Checked out Cuil

I checked out Cuil, tempted by the Chronicle's coverage of the new, "bigger than Google" search engine. Not thrilling, IMO. But maybe it will grow on me. It does have a nice black screen, which might save lots of energy--but it might not. Did I mention we want to see Wall-E last weekend?

Ask.com and the AskEraser

If anyone else is still knee-deep in the new Privacy Report like I am, then this headline might have caught your eye:

Ask.com Puts a Bet on Privacy(NYT)

Basically, Ask.com has put a feature on, where you can immediately delete your query. Mostly delete. The article surmises that most Americans don't care about privacy unless/until something happens. Of course, see past libraryland discussions...

Interesting to see if this feature will attract a new set of Ask.com users. What do you think?

The Holy Grail of Search

There's an interesting article in today's New York Times about the future of internet searching, at least as perceived from Microsoft's vantage point. At Techfest this week, a Microsoft researcher demonstrated a new service called "Mix," which (if it works as demonstrated) would allow users to organize their results more efficiently. Mix may be available within six to nine months, according to the article. You can find a brief description of Mix if you scroll about three-quarters down this page.

Another service, Web Assistant, (no release date given; this name has been kicking around Microsoft for at least 10 years) would be even more intuitive, driving you to results that could distinguish whether your were looking for a football team, an automobile, or an exotic cat when you search for "jaguars." It manages this legerdemain by learning from your previous searches and by those of other searchers who have looked up the same topic.

It seems to me that the better the search function gets, the more we as librarians should be rethinking our mission. We have already lost the ready reference trade to Google and its kin; where will we seek refuge when the search engines can actually deliver substantial, unambiguous results right to the desktop?

Still no luggage, but other goodies

It's Wednesday. The luggage has been gone since Friday night. I have to wait out today before I can make a claim to US Airways. I finally broke down last night and bought new toiletries, a replacement trackball, etc. Funny how not having my toothbrush or my trackball has made me really grumpy the past two days.

Good news is, I have two interesting tidbits to share with you:

• Quintura, a visual search engine overlay (props to Rob Garner at iCrossing for pointing it out...)
• Shelfari, something of a cross between E41st and LibraryThing. Sort of. (Hat tip to Hugh and Oprah's magazine for this one...)

Additional blog posts in the works--want to tell you about Ben McConnell's talk last week for his book, Citizen Marketers! (of course, my coveted signed copy is IN MY LOST LUGGAGE!)

Ah well. The sun is shining, and tomorrow is March 1.