FBLite: An Indication of Next Generation Web Indexing?

May 10, 2010

I wrote my May column for Information Today about user intermediated Web indexes. As you know, Google indexes via brute force and smart software. The approach was state of the art because it combined some AltaVista.com magic with a “clever” dose of algorithmic goodness. The problem is that as the volume of content to be indexed goes up, costs become an issue even for deep pocket outfits like Google. Consider the economic payoff of tapping into a pool of urls identified by those in a membership network as seeds for a Web index. There may be some cost savings because brute force, although sort of fun in a computer nerd play pen, can be side stepped. At some point, the value of the sites in StumbleUpon.com and Delicious.com will become more widely known. Now Facebook is in the selective indexing foyer, and the company may become more aggressive in Web search. Until Facebook makes its intentions more obvious, you may find FBLite.com interesting. I can envision more robust services, but FBLite.com points the way to the arsenal that could blow up Google. A single hit from FBLite or even Facebook won’t devastate the Google. But keep in mind that Apple, assorted lawyers, and even countries are aiming their lasers at the Mountain View company. Why index the entire Web when users can identify potential high value urls. A useful set of pointers without the brute force costs. Social methods with financial payoffs. Could this be a next generation Web indexing method with more legs than the Google spider?

Stephen E Arnold, May 10, 2010

A freebie.

Written by Stephen E. Arnold · Filed Under Financial, News, Search, Social

Comments

One Response to “FBLite: An Indication of Next Generation Web Indexing?”

Joachim Wermter on May 10th, 2010 4:08 pm

Hi Steven,

it seems the system is still in its infancy. After hitting the search button on a number of queries, the top of the result list displays the following warning eight times:

Warning: mysql_fetch_assoc(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in /var/www/lib/core.php on line 117

Seems like there is an MySQL DB behind that…

Joachim

p.s. I value your insights a lots

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Stephen E. Arnold monitors search, content processing, text mining and related topics from his high-tech nerve center in rural Kentucky. He tries to winnow the goose feathers from the giblets. He works with colleagues worldwide to make this Web log useful to those who want to go "beyond search". Contact him at sa [at] arnoldit.com. His Web site with additional information about search is arnoldit.com.