The Future of Web Search: Human Power

We've published an article today about the power of human intelligence when combined with great technology over on Internet Evolution, a new site about the future of the Internet.

The beginning of the piece below, click thrugh for the full article...

The race for the ultimate online search engine continues to unfold as engineers, math geniuses, and computer scientists work to create more efficient and accurate search tools. But a new crop of search services are taking a much different approach: combining great technology with the power of human intelligence.

In recent years, the hottest Web companies have put endless efforts into creating innovative search technologies and complex algorithms -- the computer programs that index the Web and seek to match your search terms to the most relevant sites. Google is perhaps the greatest example, and its algorithm is helping the company try to achieve an awe-inspiring mission: to organize the world's Web information.

Yet, in the past year, it has become clear that even these complex algorithms have their limits. Faced with a tsunami of new Web pages, user-generated content, and black-hat search engine optimizers constantly trying to "game" the algorithm, it has become increasingly difficult for algorithm-based searches to effectively sort through the clutter on the Web. As a result, users waste time searching, and often become frustrated because they never find what they are looking for....Click to read the full article.