-information overload-

There is a massive amount of content on the internet. How massive? This massive. How are we to find anything in this sea of data, this ocean of info? One of the longest-running services to offer a solution is Google. It has defined search engines for years now, outlasting most competition. It has evolved in countless ways, with an adaptable, innovative company working hard behind the scenes. But is it still the best way to find information online?

The answer is not clear-cut. Google excels in documenting all sites, right down to the most obscure, nested page. Forum threads, fan listings, orphaned sites, none can avoid Google’s all-seeing gaze. It catalogues any page referencing your search term, then presents it to you with the most relevant hits at the top. Useful for broad blanket searches. But the information presented is barely coherent, even moreso if the term is ambiguous. Complex search modifiers can help the experienced user narrow down his hunt. But the average user doesn’t know this – they often ask literal questions in the search bar. (Incidentally, have you heard about the infamous AOL search leak? The contents are hilarious, disgusting, bizarre and/or profoundly disturbing. Lose your faith in humanity right here!)

Let’s look at other repositories of information. Another project that is moving full steam ahead is Wikipedia, the encyclopedia anyone can edit. Its strength lies in its openness; anyone can add a tidbit of info or correct a typo, pushing articles towards perfection through countless iterations. And therein lies its weakness as well; Wikipedia urges its editors to use a neutral point-of-view (NPOV) when editing articles – quite impossible really, for fallible, opinionated humans, i.e. everyone. If you look behind the curtain, edit wars are rife, personal attacks are exchanged and much drama ensues, whenever two people don’t agree on a ‘fact’. Smart vandals can subtly alter a page to misinform, and go undiscovered for ages. Nonetheless, it covers a vast multitude of topics, giving comprehensible summaries and external links. This helps to serve as a springboard for further research, while Google more or less tosses you into the deep end.

Digressing a bit: There are many criticisms of Wikipedia, but the one which irks me most is Andrew Keen’s book, The Cult of the Amateur. I haven’t read the book itself, but the gist of it is that sites like YouTube and Wikipedia give voices to the unwashed masses, who then fill the internet with amateurish drivel. He dismisses the whole Web 2.0 movement as destroying culture. He is the elitist academic – to him, no reliable information can come from someone without a bevy of degrees. While his claims are not entirely baseless (spend any amount of time on YouTube and you’ll see why) he fails to see the umpteen more benefits that user generated content has, which far outweigh its flaws.

Back on topic. I heard about an interesting site, Wolfram|Alpha, from Chiang Fong. It’s a computational knowledge engine. What? I hear you going. Well, it has a huge internal database of facts, figures, dates, etc. And it allows you to compare and compute various sets of data in different ways. Take a look at this example, which compares the statistics of three stars.  Other nuggets of info you can look up: paths of hurricanes, GDP of countries, taxonomy of species. Invaluable for researching homework. It behaves very differently from a search engine, which may be confusing to new users. You might have to test out various ways of phrasing queries before getting a response. Actually it’s best to watch this introductory video by Stephen Wolfram himself first. If used right, it’s quicker than looking up assorted Wikipedia pages just for a certain fact you need. For the geeky: you can read an analysis and critique of the natural language input system here. One thing’s for sure: it’s very useful for helping with math homework…

And now, something for casual browsing. Kosmix is a slick-looking search engine that pulls results from top sites and compiles it into a easily readable columned page. When I stumbled upon this, my immediate response was “This looks better than Google search”. It seems to work best on hot topics, recent events and elements of pop culture. For example, a search on Michael Jackson will turn up a synopsis of his life from Wikipedia, photos and videos from a variety of sources, Amazon and eBay links to related products, and even recent Tweets about him. The impressive presentation makes Google search results look dated in comparison. As a result I find myself using Kosmix more frequently every day. As for coding, Kosmix’s backend focuses on a pulling data from a handful of reliable sites, while Google’s backend works to rank any and all pages with a complex algorithm. They operate differently, and should be used as such.

Speaking of Twitter, it’s been catching on like wildfire in recent months. While I’m not going to register anytime soon – I have nothing to share that is pertinent enough to require real-time updates; plus you might notice that I tend to long-form writing – it’s interesting to see the impact it has had on the dissemination of news. In my Media Production class, we learn about the technical side of video production as well as how media shapes our world. Our teacher let us listen to this podcast, which made me rethink my stance on Twitter. Previously I found it rather pointless. Now it sounds like an excellent way to spark an underground revolution, one unbeknownst to tech-illiterate censors. It’s putting the power of the press into the everyman’s hands. To hell with state censorship and oppression of free speech. I’m looking at you too, China. And Singapore, my glorious homeland, too. The laws about blogging already piss me off…

Er, okay, the Iranian election may be a one-off event. What can it do for the rest of us? On reconsideration I realized Twitter does have its uses. It might be likened to an SMS mailing list. You could use it invite friends to a party or other event. Or you could use it for social bookmarking (another thing I haven’t gotten into, mostly because nobody I know does it. I usually share links manually, with people whom the link is relevant to, over Live Messenger). Or instead of tweeting, you can just read the bajillions of new tweets, keeping a finger on the pulse of breaking news, or for following celebrities and friends. Plus, a multitude of services have sprung up to accompany Twitter, adding a host of functionalities.

Also, take a look at Mashable, which might assist in understanding the myriad of sites and services mentioned here.

New media is rapidly evolving, and there is a reason why newspapers and magazines are drying up. RSS feeds/readers are so much more efficient at fetching news relevant to your interests, and cheaper (i.e. FREE!) than subscribing to a print publication. One might say portability is a factor, but this argument is made increasingly obsolete by netbooks, smartphones and 3G (Anyone know a way to get 3G service for an iPod Touch? I’d like to be able to use Google Maps, check my mail, etc. wherever I want). When I see FHM and similar stuff on magazine racks, I laugh to myself that people are still PAYING for this after the advent of the internet… But that might just be the elitist voice of a privileged middle-class kid growing up in a city-state during the information age.

A personal recommendation: I am using Firefox, a most excellent browser, mostly for its vast and ever-increasing addon library/community. Most, if not all of the sites and services discussed here have some kind of integration with Firefox. Try it out, see what arcane combination improves your daily web-trawling.

Yeesh, the link density of these posts is getting quite scary. Tell me if you spot a broken link or two. Maybe I should stick more images in next time for counterbalance. Hmm, I did say I was going to write shorter posts. I seemed to have reneged on my own promise rather quickly. Anyway: I’d love to hear your comments on the topic. Really! It’s the incentive for my writing. Much gratitude if you read through the whole thing and share a thought.

~ by blazerknight on 12/07/2009.