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More structured queries that those that main search engines offer. For example: kayak, travelocity, etc. Bing bought out farecast for this reason. These kind

More structured queries that those that main search engines offer. For example: kayak, travelocity, etc. Bing bought out farecast for this reason. These kinds of queries can't be done easily if the only input a user can provide is in one text box. That isn't to say that web search engines could tackle these areas, but they wouldn't have as much of a head start in the technology.

photon_off 16y ago
Very good point about the single textbox limitation. I've been working a lot in this space, and I think there needs to be a protocol implemented beyond OpenSearch, which is essentially limited to 1 text box, with some nice additions (i.e. you can specify a query suggestion URL as well). There should be some sort of superset to OpenSearch. I'm suggesting an AbstractForm protocol which would allow websites to export their basic query functionality into an an XML document. Relevant providers (such as Ubiquity, and the thing I'm working on that will be launched soon), would be able to use this protocol to integrate the provider's AbstractForm in a convenient interface. With Kayak, for example, AbstractForm might specify a "from" field of type "city", a "to" field of type "city", and some other optional fields (date, round trip, etc). You could then have a service which implements this however it chooses... perhaps a program with loads of AbstractForm interfaces loaded, and when you start typing "kayak" it knows to show you "To" and "From" fields, etc. I really believe this type of thing would be a major boon to the internet.
bl4k 16y ago
"flight to LA", "hotel room in New York next weekend", "metallica san jose tickets" etc. will return structured results, in both Google and Bing, soon I feel. Google bought ITA and Bing bought Farecast for the purpose of getting direct access to this data. Since they can't web crawl this type of data, I would expect more acquisitions and/or licensing deals - such as the deal with Twitter. Google has a decent foundation already with queries such as 'population of london' '<movie name>' (which shows local theatre times) and 'weather 94000' etc. Full list here: http://www.google.com/landing/searchtips/#helpcenter http://www.google.com/landing/searchtips/#helpcenter
- gregable 16y ago
  Those queries don't even begin to give enough information. Flight to LA from where, when, how long, economy/first, what times of the day, etc. Hotel room in New York next weekend which days, smoking or not, upscale or not, which part of new york, which new york? Metallica san jose tickets are closer and could generally get you the venue's page that will then ask which showing, which seats, how many tickets together, etc.
  - bl4k 16y ago
    Google would use all the information it has to make assumptions about defaults to display. When you click-through to the site to make the booking or to drill in further you can specify the details. eg. 'flight to LA' can show : SFO -> LAX Tod Tom Wed Thu Fri Orbitz $187 $210 $299 $330 $450 Travelocity $200 $350 - $89 - United.com etc. etc.

photon_off 16y ago

Very good point about the single textbox limitation. I've been working a lot in this space, and I think there needs to be a protocol implemented beyond OpenSearch, which is essentially limited to 1 text box, with some nice additions (i.e. you can specify a query suggestion URL as well). There should be some sort of superset to OpenSearch. I'm suggesting an AbstractForm protocol which would allow websites to export their basic query functionality into an an XML document. Relevant providers (such as Ubiquity, and the thing I'm working on that will be launched soon), would be able to use this protocol to integrate the provider's AbstractForm in a convenient interface. With Kayak, for example, AbstractForm might specify a "from" field of type "city", a "to" field of type "city", and some other optional fields (date, round trip, etc). You could then have a service which implements this however it chooses... perhaps a program with loads of AbstractForm interfaces loaded, and when you start typing "kayak" it knows to show you "To" and "From" fields, etc. I really believe this type of thing would be a major boon to the internet.

bl4k 16y ago

"flight to LA", "hotel room in New York next weekend", "metallica san jose tickets" etc. will return structured results, in both Google and Bing, soon I feel. Google bought ITA and Bing bought Farecast for the purpose of getting direct access to this data. Since they can't web crawl this type of data, I would expect more acquisitions and/or licensing deals - such as the deal with Twitter. Google has a decent foundation already with queries such as 'population of london' '<movie name>' (which shows local theatre times) and 'weather 94000' etc. Full list here: http://www.google.com/landing/searchtips/#helpcenter http://www.google.com/landing/searchtips/#helpcenter

gregable 16y ago
Those queries don't even begin to give enough information. Flight to LA from where, when, how long, economy/first, what times of the day, etc. Hotel room in New York next weekend which days, smoking or not, upscale or not, which part of new york, which new york? Metallica san jose tickets are closer and could generally get you the venue's page that will then ask which showing, which seats, how many tickets together, etc.
- bl4k 16y ago
  Google would use all the information it has to make assumptions about defaults to display. When you click-through to the site to make the booking or to drill in further you can specify the details. eg. 'flight to LA' can show : SFO -> LAX Tod Tom Wed Thu Fri Orbitz $187 $210 $299 $330 $450 Travelocity $200 $350 - $89 - United.com etc. etc.