Just when we thought we had it all covered, comes the unexpected which of course proves one thing above everything else:
In the Internet World, always expect…
… the unexpected.
Indeed…
A New Search Engine has been created to serve results from searches based on social media content!
Indeed, an Israeli-American company, JULPAN, recently acquired by twitter, the social networking giant is reportedly able to sort information available on social networks and transform it into useful and relevant information to users.
The goal of Julpan is to access the thousands of social activities across tweets, facebook likes and RSS feeds, sort them in order to provide relevant content. And all this gathering of information is done live, so that what you say on twitter, whom you like on facebook and what your RSS feed includes will be immediately compiled to join others in your social network neighborhood (and theirs) to formulate search results that will reflect your own opinion and actions.
Pretty cool no?
Says Ori Allon, the founder of this project:
“By looking at what links you share, what people you communicate with publicly, and what topics you often talk about, our engine is able to tell whether you’re a foodie that loves pasta, a soccer fan that loves FC Barcelona, or a passionate musician that loves The Beatles.”
Allon is not a new comer to internet search though. After completing a PhD, he developed a search algorithm called Orion, which Google duly purchased.
“The algorithm tried to track the most relevant pages for the search term, not by popular measures like the number of links a page has, but by its content,” Allon told Israeli websire Calcalist. “For example, by searching ’4th of July’ you get results about fireworks and concerts - things that people say and mean in the context of the American independence day.”
After leaving the Search Engine giant, Allon founded Julpan, and his project is due to be launched in the new few months.
“Nowadays, people share so much information on social networks,” says Allon. “We do something similar to what Google has done in the search field, but in social media. For example, you can search Julpan for a restaurant, event or anything that happens today and get amazing results. The source is other users’ content, so the information available can’t be found anywhere else.”
Rather than a search engine, Allon views his product as a discovery engine. Indeed the search may not necessarily be in the traditional form of a search string (one or more words) but can be a current location, what you did minutes ago, which program you were watching on TV, a chat with friends….
“Based on the information available on [Twitter] we can know where you are and what you and your friends wrote in the last hour,” says Allon. “The beauty of this technology is that it is based on context of your location and activities. The most important thing for us is to understand the relationship between the user activity and bringing him information that is relevant for him at that moment.”
Here is an example of what the social media search engine can do:
“A few weeks ago, Katy Perry signed albums a few blocks from our office. We knew that because many people that normally don’t mention her started mentioning her, her locations and what she’s doing now. That immediate information cannot be retrieved by any other service. It’s a great way for tourists and locals to find out about interesting things that happen right know in their area.”
According to the developer, no one has yet developed a similar product because “The information is out there but no one yet took it and tried to make it useful. Facebook and Twitter have the information but not the means. Google has the analytics abilities but not the information…”
And talking about Google, according to Allon: “if Google had Facebook’s information we would have seen amazing things. That’s the main reason they launched Google+.”
Are you frightened yet?
Thank you for an eye opening article, Stevie. I can’t say I am frightened at this, maybe because I have always thought the internet is this way. I don’t see it as a particularly scary idea, but I don’t write things on the internet that I don’t want other people to see either.
I am not really a conspiracy person, I just think that everything is already hooked together. And for most things I will probably still use Google, mostly because I search for information more than opinions and I think (maybe naively) that Google is the best place for that.
Actually I wasn’t talking in terms of conspiracy. Just a thought that we involve ourselves in social media, then what say belongs public property. The difference with this particular website is that we are actually part of the process which is then used to serve search results.
Hello Stevie…
There are so many new platforms it’s hard to keep up with them all.
I hadn’t heard of this one thanks for sharing it!
I was just reading yesterday on Mashable about Tagged…
“According to comScore‘s latest social networking statistics, for the month of March, the San Francisco based site Tagged engages users like no other social networking service. According to ComScore data, each time a Tagged user visited the site, he or she stuck around for 12.1 minutes which trailed only Tumblr (14.7 minutes) and defeated Facebook (10.9 minutes). Also, Tagged users visited an average of 18 times each day during March, next to Facebook’s average of 36 visits per vistor.”
I’d not heard of Tagged either! How about you Stevie?…
That is a cool new kind of search engine, Stevie. I think that this is gong to be the wave of the future, and as more and more people are turning to the internet for almost everything we are going to see probably even competitors who are going to make more search engines that are going to use all the social media uploads.
It is going to be a very interesting time on the internet.
Very interesting Stevie. I’m pretty laid back when it comes to anything ‘new’ on the internet. I guess even in the short time I’ve been blogging I’ve seen too many people freak out about change and personally I think the dynamics of working online pretty much demands constant innovation – in fact, that’s what makes it fun!
Always frightening when search and social comes together. Always! It is a very interesting change in how we use the internet to see these two forces collide.
This comes right as Google launches it’s own Knowledge Graph that begins to put words into context. These guys seem to be doing a great job with that data and this looks promising. Google is certain to learn some tricks from them!
Kim
PS: Your math check breaks under browser caching, something to keep an eye on as it could cost you comments.
Thanks for highlighting the problem with the math check. I’ll have to change that.
Yes, frightening is probably the word for those of us in the SEO world.
It seems that those who constantly engage on line and don’t have a life are the winners here! Probably means that companies with big pockets to hire banks of commentors are going to get to the top of the serps in this one. Not sure where it leaves the little guy. I guess there will always be a place for innovation and speed of reaction to new technology.
Hi Stevie,
Thanks for sharing the upcoming change. The entire concept is quite fascinating and at one time in my life it would have seemed scary. Truth? If quality content is more accessible, and the technology is used for the good, I’m okay with it. The world is not physically getting smaller, but we are a global community whether we like it or not. If these kinds of changes are for the better and higher good, then in the long run, people will benefit. The internet changes every day and one thing it has taught me is to “go with the flow.” I always try to look at the positive aspects of change, so this one is quite interesting and I am very curious to see the outcome.
Raena Lynn
Excellent post that Raena. The rules of the game are being altered constantly. All we have to do is adapt… Hopefully before they change again!
Seems pretty cool and useful! Can’t wait to see it in action. Thanks for sharing this new technology!
This sounds exciting to me. I know of other small companies that were trying to do the same thing, but bombed out. This one looks like a “winner” and will keep Google on it’s toes!
There is nothing better than good competition.
Thanks for the heads up
Donna
Stevie,
Moving at the speed of technology, I think is the saying. You can’t blink without another service to speed up life. I think we really need to slow it down a bit. I don’t think the human mind is capable of incorporating so much information. Sometimes I just want to sit quietly in a forest and listen to the nothing.
What scares me is getting a smart phone. I’ve been resisting for obvious reasons. Dick Tracy is rolling around in his grave.
Thanks, Stevie,
RICK