Collaborative Thinking

Augmenting Search Via Tags & Bookmarks

Worth reading (via ReadWriteWeb):

This leads to the big question: what will be the next big thing that substantially improves search quality?

One of the big contenders for this "next big thing" is social search: the idea of adding user annotations or other metadata to the process. Of course, arguably "search" has been "social" ever since people began incorporating anchortext into search engines, or ever since users started contributing the first web pages.

However, usually what is meant by social search is something like incorporating user-generated tags or ratings into an index or ranking function.

Meanwhile, social bookmarking sites like del.icio.us and StumbleUpon have been growing rapidly. Both now have millions of users.

As a result, in the paper below, we ask the question: "Can Social Bookmarking Improve Web Search?". By extension, we also ask, if so, in what ways, and if not, why not?

Can Social Bookmarking Improve Web Search?

Delver - Social Search As Another Relevancy Filter

A growth area for interesting ideas to solve an age-old challenge:

Delver is a socially connected search company; a next-generation web search engine - what we call a Connected Search Engine - that improves the relevancy of web search results by prioritizing these results based upon the searcher’s social network. Delver uncovers the wealth of knowledge from users’ online connections in a useful and enjoyable way.

We co-founded Delver because we recognized a strong need for people to find information created or referenced by their friends and friends-of-friends. Delver supports a spirit of open interchange where the wisdom of a person’s social network can contribute to that individual’s search success. Existing search engines do not account for who a person is and what that person’s network finds valuable. Delver makes search more significant to the user by organizing friends’ tags and information found on social networking profiles, blogs, bookmarks, photo and video sharing sites rather than basing results upon the popularity of a given page or Web site.

Delver - About Us

Enterprise 2.0: Honeywell Explores Value Of Intranet Tagging

A short summary of how Honeywell is using a tagging/social bookmark platform from ConnectBeam. Other options for tagging and social bookmark systems that will be available later this year include: BEA Pathways and Lotus Connections. Cogenz and Jive Software as well as the Scuttle open source project are other options. There is also a tagging and social bookmark add-on for Microsoft Windows SharePoint available from WSSsearch.

One important aspect that is worth calling out is the integration between tagging and social bookmark systems and enterprise search (in this case, Honeywell is taking advantage of Connectbeam's integration with Google's enterprise search solution). This example reinforces a point I've made multiple times that tagging and search trends are very synergistic and are not in conflict with each other. The social networking and community-building aspects are also something important to consider when considering these types of social software solutions.

Connectbeam Offers Social Search and More to Honeywell

The key to social search in an enterprise context is identifying and connecting each enterprise worker with colleagues whose interests and knowledge enhances their own.
Privately held Connectbeam, located in California's Silicon Valley, has mastered this. Its Social Bookmarking & Networking Appliance, a pre-configured appliance server deployed behind the enterprise firewall, highlight information from colleagues' searches, especially the information that they have found most useful.
So it is very fitting that Connectbeam was chosen this month by global technology company Honeywell to provide social bookmarking and tagging, expertise location, and enterprise social networking capabilities to Honeywell employees.

Using Connectbeam software – not only its Social Bookmarking & Networking Appliance but also its Application Connector for Google Enterprise Search – Honeywell knowledge workers will be able to locate and manage information together while easily networking with each other's knowledge, interests and skills in a secure, behind the firewall implementation. 

Source: Connectbeam Offers Social Search and More to Honeywell (SocialComputingMagazine.com)

And from the blog of Honeywell's Rich Hoeg:

Tagging Inside the Firewall

... this application is inside our firewall and will allow our engineers to perform knowledge discovery, research and sharing across the miles ... even if they don't know each other! ConnectBeam works in tandem with our internal Google search appliance. Over the next few weeks we will conduct our final tests before rolling out our application later this Spring. Here are three screenshots from our beta test:

1. Some of my personal tags, and tag cloud
2. An internal search, including external results, tags, & names
3. My profile (i.e. a typical employee ... well, maybe a typical nerd!)

Click upon any thumbnail to enlarge (some of my prior posts on this topic)
.

Source: eContent: Tagging Inside the Firewall

Interview w/ tag2find - Folksonomy.org

Extending the concept of tags/tagging to the desktop:

Marc Stein is the co-founder of tag2find. They are based in Linz, Upper Austria. Marc studied Software Engineering for Medicine in Hagenberg.

.....

Tagging is a much more simple way of organizing your data compared to traditional hierarchical folder systems. In that, you will never need to restructure your desktop organization if your priorities change or if company structures change. A tagged file is always at the right spot as its “position” is defined by its content and the tags used and not by being put in a certain folder.

And by avoiding troubles, I am referring to finding old files can be an adventure, especially if other users are involved. In hierarchical systems, you have to know the specific structure of the desktop to efficiently search files. In a tagging environment, you do not have to think about structures. And your colleagues will love you for that.

Source: Interview w/ tag2find - Folksonomy.org

What If You Could Search All Analysts Blogs?

Google Co-op continues to intrigue me. I had previously created a site where you could search a collection of Burton Group-related blogs and then I read that you could import an OPML file. So I went to Tektrati and downloaded their analyst directory in OPML format. I then defined a new search engine and uploaded that file.

Within seconds, the Serendipty search site was created. Imagine having the postings of analysts from multiple firms searchable within a single collection. Interesting possibilities... the power of OPML is also brought to light here. Another applications would have been to take my XML Feed subscriptions as well and create a customized search site whose collection mirrored my RSS or Atom feeds.

From Dictionary.com

ser·en·dip·i·ty [ser-uhn-dip-i-tee]  –noun

1.	an aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident.

2. good fortune; luck:

So have fun with it, it is more or less a one-time shot deal. I'm not sure I have the bandwidth to manage additions, changes and deletions. Perhaps someone at Tektrati will see this as consider adopting it (or recreating it) and add it as a feature to the directory listing.

Taking Google Co-Op For A Ride

While I'm wrapping up one report (a template on communication infrastructure) and working on another (a report on Sametime 7.5), I'm also doing some active research on the Windows RSS Platform (using IE7, Attensa and NewsGator at the moment), and other emerging communication trends (such as Slideshare for sharing powerpoint presentations).

I just finished creating a customized search site using Google Co-Op. The site, Search The Personal Blogs Of Burton Group Research Analysts & Consultants is a collection of the personal blogs. It's not complete but I've asked for people to provide site addresses. Once you do a search, you will see a "refinements" label that will narrow the search and apply the query only to those analyst blogs that are in the Collaboration & Content Strategies service.  If I get enough blogs from other co-workers I'll add additional refinements (labels) to focus searches into advisory service categories.