Comments on: Hansel and Gretel Were Right: Number 99 in Our Series on Search

By: Team Coverage of the O'Reilly TOC Conference | Oxford Media Works

Team Coverage of the O'Reilly TOC Conference | Oxford Media Works — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 01:04:22 +0000

[...] Hansel and Gretel Were Right: Number 99 in Our Series on Search — If publishers need to learn one thing it should probably be that Google is not the enemy. Better to work with all search engines than to try to build your own. Posted on June 26, 2007 Filed Under: Publishing · Blog [...]

By: Brenda Coulter

Brenda Coulter — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 12:29:41 +0000

Oh, man, thanks for mentioning Buckaroo Banzai. I’ve never found anyone who loved that movie the way I did. (I’m beginning to think I’m running with the wrong crowd.)

By: Kelly

Kelly — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 21:04:06 +0000

That sounds all really interesting.

By: Angelos

Angelos — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 17:03:41 +0000

Considering I am a new visitor to the B.S. family (however, I already possess two other B.S. distinctions), readings on the topic of finability were slightly ironic. Yes, the infamous Google led me to your page during a blog search for “TOC conference” implying familiarity with O’Reilly and the changing dynmaics in the publishing industry.
In response to “If they can’t find you, they can’t find you,” I agree for the most part but am excited about tools from contextual reliant companies such as Inform and Adaptive Blue. Neither of the companies currently offer a specific solution to the problems you describe, but both are attempting to understand inquiries at a deeper level than Google. Semantics, Folksonomies, collective wisdom, recommendations – all are steadily contributing to a more human friendly experience. Unfortunately, these methods still result in abundance and requires sifting, but the technology is available…excited for the future.