Creating Highly Specific Communities around Search Queries
To some people, it has been somewhat controversial that we combined our quality search and the social networking (Meet Others who asked the same query) to provide the users a more comprehensive picture. However, this combination uniquely enables the creation of highly specific discussion environments and communities.
The best examples come from the medical world where people suffer from specific conditions and they have questions and stories to tell. For example, consider the query below:
what infections are caused by mrsa?
The “quality-stamped” search results of hakia are shown below where credible sources are ranked at the top. And the user can click on the MEET OTHERS button to jump to the discussion room.
|
There are several discussion rooms on this subject ranging from the specific question “what infections are caused by mrsa?” to more general MRSA rooms. With our new “ADD VIDEO” option, the rooms are much more animated than before as seen below.
|
There is no other social networking environment today where one can find (or create) highly specific rooms, to the point of the exact question to define the community. Usually groups are formed in more general topic rooms, and the users must scan through conversation threads to locate the specific interest. The increasing participation is a sign that this combination offers a unique value to the Web searcher.
Give it a try!
May 2nd, 2008 at 11:14 am
Hakia seems to have dropped any mention of Semantic Search!
The world doesn’t need DMOZ Search or Wiki Search which is what Hakia seems to be aiming at these days.
OK so the VCs are probably looking for short term results but please, get back to the semantic script.