graphs. This will help almost everyone understand finance better.
Dr. Wolfram gave a demonstration of Alpha at Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society. During the demonstration, Wolfram typed in the question ‘What is the GPD of France divided by Italy?’ Alpha gave the correct answer supported with graphs and other statistics.
Dr. Wolfram said at the demonstration, “Our goal is to make expert knowledge accessible to anyone, anywhere, anytime. Like interacting with an expert, it will understand what you’re talking about, do the computation, and then present you with the results.”
Wolfram is different from Google. Two things can be compared only when they are comparable. Google is a search engine while Wolfram is a computational knowledge engine. However, Alpha will be rival for Wikipedia and other reference materials. Instead of searching tons of books and finding answers to any factual questions, users can just open Alpha and obtain answers.
Stephen describes Wolfram Alpha – “It will raise the level of scientific things that the average person can do. People will find that the world is more predictable than they might have expected. Just as running Google is like having a reference librarian to help you, running Wolfram Alpha will be like having a house scientist to consult for you.”
Related Posts from the Past:
Recent Post
Categories
- 360Contest (5)
- Use Cases (3)
- Agriya Events (6)
- Agriya Ideas (9)
- Agriya News (111)
- Anova (12)
- Burrow (5)
- BuySell (3)
- Channel (7)
- Client Interviews (1)
- Computer Security (7)
- Crowdsourcing (6)
- Developers (2)
- Extensions (1)
- Feedy (2)
- FP Platform (9)
- Getlancer (1)
- GroupDeal (11)
- GroupWithUs (1)
- Holidays (1)
- internet (16)
- Internet News (57)
- iSocial (8)
- latest technology (21)
- Life @ Agriya (1)
- online marketing (15)
- PartyPlanet (1)
- Private Shop (1)
- search engines (9)
- SEO (1)
- SEO Game (19)
- SF Platform (2)
- Social Media News (17)
- social networking (44)
- Startups (2)
- Volume (3)
- Web 2.0 (8)
- web design (6)
- Webmaster Articles (114)
Archives
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
Page optimized by WP Minify WordPress Plugin