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Farrukh Yakubov

Student, Purdue University

TEDCRED 50+
TED TranslatorAssociate

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What features do u seek in the search engine of the future?

With ever expanding world wide web, search engines are key elements in finding information we need on time. How do you imagine the perfect search engine of the future? How smart do you want it to be? How are you concerned about privacy of users?

I'm a student majoring in Computer Science, and recently started developing a search engine, which I expect to outperform all existing search engines in terms of efficiency and smartness. I hope that this conversation will help me to make my search engine one step closer to the search engine of the future.

All answers are appreciated.
Thank you.

Topics: Search Engine User experience computer science machine intelligence network
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    pranoy sundar 20+

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    May 12 2012: i want the future search engines to answer the same way a human might have answered me, if he had all the information that a search engine have.

  • Joe Ling

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    May 11 2012: not having stuff based on the words I type in but on they way they are arranged
    e.g you type in a question and it specifies a single word in the question

    also and elite set of really good reliable websites to search through
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    Edmond Hui 500+

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    TEDx Organizer
    May 10 2012: What features do 'u' seek? I don't know. Where are all these 'u's anyway, and do they have abilities built into their serifs that allow them to type into search engines? Are Garamond 'u's more handy with keyboards than Gill Sans 'u's? Personally I'd hope search engines analyse the input and dumb down their results according to the care with which the search term has been phrased, to best suit the needs of the user.
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    shivang vyas

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    May 10 2012: i would like to see search engine becomes "visually & emotionally intelligent".

    search engine which understands humans emotions, feelings (may be from our behavior) ie visually intelligent.
    Means suppose whenever you are in some problem or you need any help then it should show possible solutions to solve that problems.
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    Robert Winner 50+

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    May 10 2012: I think that search engines main goal is to be able to find me if I get lost in the present or future.
    On that note it should work with the rescue engine to bring me home. Best. Bob.

  • David Jackson

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    May 7 2012: I think the search engine of the future is where Google is planning to take it - in your face with "augmented reality" aka Google glasses. There will be a huge commercial push in AI to make search predictive based on your experience only... if/when it gets good enough, it won't even be search it will be an incredible, real time enhancement of your knowledge, cognition, psychology, social network, senses and who knows what else.

  • Jean Nicholai

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    May 7 2012: Your search engine will need learning AI if it's going to keep up with the eventual evolution of Siri. Apart from that, we should probably want easily customizable cool interfaces, natural speaking inputs, and easy access/translation to all internet manifestations (including the "good" parts of the Underweb).
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    bigan gurung

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    May 6 2012: Something like Jarvis from Ironman would be more that I could ask for.
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    John Locke

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    May 5 2012: I would like a search engine that:

    Is100% secure
    Does not store my searches
    Is not censored
    Has two large data banks (One of only trustable sites/academic sites and one which has everything)
    Has a low amount of viruses in the websites on its database
    Finds my information quickly
    Easy to use

    A few search engines have some of my desired features but I have yet to see one that has all of them. Many search engines will store the searches typed in by their users, I dislike this and avoid those search engines if possible. Another thing I just hate about a search engine, is when it has nothing that I need! If I am doing a project for school and need some information it will drive me crazy to go from page to page of the search engine looking for some answer that shouldn't be THAT hard to find.

    This is more of a side note, suggestion. It would be amazingly wonderful if your search engine could site each website in MLA format. I believe this would get your search engine something unique that no one else has. Coding that could be very difficult but if a search engine had a large database and MLA citations of each website, I would preach about it until everyone I know is using it.

    Btw, feel free to respond to my comment. After all, these conversations are supposed to create CONVERSATION.
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    Bharath Kumar Kunjibettu 10+

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    May 4 2012: Hi Farrukh,
    Sometimes I feel Google or bing is doing a great job already and we should be content with what we have ...
    Anyway coming to the point, Google is planning for a voice input which is already in progress but its taking only American or British English Accents and not other country's English accent.So every country has a different way of speaking English. If thats hard ,an alternate way is to make Google's voice search engine work with that country's national language if its hard to implement different English accents...
    I am not a technology freak but other properties can be to include your history searches because most of the times we end up searching the same thing again and again . Hope my suggestion helps.Please feel free to respond to my comment ..

