Google Search is so Web 1.0

by Ken Yarmosh | October 11, 2005 | Posted in: Tech and Productivity

I’ve been beta testing wink over the last week. As opposed to other search engines (until today), wink combines the idea of search and tagging, in that order. Their motto is “People. Powered. Search.” At its core, wink is powered by Google search. Over time, however, people rate and tag results, thus in theory making wink a better, ‘people powered search’ engine.

Now, compare wink’s model to…

  1. del.icio.us, which started with tagging, only to later include the ability to search.
  2. BlinkList, which although appeared to be a del.icio.us alternative is looking more and more like the Personal Discovery Engine that Mike Reining calls it.
  3. Google, which has added tagging to search. What Google offers, not so special when considering what else is out there. What it speaks to - the power of combining search and tagging, very important.

While tagging initially was ‘neat’, we are now seeing only a snippet of its role in the future of the web. How can we deal with information overload? How can we deal with something billion web pages and something million blogs? How can we find the information that is relevant to us, quickly and efficiently? Two quick answers - ‘People. Powered. Search.’ and ‘Personal Discovery Engines’.

That does not mean that wink and BlinkList have all the answers. What they and others are beginning to realize though is that there is no perfect search algorithm, there is no computer or code that can best map the way humans seek out new information.

What Google has done for search to this point has been incredible but Google search is so Web 1.0. We need people powered search, we need personal discovery engines. We need Search 2.0. The technology is still in its infancy but tagging is going to be a key element in the transition to a new approach to search. You can bet Google understands that - this move confirms it.

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  1. TECHNOSIGHT » Announcing Web 2.0 Consulting Services
    January 2, 2006

    [...] A majority of my blogging efforts over the past two months have been dedicated to Web 2.0. I’ve interviewed people like Greg Linden of Findory and Peter Cooper of FeedDigest. I’ve reviewed products like Elicit and analyzed how to build a better web based feed aggregator. I’ve boldly proclaimed that Google search is so Web 1.0 and that approaches like Wink and BlinkList will more closely resemble Search 2.0. I’ve even held my first blogoposium, dedicated to helping the non-technical community understand Web 2.0 concepts. I’ve also consulted to several Web 2.0 companies over the past two months (and at no cost), providing valuable feedback for feature improvements, identifying bugs and errors, and the like. [...]

2 Comments On This Post

  1. PeteCashmore says:
    October 13, 2005 at 6:50 pm

    Ken,

    Google is starting to realize that people, not algorithms, will be the powerhouse behind the next phase of the web. Like Ross Mayfield says: Web 2.0 is Made of People! Of course, algorithms still have their place: look at memeorandum, for instance.

  2. RDoctor says:
    July 21, 2006 at 1:53 pm

    Google is starting to realize that people, not algorithms, will be the powerhouse behind the next phase of the web…
    Besides just palin algorithms, there is also artificial intelligence and several systems (like neuronal for example) do not need a special algorythim,they create and adjsut that themself. Almost like people.

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