The push for the semantic web continues: The New York Times has an interesting article on how search engines are trying to learn how to peer in to the endless abyss that is the deep web (“Exploring a ‘Deep Web’ That Google Can’t Grasp“). You thought Google gave you a million results now? It can’t even peer into the millions of databases out there that contain the real information that drives the web. Some day, if some of these people have their say, it will.
Don’t freak out and run for the hills now – just because they want to search more sites, this doesn’t mean your searches will become even more confusing. They are actually looking on logic for where they search. So, searching for an art-related term will just search art-related databases and return relevant results.
Google isn’t the only one that is looking in to this – companies like Kosmix and Deep Peep are both looking for ways to not only search the deep web, but to return meaningful results. Am I the only one that finds the name ‘Deep Peep’ creepy? Hope your filters aren’t blocking this post because if the creepiness factor. Both sites take an interesting angle on the deep web. I would keep them handy for class research projects if I were you.
The NY Times article mentions Google’s Deep Web search strategy, but I can’t find anything official on it when I search for it using Google itself. Guess it is too deep even for it’s own search engine to find anything on it yet…
Matt is currently an Instructional Designer II at Orbis Education and a Part-Time Instructor at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. Previously he worked as a Learning Innovation Researcher with the UT Arlington LINK Research Lab. His work focuses on learning theory, Heutagogy, and learner agency. Matt holds a Ph.D. in Learning Technologies from the University of North Texas, a Master of Education in Educational Technology from UT Brownsville, and a Bachelors of Science in Education from Baylor University. His research interests include instructional design, learning pathways, sociocultural theory, heutagogy, virtual reality, and open networked learning. He has a background in instructional design and teaching at both the secondary and university levels and has been an active blogger and conference presenter. He also enjoys networking and collaborative efforts involving faculty, students, administration, and anyone involved in the education process.
Hi,
You ask about Google’s deep Web search strategy. If you read:
http://federatedsearchblog.com/2009/02/02/update-on-google-and-the-deep-web
and follow the link in my article to “Google’s Deep Web Crawl” you’ll have your answer.
Sol – thanks for the information. I thought it was funny that Google has no official page on it, but they have pages for so many other things. But your blog post and the related links are a good source of information to to, well, dig deeper into the Google Deep Web project. Thanks!