Social searching with “Searchles”
Wow! It seems like only yesterday that I was giving a search engine taste test. (Ahh… I feel so nostalgic.)
Searchles(R) (http://www.searchles.com/) — the intelligent social search platform that gets smarter every time you use it — today unveiled a series of new enhancements. These include a streamlined user interface, more robust search capability across the platform — such as advanced search algorithms that measure actual rather than simulated popularity — and the ability to conduct highly segmented searches of personal and content networks. Together, these and many other features allow users to discover, connect, share and collaborate by giving them more control of their experience.
“Social bookmarking sites like Digg or Del.icio.us, and hybrid content portals like Netscape, have a ‘herding cats’ mentality focused on building a critical mass of users around ‘bells and whistles’ without mastering an integrated intuitive search from the start,” said veteran search technologist Chris Seline, founder and CTO of Searchles. “Searchles’ approach empowers users from the very beginning with highly personalized, interactive and relevant experiences built to scale around their interests and intentions.”
Launched in beta less than three months ago, Searchles turbocharges popular Internet tools like bookmarking, tagging and sharing content by fully integrating every feature with in-depth search functionality across the platform. It is the only site that allows search for content or users by keyword, tag, or at the user’s option — both — through a dual box format which provides great flexibility.
Searchles also automatically indexes the full text on every content page submitted making the content completely searchable and instantly available to the community. Together, dual box search and automatic indexing make it much easier for users to quickly zero in on content that interests them, discover other users with common interests, and collaborate or interact.
New search features at Searchles include advanced algorithms measuring actual popularity rather than the simulated popularity algorithm popularized by Google PageRank(TM). For example, a popular site like Yahoo provides links to sites all over the web. But when Yahoo provides a link to another website, Google’s PageRank(TM) calculates that link as very relevant too. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean that Internet surfers agree. Searchles’ algorithms calculate actual popularity based on how people connect to each other and how many people bookmark a certain site, returning results that provide a more accurate measure of relevancy.
Today, Searchles also introduced an intuitive approach to social search that allows users to drill down and conduct searches based on their own content submissions, groups, friends, or friends of friends. For example, a user interested in finding news and web resources related to ‘identity theft’ or the ‘wireless industry’ may want to focus only on their personal submissions. Or perhaps they would like to search across a group dedicated to the issue where content has been posted by many users. Or they may want to just focus on content submissions by specific users or colleagues — also known as Searchles “friends” — or maybe delve even further by searching across friends of friends. All of this is possible and unique to Searchles, empowering users to focus specifically on the content that interests them, harnessing the collective brainpower of groups and friends they trust when they need it.
What else can you do at Searchles? Anybody can view postings or search at Searchles, but registered users have additional privileges. Registered users can submit content from anywhere on the web using the “Searchle It” bookmarklet easily installed in the Internet browser toolbar. This includes links to news, blogs or any other webpage users find interesting as well as the ability to embed YouTube and Google videos and watch them directly within Searchles.
Users organize content to make it easy to retrieve and for others to discover by assigning “tags” or keywords that have meaning to them and by providing an optional description. Content can also be organized by user- created “groups” based on topical areas of interest. “Tag clouds” on the home page, user profile page, group page and search results page provide a visually intuitive way to immediately focus in on hot topics, areas of interest, and trends related to everyone, anyone, a particular group or subject. Tags and tag clouds are particularly valuable for research, discovery, collaboration and knowledge synthesis.
Making “friends” and interacting with others who share common interests is also easy at Searchles. Discover friends by searching to see if they are already members. Find new friends by searching for topics of interest or by searching your friends’ friends. Add friends with just one mouse click. Invite friends to join Searchles. Share postings with your circle of friends within and outside of Searchles via internal messaging. Create groups and invite friends to join, or just join groups of interest. Comment on and discuss postings publicly so everyone can follow the dialogue, or use Searchles messaging to discuss postings privately. It’s entirely up to you.
Over the next several weeks, Searchles will be introducing new features such as user ratings and private groups — just a hint of what’s to come. In the meantime, check us out at http://www.searchles.com/, and tell us what you think or what features you want by emailing us at: feedback@searchles.com. Want to be a partner? Contact us at partners@searchles.com.
About Searchles
Searchles(R) (http://www.searchles.com/) is the intelligent social search platform that gets smarter every time you use it. The technology is an evolution of the search engine DumbFind(TM) (http://www.dumbfind.com/), developed by veteran search technologist Chris Seline. Both brands, still in beta, are wholly-owned by DumbFind, Inc., a privately-held company based in Washington, D.C. backed by angel investors.
NOTE: *PageRank(TM) is a trademark of Google and is not affiliated with DumbFind, Inc. or its brands.
Contact: Amy Smith of WhiteOak Communications, +1-703-200-8218, or asmith@whiteoakcom.com, for Searchles.
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