Noesis noesis is a Greek word meaning understanding as “the ability to sense or know something, immediately”.
Two new improvements to Google results pages.
Today we’re rolling out two new improvements to Google search. The first offers an expanded list of useful related searches and the second is the addition of longer search result descriptions — both of which help guide users more effectively to the information they need.
More and better search refinements
Starting today, we’re deploying a new technology that can better understand associations and concepts related to your search, and one of its first applications lets us offer you even more useful related searches (the terms found at the bottom, and sometimes at the top, of the search results page).
The “semantic Web” does not sound like it’s fun and easy to use, but it could make surfing Web 3.0 a more rewarding and interactive experience. Some believe it could even lead to a new form of artificial intelligence.
The idea behind the semantic Web, very broadly, is that things on the Internet will be described with descriptor languages so that computers can “understand” what they are.
An object might be a marked as a car part or a person, for instance. If objects were thus identified, an enormous network of linked data would emerge and machines, with their vast processing speeds, could suggest surprising and useful links that the human mind could never come up with, posing the possibility of a new sort of artificial intelligence.
The semantic Web is considered a key part of the upcoming “Web 3.0.” It’s starting to occur here and there, but widespread adoption is still a long way off.
A pair of German researchers have created an experimental kiosk that lets you easily use semantic Web capabilities — even if you have no idea what they are. All that is needed is an iPhone and a finger with which to drag icons around on the kiosk’s touch screen.
The kiosk takes advantage of the fact that MP3 files are “things” that have already been described in ways that machines can understand. That’s because they have ID3 tags, which supply information on the artist and album.
The next big stage in the evolution of the Internet, according to many experts and luminaries, will be the advent of the Semantic Web–that is, technologies that let computers process the meaning of Web pages instead of simply downloading or serving them up blindly. Microsoft’s acquisition of the semantic search enginePowerset earlier this year shows faith in this vision. But thus far, little Semantic Web technology has been available to the general public. That’s why many eyes will be on Twine, a Web organizer based on semantic technology that launches publicly today.
Developed by Radar Networks, based in San Francisco, Twine is part bookmarking tool, part social network, and part recommendation engine, helping users collect, manage, and share online information related to any area of interest. For the novice, it can be tricky figuring out exactly where to start. But for experienced users, Twine can be a powerful way to research a subject collaboratively or find people with common interests, with the usual features of a bookmarking site augmented by Twine’s underlying semantic technology.
In this age of data abundance, good information and insights are rare. Which sources of information and whose insights would you trust? Leaving the interpretation of data to derive information and insights to the media and we’ll risk a skewed perspective; leaving it to other people and we’ll simply miss out on valuable insights that they withhold.
It is thus important that everyone be able to deal with data themselves: gather data, sift through data, integrate data, interpret data, make informed conclusions, and present their findings to their peers and to the world.
