Geekfoolery

It’s the future already, and that means that while you were out getting a five dollar pizza and 2 liter bottle of soda, the web was getting better, more functional, and easier to use. If only this effect worked with other things, like my car. Imagine getting behind the wheel and finding that with no effort on your part, now you’re getting an extra 5 miles to the gallon, or that your AM/FM radio now also has an iPod dock.

The first Web 2.0 upgrade is on Meebo.com, the all-in-one website that let’s you log in to all your instant messaging sites via the web browser. The last time I looked at Meebo, for me, it was a nice convenience to use when I am using an Internet café or a work computer that doesn’t allow downloads. On my own computer, I was using a nice freeware program called Fire that allowed for multiple logins to Yahoo! and AIM and MSN and a few others. Since then, the developers who made Fire said no more. And Meebo has come out with an new feature called Rooms.

Meebo Rooms takes the classic idea of the chat rooms and updates it from the text-n-smiley world of AOL chat rooms and for you old timers, Usenet. Meebo rooms are user created topics, and they have a built-in media viewer. An easy idea here is a “Best of Youtube” group… watch the most popular Youtube vids and chat in real time. Couple other quick ideas: Daily Show clips. NBA games. Debates.

If this catches on, this could be richer experience than social networking sites like Fark, Digg and Reddit, which all allow posting of articles from around the Internet, and commentary. The Meebo rooms could be more compelling by focussing on particular topics, the posting and viewing of content, and real time discussion. And Meebo just added it while you were picking lint out from behind your ear, you slacker. Enjoy.

Another useful item that just popped up while you were sleeping is a new search engine called Hakia.com. “ANOTHER Search Engine?” you say. C’mon, isn’t Google and Yahoo! all anyone will ever need? Well, I love Google and Yahoo!, and the two of them are the poster boys for just coming up with very cool Web 2.0 goodies while we’re off watching “Con Air” on cable for like the tenth time. But competition is what it’s all about, and Hakia is not just another “me too” approach to search. Their ambitious approach to search is summarized in their slogan, “search for meaning.” Their search algorithms rely analysis of language with technologies described on their website such as OntoSem, QDex, and SemanticRank.

What this means is that your search terms are analyzed as natural language queries. The search engine itself is powered by Ask.com, so on occasions where Hakia doesn’t know what you’re talking about, it defaults to the results Ask.com would have given you, and there are sponsored results on the side.

What I like about Hakia.com is not so much that suddenly my search results are now 10x better than they were before. But I like the fact that more effort is being put into natural language analysis. Geeks like me are used to crafting our boolean searches and fine-tuning the results by essentially speaking the language of the search engine. But some people never figure that out–certain aged aunts come to mind–but this is actually a more serious issue. Searching on the Internet for Dave Barry articles that mention “Mr. Language Person” isn’t going to change the world, but consider more serious questions that come up in business. Do you want to know how many of your customers have paid their bills on time by check since January 1st? Hope you have SQL DB admin handy, and be ready to have about 5 or 6 meetings to settle niggling little questions like does it have to be paid by check, and our database only goes back to March.

Hakia has a technology in the lab called “Dialogue” that I am hoping will give us normal people access to difficult data. On the web, I imagine this might go something like this: You search for “Genesis” and Hakia asks, “Do you mean the biblical Genesis or the art-rock band?” If this technology and algorithm works, then our web searches and even searches of our business and personal computers will sound like conversations with our spouses and roommates:

“Honey, did you see that thing?”

“What thing?”

“You know, the one I got last week.”

“Are you talking about the gadget you got at the mall or the sample you brought back from work?”

“The thing from the mall.”

“You left it on the den on the bookcase.”

The web… getting better while we putter around in the garage.

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