This week, Google was granted a patent for “Organizing search results in a topic hierarchy“. The abstract for the patent says: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including medium-encoded computer program products, for searching a data set and returning search results organized…
Sweet 16 For Wikis
Today is the 16th birthday of the web’s first wiki. The web owes a great debt to Ward Cunningham for starting the first wiki 16 years ago today at Wiki Wiki Web (although that is debatable, I suppose, for wiki…
How Qwiki Brings Interactivity to Information Consumption
Qwiki, the startup backed by Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin and YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim is, not surprisingly, gaining a lot of attention. The company can add winning TechCrunch Disrupt to its resume as well. So, what is this startup doing to gain all this attention?
Will Google Fill In Its Own Search Gaps, Demand Media-Style?
Last year, a Google patent application was released for “Identifying inadequate search content“. This is described as, “systems and methods for identifying inadequate search content are provided. Inadequate search content, for example, can be identified based on statistics associated with…
An Inside Look at wikiHow Content Quality Control
We recently spoke with Jack Herrick, founder of wikiHow, about how wikiHow’s quality differs from a site like eHow, which is often labeled a content farm with suspect quality. Herrick’s insight on this is particularly interesting, given that he used to run eHow, before selling to Demand Media.
Herrick has now shared more information with us about the quality control process at wikiHow. We’ll let you be the judge on how effective it is.
ICANN Launches New Searchable Wiki
ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) has launched a searchable wiki with the goal of providing the public with easy-to-access info on every "substantive resolution" approved by the Board of Directors.