*UPDATED*
A while back Ian "Twopointouch" Delaney and I exchanged a few posts about non-linear/social search. All good stuff and can be found here.
Anyway, been terribly busy of late and only now getting around to posting about an issue Steve Rubel raised last week about the growing dominance of Wikipedia in social/intelligent search.
Steve's cites the fact that Google relies heavily on Wikipedia for good search results. Not only that but what was once a leader in the world of search, Google, is now offering more and more non-search related services - eg. Youtube.
Steve's argument is a good one and I want to add a few more supporting ideas.
Google trawls the web for keyword related content. Sure, tags, can help refine what it is we're looking for but there are drawbacks like reliance on tags created by like-minded users (more tag goodness here about that one) and the inability of search engines to differentiate between microformat and plain ol' key words (more here too from Data Mining).
So unless you're searching social bookmarking sites like Del.icio.us for content you know is tagged by someone who shares your love for philately then it may all be hit and miss.
So far, so obvious. But as well as Wikipedia boosting search results through link-love, Wikipedia - and indeed all wikis - are built from user-generated content you ought to be certain that what is in there is relevant, accurate (not always the case) and useful.
So in effect, wikis give you high-ranking search results that are full of useful wholesome-ness. Great from a user's perspective but also worth considering if you are a business/NGO/politician/plain-old-individual.
When this year's Gartner Hype Chart was released it revealed wiki's had hit the 'Trough of Disillusionment' (or Slough of Despond for any Bunyan fans out there).
At the time Stuart Bruce didn't think wikis would ever make it out of the Trough, but could we be seeing a wiki fight back??
Search seems to be a major feature for the the future usefulness of the web. If wiki's can take on a vital role as part of that then the Slope of Enlightenment surely beckons.
*UPDATED* Just seen this post from Nicholas Carr which chimes nicely with the content I;'ve just written... it's also updated and updated. Follow the links!
Technorati: Wikis; Google; Garter Hype Cycle; Tags; Tagging
Comments