    Regards,
    Bharath

  • alexander kotau

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    May 3 2012: I hope some day I will have the possiblity to get " new knowledge" instead of " last retweets"

  • James McGuiness

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    Apr 24 2012: I would deem the Internet/World wide web a dead end technology flawed beyond hope and start something new with a different economic engine. The intrusion of commercialism has made the net a sort of welfare state where people expect everything for free and are treated as if they have no value. It's a big disappointment--fine for finding out trivia but lousy for establishing an identity and sense of worth. First this is to end the hegemony of alphanumerics. The idea of a "search engine" is reactive--it searches masses of numbers of files for alpha-numeric strings and brings back pages and pages of dumb results with all manner of bogus rule-bending stuff that doesn't belong there and the searcher is then responsible to try to separate gnat poop from black pepper. Lots of distractions and half-hearted junk.

    The better way is to go "anti-text"--use the globe as the interface like Google Earth. Develop "strata" in which commerce is one stratum, sports, politics, etc other strata. Search can be done where the human being narrows and excludes irrelevant stuff and then searches based upon tangible relevance to reality rather than mere presence of letters and numbers in a file. This opens the possibility to creating a better web site than the junk people flood the current net with. Serious presences in this new model do not accept failure to achieve value objectives and third parties can also eek out a place in reconciling the achievement of value point. Today's Internet is crap and not helping to create economy--it is just undermining it.
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    Derek Young 30+

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    Apr 21 2012: Reads my exact refined and specific issue that needs to be solved, but keeps that information into a database that deletes information every minute. =)
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    shivang vyas

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    Apr 20 2012: Also another important thing is, search result should be based on reliability, accuracy.
    Not based on page rank kind of things.
    But how and who decides reliability or accuracy thats a big question in my mind ????
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      Tofig Ahmed 500+

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      TED AttendeeTED TranslatorTEDx OrganizerAssociate
      Apr 21 2012: how would you measure reliability & accuracy ?
      - Imagine that there are 10,000 web pages talks about the subject of "TED Conferences", then definitely (or most likely) that those websites will give a link to ted.com at some point.
      - These links are considered a VOTE for ted.com from all those webpages.
      - The site that get the most links is considered as an Elected page for that specific keyword.
      - That website will get ranked first!

      Welcome to google page rank !!
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        shivang vyas

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        Apr 22 2012: i am not sure how much page rank reliable, ,may be because i don't know in detail how page rank calculated. but i have seen websites using tricky strategies to get their sites ranking better. Even though content is not much reliable. So yes, its really difficult to measure content reliability.
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    shivang vyas

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    Apr 20 2012: what i would like to see in future search engine is , good analytical capability. for eg. let say i write, apple vs google, or let say i am comparing two sports team, or sports players, then it should show user, all possible kind of comparisons..!

  • Dirk Gielen

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    Apr 20 2012: (Intellectual) honnesty or efficiency of showing atleast some most matching search results
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    Prasil Koirala

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    Apr 20 2012: With ever expanding information on the web, search engines have become a necessity. Roughly 60% of the people have set their home page to Google which stands in the acme of Web Search Service. Talking about a perfect search engine, you may consider the following features:

    > Has some sort of Intelligence installed so it can understand search queries beyond the words. For example, if people search for "watch songs of LMFAO" the search engine can be intelligent enough to list websites that allow watching LMFAO songs rather than searching for the tags in web pages.

    > Combine Web, Image, Video and Audio search. If people want to search Images, they can simply type "%Images>> Flood" rather that opening a separate page.

    > Preview of the Webpage in Search results is not necessary, you may include part of content of web page in search results.

    > Take time to name your search engine. The more popular the name, the more popular will be your search engine.

    For other information, don't hesitate to email me.
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    Verble Gherulous 20+

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    Apr 17 2012: All I want is a search engine that will do two things: 1) find me the name of a song when all i can remember is about three notes (and bear in mind I'm tone deaf, so my rendition of the tune is extremely incoherent) and 2) a search engine based on serendipity - that is, one that will find something for me not based on what other people like, nor even based on my own searches or preferences, but somehting that I might find interesting that I have never been exposed to before. Basically, the online equivalent of wandering through a used book store.
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      Marcel Venema

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      Apr 18 2012: I realy like your first idea, the programming needed to do this already exists in some form or another, it's like using copyright infringement scanning software for entertainment/commercial purposes.
      The non existing part, I expect, will be connected to the not hitting the correct pitch query though.

