Written by Adam Jusko
July 20, 2007
Human Powered Search
I've actually written to this list before on the subject of human-powered search, back when our
human-powered search engine Bessed launched last October.
I can't speak for Mahalo, but I can speak for myself in telling you what I think the difference is between a human-powered search engine and a directory. It's not just semantics...
The Old Directory Method
Here's how the outdated directory concept works: Set up an infrastructure (categories, subcategories, etc.) then wait for people to show up to fill up the categories. When Webmasters submit their sites, list them in alphabetical order. Provide no editorial judgment, other than possibly deciding that a few sites are so bad they can't justifiably be included. Also, set up a hierarchy that makes it unwieldy to actually find anything specific - search for "shoes" and you'll get a fine list; search for "women's Skechers" and you're out of luck. Finally, don't ever look at the lists you've created to see if the sites still exist, have changed, etc.
This was the model for Yahoo! and other directories --- they just didn't get down to the specific level that so many searchers are trying to get to, and they didn't sift out the junk that was no longer relevant. And then they started charging for inclusion, which absolutely guaranteed that they would no longer be useful for real searching --- if Costco won't pay, they aren't included under "warehouse clubs"? That's not useful.
The Human Search Method
From Bessed's perspective, a human-powered search engine finds useful sites, attempts to rank them by usefulness, and attempts to find answers for "long-tail" searches that a directory never would. A human-powered search engine also doesn't care about hierarchies --- there's no infrastructure that says you have to drill down to BusinessandIndustry_Apparel_Shoes_Crocs in order to find sites that sell Crocs. We just create a list of sites where you can find Crocs, which is all you want from the searcher perspective. Also, our goal is to update searches to weed out dated material that would sit in a directory forever. And we would never charge for inclusion.
I don't think there's a question that human-powered search can have value --- as long as it's done with the searcher's needs in mind, versus creating some sort of library-style card catalog of Web sites. Humans can knock out spam and can make better judgments on the usefulness of sites and Web pages than a computer algorithm can. The challenge for Bessed, and for Mahalo and for anyone else stupid enough to attempt it, is to actually cover a large enough portion of the information universe to be truly useful. And, of course, to stay on top of it, to continue updating search results so they remain useful. Bessed is a small operation; we're covering a small iota of what's out there. But that is the ideal, and I assume it is Mahalo's ideal as well.
As for Delicious, it's a great site for the techie crowd, but I question its usefulness as a general search engine. Do a search on "auto parts" for example. You get repeated entries for the same sites, strange descriptions that give you no clue as to whether a site will be useful, random rankings.
I've written too much. Thanks to anyone who stayed with me this far.
Adam Jusko
Bessed.com
 this post appeared in
LED Digest 2453
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