Start Your Year with Your Content Radar On
January 2, 2011
I am concerned about the quality of information which appears in public Web search results. I was fooling around with queries for the “new” silver bullet, which is made of Fool’s Gold. You know this search revolution as taxonomy. Everyone wants a taxonomy because key word indexing usually disappoints the inept searcher. A taxonomy, therefore, is one way to allow a user to slam in a word and maybe get a “use for” or “broader term” to make the results more “relevant.”
But a taxonomy goes only so far. The depleted uranium bullet is one that uses “facets”, another faerie dust term. The hapless user clicks on a descriptor or bound phrase that is broader than a taxonomy entry and magic happens. The results will contain something even the junior college graduate can use.
There is a level above taxonomy and facets too. This is the Disneyworld of predictive search. The idea is that the “system knows best.” The user does not have to do much more than fire up the app or poke her nose against the touch pad’s icon and the system predicts and delivers the needed information. Sounds great.
The problem, gentle reader, is that indexing systems don’t know when the content is addled, wrong, shaped, or just chock full of crapola. Let me illustrate two examples from an outfit with Web sites as JazdTech.com. Yep, “Jazd”, not “jazzed.” That’s a clue that I notice. Some search systems are not as picky.
I use the little known metasearch system Devilfinder.com. Be alert. Turn on “safe search.” Now run the query for taxonomy software vendors and in the results list you find these promising links:
There you go. “2011 Top Taxonomy Software Companies in Pharma.” Right on the money. The problem is that the results are not germane to anything remotely close to taxonomy software narrowed to pharmaceutical applications. When I clicked on the link on New Year’s Eve, I saw this Web page:
It looks okay but the links are useless and so far off the keywords I used for the query that I laughed out loud. Okay, a metasearch system can make mistakes.
I ran the query “2011 Top Taxonomy Software Companies” on Google and I was greeted with a display that contained not one or two entries to JazdTech.com’s lousy content but there were many listings.
After the ads that Google feeds upon were 11 hits to pages which contained irrelevant information which superficially look like content.
What’s my point?
It is easy to run queries which return hits to Web pages which are like the sugar free candy for dieters. The goodies look like the real thing, but are not. That’s okay when fooling the snack addict. For online searching, users expect nutritious information.
JazDTech.com is one outfit benefiting from the indifference of “real” search and metasearch systems. The screenshot below contains lots of information which I find questionable. I can guard myself against most flawed Web content? Others may not so equipped.
The domain is registered to an outfit called JAZD Markets, allegedly operating out of Hampstead, New Hampshire. There appears to be a reference to a street address in Andover, Massachusetts on Dundee Park Drive. The “service” is hosted on my favorite outfit Hostgator.com. The staff at JAZD Markets list themselves on LinkedIn, but provide modest information about the quality control in use for the firm’s software listings. Perhaps one purchases a listing and selects a category in which to appear? I will have to check out Firehouse BBQ and Pig Roast when I am next in Andover, a lovely place.
The problem is that some researchers may waste valuable time or use information that will make their search and retrieval cannon explode in their face.
Stephen E Arnold, January 1, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
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