    • Brady Shober

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      Apr 18 2012: If you have a Google account, you can use the feature of personal results. I also believe there may be an app or program that allows you to hum the notes you know and it will find the most likely possibilities.
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        Verble Gherulous 20+

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        Apr 19 2012: Thanks for both of your responses. I'll check into the personal response feature, as well as the app. Beacuase, as you know, there is an app for everything!
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    Tofig Ahmed 500+

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    TED AttendeeTED TranslatorTEDx OrganizerAssociate
    Apr 17 2012: Here is what I would really like to see:
    - Search engines for "Images" that will filter results on their real contents and objects not with an associated tag.
    - Search engines for "Video" that will filter results based on their video contents, scenes, and audio and again not using an associated tag.

    These are the kind of search engines the web needs!
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      Farrukh Yakubov 50+

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      TED TranslatorAssociate
      Apr 17 2012: Those features are great. Any machine trying to perform those operations efficiently needs an artificial human intelligence or a logic of that scale. I'm sure one day we'll advance computer science to that level. Thanks!
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    Salim Solaiman 50+

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    Apr 16 2012: It will just bring out what one wants.......nothing more nothing less
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    Marcel Venema

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    Apr 16 2012: Hi Farrukh,

    Something I would like to see in a search engine for a change is a really great user interface.
    Something so good that a first time user can get better results than a seasoned user on a existing search engine. In short: For a fist time user to have the ability to achieve better results as feeding a today's search engine math.
    The prominent choice of in- or ex- cluding search from history would be important for every internet based activety. (during and after, for keeping off-time, well, just that. Manageable multiple history option perhaps?)

    For thoughts beyond would be a jargon/language course AND (online) courses linked to interest and skill (skill varies within factes of interest), with the chioce of paid and free (but recognised) and free could be in a unknown language.(i think that free always has to be an available option)

    Futurama featured an idea about this too (in ep8 s1), "The computer heard us talking about....and downloaded a...".

    Regards
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    Ken brown 30+

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    Apr 15 2012: What i would like to see is a search engine's GUI using a block category system.

    I'm not great for properly explaining myself but i will try.

    Using google and not interested in setting it up to a customized response(I haven't bothered to see if i can do it or it has it) but if i type a search for "UFO sightings 2012 northern hemisphere" What would i get? The usual bunch of mishmashed sites in a column.

    How about small block windows that tells you this search is broken down into countries i.e "UFO sightings 2012 northern hemisphere" AMERICA,i think you can work it out from there but i have a strange feeling that what i'm asking for is probably not feasible.
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      Farrukh Yakubov 50+

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      TED TranslatorAssociate
      Apr 15 2012: Hi Ken, thats a good idea. Scrolling down through the list of results to find what is needed, or moving from page to page is not a good user experience. Moreover, the gui style that u describe is totally feasible.
      Thanks for your response.
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    Jody Mak

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    Apr 15 2012: I think that search engine design is incredibly similar across the board. Take a look at google and yahoo. Everything is vertical up and down. I think that there is an extremely large movement to shift away from that. Now look at facebook, pinterest, tumblr, etc. These designs are vertically columned. I would like to see how this could adapt into search engines.

    Smart do I want it to be? I think we need to focus on the user. Many people don't know how to search efficiently. Based off of experience, they use the wrong choice of words. Or they use too few. Or they use too little. Search engines are smart enough. I think that people just need to use them more efficiently.

    How am I concerned about the privacy? Not really concerned. If I'm using a search engine, I don't expect them to make a case study on what I search up. The data collected should provide information about its users and using this information, I think you should cater to and predict user's actions.

    I scratch your back, you scratch mine? http://www.ted.com/conversations/10771/questionaire_on_power.html
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      Farrukh Yakubov 50+

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      TED TranslatorAssociate
      Apr 15 2012: Don't you think it is better to adjust search engine it self to understand user better, rather than restricting the user how he can search?
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        Jody Mak

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        Apr 15 2012: To elaborate, I do think search engines should understand the user better. I didn't say they shouldn't. Which is why I said I'm not concerned about the privacy. The search engines can exploit our information to understand the user better and predict how we would like our results from our searches.
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