Yakov Sadchikov wanted to catch up with me at MediaTech2.006 (edublogscom reportage here) and, having seen his product, it was mutual! Quintura allows you to browse related topics to the topic you are searching for - great when you're not too sure what you want to get into. I did a quick search for some East Lothian-related issues and got a great overview of the projects, bloggers, Flickr-ers, courses and websites we run. I tried an ego search and David Warlick came up - what does that say?
The powerful thing? You can save the search cloud you have sought and then refined. This means that we could probably will set up a really powerful cluster-based model of search within the new East Lothian social media portal and let individuals drill down further from there.
I'm sure there are uses for it coming into your heads, too. Take a peek at Quintura or look at the East Lothian/Exc-el results and let Yakov and I know what you think.
Very cool isn't it? I blogged about it last month here
It's about time we had some innovation in searching - not much has changed from a user's POV since the days when Altavista was king!
Posted by: Robert Jones | December 04, 2006 at 05:18 PM
"I tried an ego search and David Warlick came up - what does that say?"
It says what I said, only without the Canadian accent. ;)
Posted by: Stephen Downes | December 04, 2006 at 05:33 PM
Ego? What are you saying? ;-)
-- dave --
Posted by: David Warlick | December 04, 2006 at 06:18 PM
It reminds me a lot of Kartoo.
Posted by: Elizabeth | December 04, 2006 at 11:39 PM
Ewan, we are going to make a presentation at Le Web 3 next Monday. Let's connect in Paris and stay tuned to our developments. The visual find engines for Kids and for Women are coming next.
Posted by: Yakov | December 05, 2006 at 10:03 PM
Some search engines now offer alternatives to your search term which may be nearer to what you were really after but couldn't hit onthe right words and image libraries display the tags for each image so you can follow a trail of synonyms you may not have considered to find other images that might be better.
As people still predominently carry out one- or two-word internet searches instead of using the advanced search options, or even 'and' and 'not' or quote marks, I think tags are an painless way to refine searches.
Am I right to assume that the size of the tag word indicates their frequency of use -not always the best way to find what you need if you after something that's a bit more specific - I'm thinking of curriculum levels and A Curriculum for Excellence I-can statements here!
Lucy
Posted by: Lucy Crichton | December 06, 2006 at 11:18 AM