I somehow feel that search engines still suck (sorry for that word, but no better word to describe what I feel).
Consider this:
I am new to a domain say, “Autonomic computing” and I need more information about it. How do I go about it in present day search engines? I need to write any one of these:
“Autonomic computing” tutorial
“Autonomic computing” introduction
“What is Autonomic computing”
or something similar.
Now consider a web-site that deals with newbies and it has a list of definitions for all the upcoming words. The title of this page could be,
“Technical words simplified”
and could contain the definition and a list of resources to know about “Autonomic computing”. Note that the words introduction or tutorial or “What is…” doesn't appear in this page. So, it is not listed by our search engine.
The problem is that search engines are based on keywords. And keywords are not the best way to describe data. Keywords don't help in defining relationships. Nor are they complete.
It is perhaps because of this reason that search engines are trying to provide information in ways other than keywords. For example, Y!Q, Brainboost etc are trying out something different.
Until now, I somehow felt Semantic web could be a really good solution. I still feel so, but it all depends on how it is accepted by the community. I read an article today Whither the Semantic Web. This is what he says initially:
I have been and continue to be a supporter of the Semantic Web. It is, however, an idea that I believe has drifted and with each passing day is becoming more irrelevant. I have enormous respect for the creativity and innovation of those working on it. But I wonder whether they haven't been led astray..
And at the end he has yet another interesting input:
Now, again, all this may exist. But where? Buried somewhere under the morass that is the W3C's website? Paragraph 47.3.45 in the Resource Description Format technical manual? If any of this exists (which I personally doubt) it should be up front on the W3C site: here's how to get started – describe yourself, describe your resource, link them together. *This* is what we mean by the Seamntic Web. *Here* is some script *you* can run using your limited resources that makes it work.
So what's the solution? I hit upon a PG course in IIT Kharagpur that deals with Semantic web as part of it. The course is called “Intelligent systems”.
Well, I think I should wind up now.
