Forum Moderators: bakedjake
[mooter.com...]
I kinda a like it. It is a very impressive start! (it's one of those clustering/kartoo like engines)
[mooter.com...]
"Users shouldn't have to work hard to find what they want. Mooter sets out to solve the problems of most search engines by understanding the psychology of how users interact with information.
"Mooter analyses the choices you make while searching, then reorders the results based on what you are actually looking for at that moment without you having to go back and rephrase your exact needs."
So instead of giving users long lists of scrambled results, Mooter displays simple, sensible categories of information. As users search, the algorithms shuffle the results in the background, ensuring that more relevant results are displayed.
Large search engines spend a huge amount of resources (not to mention money) on quality spidering. Hope they have a plan on that.
ha! who would wanna be google?
If Google was so motivated they could probably write an interface to their database like this within a few months.
(and there already is touchgraph [webmasterworld.com])
They clearly weren't ready for some serious hitting, but neither does it sound as if they expected they needed to be.
That 46kb logo cant possibly be doing them any good...
It may be too early to tell but my early impressions are that search speed is very slow particularly on 3+ word phrases.
It's way to early to call Mooter a 'flaming gala' ;)
don't go back, we'll be right away!
Shouldn't that be the other way around?
"don't go away, we'll be right back!"
Hope they index me correctly :)
I wasn't cutting them any slack because they don't come off sounding very humble on their site or in any press, apparently without having much to show for it. We'll really know soon enough when they are on their own spidering database. And you don't just get interviewed out of the blue, someone sent out press releases so they knew this was going to happen very soon.
Perhaps I owe an apology for being intensely critial but I guess I just have a thing against marketing hype because it cost me my last decent corporate job (marketing management ran them into the ground). But read some of these interviews [gigablast.com] in comparison to understand what I mean about humble, and I've already found his work quite useful as an alternative search.
I personally dont need people telling me what i should use.
I hate to be a “mooter” myself but really can’t see this catching on, although I’m well up for some good Google competition, IMHO I don’t think MOOTER’s the answer.
Well I hope that does not catch on. I'm not doing too well on it.
It appears they fixed the time out of dynamic IPs, but now I'm getting other people's search results sometimes. For example under an open source software, I clicked on "tutorials" and ended up with "rugby world cup" results. I clicked on "software" and ended up with "pci coal blast furnace" results. Even when I wasn't sent off like that, most of the sites were relevant to the search terms but didn't relate well to the clusters.
That must be th understatement of the decade.
I also understand the home made wooden scooter is not a threat to Ferrari at this point.
What they have should a sufficient demonstration for financers to step up the gas.
IMHO, plan to optimize for mooter in 6 months.
In the meanwhile, those clusters can be very useful in showing us to target keywords, not just for Mooter but SEs overall
If they don't speed their engine up, its gonna be a mess...
P.S - I'm confused with the results, yesterday, it gave me the results with the descriptions and today it gives me the results without it.
I prefer Kartoo for clustering even though its a META.
Sid
(This message was all IMHO)
Who wants a search engine that replies with a question - the public will not want to make decisions - they just want an answer.
- the public will not want to make decisions - they just want an answer.
I disagree. These clustering engines have an unique advantage for "single keyword" users. For e.g., if a user types in 'apple', G would bring in Mac, but the clustering engine would bring in both apple as in Mac and as in a fruit clusters. If i am interested in apple as in fruit, Mac results are useless to me.
recall the classic example of 'jaguar' too
But I strongly believe that people now are used to the "type in one or two words and immediately get an answer"-procedure. So for any engine with a different interface it will become extremly difficult to reach the majority of surfers.
Just think of your keyboard: QWERTZ (or QWERTY) isn't the best of all imaginable layouts, but who would try to change it?
Or think of your car: Are the steering-wheel or the throttle control really the best way to control a car? I doubt that, but no car manufactory would dare to come up with another interface.
the public will not want to make decisions - they just want an answer.
When I showed mooter to three "civilians", two of them were totally baffled by the cluster display - no idea what it meant. The third clicked through for a while, then observed that she had forgotten what she was looking for, and exited.
If users have to be educated before they can properly use the product, I fear mooter may be facing a big challenge.
My experience has been that the most expensive and frustrating advertising campaigns possible are those that attempt to "educate" the public. Trying to change the public's established attitudes/behavior is a lot harder than getting them to buy brand A instead of brand B.
I see no overriding advantage to mooter that could carry them over that hurdle.
Too bad - I sure would like to see a new SE hit the big time.
she had forgotten what she was looking for
The concept however is still promising. The argument that users don't want to be educated is in fact the problem clustering tries to tackle.
Users don't want to type in long queries, let alone boolean operators. They want to type in [name of city] and get what they want: hotels, pictures, maps, addresses, short facts...
That's what clustering is all about.
The main obstacle to overcome is a really clever algo, likely using lots of linguistic intelligence. From the searches I ran Mooter strikes me as having made a huge step forward in that regard.
Next question is how to utilize clustering in the best possible way. And I have to agree, presenting the user with a graphical interface may not be the best idea.
Using clustering in addition to regular serps might work better.
But that's all to be seen, and I certainly wish any new intersting search engine concept best of luck.
That must be th understatement of the decade.I also understand the home made wooden scooter is not a threat to Ferrari at this point.
how to utilize clustering in the best possible way
To me, i like teoma's way of presenting the results in the side. [you can try the search refinements for apple or jaguar in teoma]
I'm all for new search technology but don't waste my time with publicly funded crap that has no hope of ever competing with people that actually know what they are doing.
Mooter is simply the worst search facility I have ever seen.
