Microsoft and the Game Angle on Search
November 30, 2010
I recall that the RAND outfit used game playing by humans as a way to inform software. Instead of artificial intelligence, the system sucked down what humans did and used that. I think I learned about this method when I was a freshman at the loser university I attended.
Proving that history tends to repeat itself, Microsoft is working on a new way to search for images. “Microsoft’s ImageFlow Turns Picture Search Into a 3-D Game” details some features of this new product.
ImageFlow is a game-centric search that places users in a star field of search results. Using their mouse or keyboard, users navigate further into the star field to drill down in the results. Traveling up or down in the star field shows results along the color-to-black-and-white scale. Traveling left to right brings results for related search queries; for example showing images of Janet Jackson with the results for the original search query of Michael Jackson.
This idea, if we understand the source article, has some warts.
Who’s to say that when I search for pictures of Michael Jackson, the next thing I want to search for are images of Janet?
Google is already making strides in improving image searches, and Microsoft is itching to catch up. Possibly their next effort will be a reimagining of something else that we’ve already seen.
Stephen E Arnold and Laura Amos, November 30, 2010
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That’s a blast from the past; remember Google Image Labeler?
http://images.google.com/imagelabeler/
[…] Microsoft and the Game Angle on Search Beyond Search: ImageFlow is a game-centric search that places users in a star field of search results. Using their mouse or keyboard, users navigate further into the star field to drill down in the results. […]