Comments on: What is relevant? Only you can decide

By: Kaila Colbin

Kaila Colbin — Mon, 21 May 2007 10:41:15 +0000

Mike,

Great points. Demographics and history can take you so far. Values can take you a bit further. Is there a way of using machines to determine context? I don’t know, and I’d be interested to hear from anyone who does have an idea on the topic.

It seems that, with each new iteration of search technology, we are amazed by the computer’s ability to ever more quickly and accurately help us find what we’re looking for. I hope that the technology continues to outpace our capacity for amazement.

All the best,
Kaila

By: blog.webgenomeproject.org » Blog Archive » Disambiguating user intent, or, How Well Do You Know Yourself?

Mon, 21 May 2007 10:28:49 +0000

[...] Google’s serious about users seeing more accurate results, more often, don’t you think this is something they should [...]

By: Mike Riversdale

Mike Riversdale — Mon, 21 May 2007 00:56:41 +0000

I agree, relevancy is what it’s all about and I agree it’s almost impossible for computers to say what is relevant to me at a given point in time.

However, I do see Google attempting to answer that by knowing where I am (Wellington NZ) and what I’ve looked for/clicked on in the past. And the results are, “good enough” – generally I get what I’m looking for.

However (part 2), your approach to use values is an equally valid input and the combination will move me from “good enough” up to “pretty good actually”.

BUT (of course) – what both systems are missing is context – why am I looking for ‘x’ at that moment in time? That’s very hard to grasp without asking loads of very annoying questions … or is it …