Written on 3rd June 2009
40 COMMENTS Zee, Editor in Chief at The Next Web, Principal at WeDoCreative.
First, some basic details:
Google Squared is the latest product to come out of the Google labs and the supposed answer to Wolfram Alpha. It’s a spin-off from Google’s core search engine and apparently aims to take the masses of unstructured data and return search results that are neatly organised for you, the user.
Whether there it does any of that, we’re about to find out.
What’s it good for?
First tests seem to show results returned in database format and frankly, some distance away from what our initial thoughts of Wolfram Alpha were. Google Squared initially seems perfect for ‘list’ based research, when you’re after already organised content rather than having to compile it yourself.
How to use it
Start off by naming a bunch of things; planets, birds, basketball players, for example. If there isn’t an existing table of data, Google will (hopefully) give you a few idea for column titles or give you the opportunity to enter custom titles.
Google will attempt to collate the data for each individual cell themselves but will obviously occasionally get it wrong and you’re there to correct them.
What’s really phenomenal is how easy Google have made it to add further information to the resulting database. Using planets as an example, you are given a default set of columns but are able to add additional columns such as “Date of Discovery” and Google will automatically insert the found data in the specified column.
Amusing mistakes
Google Squared is certainly not perfect and it makes some amusing mistakes. As reader PanMan has already noted in the comments to this post, entering ‘Amsterdam‘ currently gives a puzzling table of information about buildings in the city that confuses Amsterdam Arena with a piece of simulation software called ‘Arena’ by American company Rockwell Automation. The ‘Price’ column in the Square is particularly nonsensical. The ‘price’ of the Anne Frank House is actually the price of a print of the it while the ‘price’ of the Van Gogh Museum is actually the price of a book about the artist.
The data will undoubtedly become better, and mistakes will be fewer, as the human touch improves it.
As a first draft of Google’s approach to semantic search this is spectacular.
Written on 1st June 2009
40 COMMENTS Zee, Editor in Chief at The Next Web, Principal at WeDoCreative.
[Visit here. You can also try Bing out for your own country TLD (.co.uk, .fr, .jp etc..). ]
After admittedly only trying the new Microsoft search engine for 20 minutes, there really is no question in my mind that whilst Bing may have it’s 15 minutes of fame, the majority of users will unquestionably remain with Google – as will I.
There are some neat little touches, such as the video playback, and results do show rather fast, but the fact is there really isn’t enough distinguishing the two services. Results, so far, are not unlike some of the results I’ve seen in better new search engines (like DuckDuckGo) – rather good, but still not good enough to break the habits of my nimble fingers or stubborn mind.
A friend asked if I could give him a few tips to promote his movie online this morning. I decided to Google it and Bing it to compare results, Bing and Google. The results really do speak for themselves, as they should.
However, irrespective of features, habits and results, there is one major obstacle which, for now at least, will keep Microsoft at bay…
Family
Google have cleverly built a family of services, the majority of which put to shame anything that Microsoft has released online. The user retention levels (thanks to products like GMail, Docs, Gtalk, iGoogle, YouTube, Calendar) make Google a place where I spend 80% of my online time. One way or another, I’ll end up back on Google Search until I know for a fact – that another search engine is offering results I can’t find as easily on Google. (more…)
“A North Texas toddler is getting a much-needed kidney from his father Monday morning, and for the first time ever, the hospital is going to “tweet” via Twitter live from the operating room.”
and:
“Rise and shine! It’s a beautiful day for a kidney transplant. We’ll get started in about 45 minutes.”
Written on 21st November 2008
5 COMMENTS Zee, Editor in Chief at The Next Web, Principal at WeDoCreative.
After the awful news of the suicide live on streaming site Justin.tv yesterday, there has obviously been much discussion across the web. Tom Davis, Founder of YCombinator startup TicketStumbler, took it upon himself to post what can only be called a highly inappropriate joke on YCombinator’s Hacker News site.
It started with this message (I have intentionally not re-posted here) which immediately caused large scale condemnation from other members of the site. For those of you who aren’t regular visitors to Hacker News, comments work similarly to how Digg’s do – other members can vote comments or up or down. One member commented that they would not be using TicketStumbler.com in the future and as you can see below, a number of other members agreed.
Approximately 7 hours later Davis makes a public apology, which can be read below:
I would like to take a moment to publicly apologize for what I said in the Justin.tv thread. If you’ve decided to hate me forever, haven’t read it, or simply aren’t of the opinion that it’s a big deal you may stop reading now.
Upon returning home, I read a message from Dan (my co-founder) stating that, in hindsight, he felt it was a bad thing to say and, quote, “I feel sick to my stomach.” I knew then that no matter how serious I felt the infraction was, I had try my damnedest to clear it up. (more…)
Written on 3rd June 2009
40 COMMENTS 
[
Written on 18th May 2009
Found on 
![You can watch the Next Web 2009 LIVE at http://live.thenextweb.com [shame you couldnt make it...]](http://thenextweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/picture-122-600x350.png "picture-122")
The Next Web Blog is closely associated with The Next Web Conference which is held annually in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. At this event speakers from all over the world come together to talk about, and show off, the future of the Web. (More info 
