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What I really want, is not another search engine for contextless queries. Except for really basic queries (which Google/etc already do a good job at), I'm tryi

What I really want, is not another search engine for contextless queries. Except for really basic queries (which Google/etc already do a good job at), I'm trying to answer a question, perhaps open-ended, and it will take multiple queries to resolve. And it's not a linear process of narrowing down with + or - keywords. It's establishing a context: I'm searching for something relevant to "go" the language, not "go" the english verb or "go" the board game. I want to be able to open a jupyter-like notebook with the start of my search query, and the first step should be to show me the available eigencontexts, from which I can establish the gross context for my entire search. After this first click, none of the results should be about the board game or the english word--unless the relevant search results happen to include an implementation of Go the board game in Go the language. And then when I'm done, I want to name and archive that notebook so I can return to it at a later date--whether to refresh my memory of the ultimate answer, or to continue the search. I guess I would call this a 'research engine' instead of a search engine.

whalesalad 7y ago
I believe this is called faceted search.
- rabidrat 7y ago
  For the first level context, you're right. Does faceted search also allow the ability to specify "near this link"? Like a "warmer" or "colder" approach to searching, where I can train the engine during the search? I also want to maintain a longer-term list of pages/sites to exclude. Like, unless otherwise specified, I never want results from w3schools or expertsexchange. This field is ripe for disruption, in my opinion. We can do so much better, but I've not seen any serious attempts.
bsder 7y ago
> I want to be able to open a jupyter-like notebook with the start of my search query, and the first step should be to show me the available eigencontexts AltaVista used to do this. I miss it terribly.
- nl 7y ago
  I think you are mis-remembering this. I used Altavista heavily until Google came out and made search work, and I don't remember any feature anything like this.
  - bsder 7y ago
    AltaVista used to have a Java Applet that would draw the clusters. So "python" would get you a cluster that was "reptiles" and one that was "programming". You could then click on that cluster and it would "zoom in" on the cluster and then redraw the probability clusters again.
solso 7y ago
[Disclaimer: I work at Cliqz] I hate to answer this one, becasue it looks too much marketing-speech but this feature exists. Not on beta.cliqz.com but on the drop-down search on Cliqz browser. Based on the tabs you have opened, different query expansions are selected. For instance as you type "hotel in ma..." probably would show you results for Mallorca, but if you have "Madrid" on a tab, then it will show results for "hotel in madrid". There will be a blog post about this contextual search because it's our showcase that is possible to do personalization without compromising privacy. All this is done privately, the browser receives results for multiple expansions and can chose which one to display based on local information. We never track or collect sessions of users.
- amelius 7y ago
  Ok, but can't you then figure out what the browser was displaying using Javascript?
  - whatshisface 7y ago
    They could, but then everyone would see them do it, and kind of the whole point is that they won't do it.
    - amelius 7y ago
      But who in their right mind would allow the Javascript code of one tab to access data in other tabs?
  - solso 7y ago
    Not sure I get your point. But contextual search only works for the search within Cliqz browser, on the address bar dropdown, on the client space. The same approach cannot be done on the (web-page SERP page, beta.cliqz.com), because from a web we have no access to the tabs opened. It could only possible via tracking and user-profiling, which is something that we do not do, or want to do.
HenriNext 7y ago
I had very similar idea a few years ago, did some quick numbers and came to conclusion that it was not going to fly commercially. Interestingly the working name for my idea was also "ResearchEngine", so i guess it summarizes pretty well the unmet need you and me have.
basq 7y ago
Agreed. tried replicating this with org mode, which required an extensive learning curve to meet the needs akin to what you listed. Although at some level it did the job, I could imagine a tool that does it better.

whalesalad 7y ago

I believe this is called faceted search.

rabidrat 7y ago
For the first level context, you're right. Does faceted search also allow the ability to specify "near this link"? Like a "warmer" or "colder" approach to searching, where I can train the engine during the search? I also want to maintain a longer-term list of pages/sites to exclude. Like, unless otherwise specified, I never want results from w3schools or expertsexchange. This field is ripe for disruption, in my opinion. We can do so much better, but I've not seen any serious attempts.

bsder 7y ago

> I want to be able to open a jupyter-like notebook with the start of my search query, and the first step should be to show me the available eigencontexts AltaVista used to do this. I miss it terribly.

nl 7y ago
I think you are mis-remembering this. I used Altavista heavily until Google came out and made search work, and I don't remember any feature anything like this.
- bsder 7y ago
  AltaVista used to have a Java Applet that would draw the clusters. So "python" would get you a cluster that was "reptiles" and one that was "programming". You could then click on that cluster and it would "zoom in" on the cluster and then redraw the probability clusters again.

solso 7y ago

[Disclaimer: I work at Cliqz] I hate to answer this one, becasue it looks too much marketing-speech but this feature exists. Not on beta.cliqz.com but on the drop-down search on Cliqz browser. Based on the tabs you have opened, different query expansions are selected. For instance as you type "hotel in ma..." probably would show you results for Mallorca, but if you have "Madrid" on a tab, then it will show results for "hotel in madrid". There will be a blog post about this contextual search because it's our showcase that is possible to do personalization without compromising privacy. All this is done privately, the browser receives results for multiple expansions and can chose which one to display based on local information. We never track or collect sessions of users.

amelius 7y ago
Ok, but can't you then figure out what the browser was displaying using Javascript?
- whatshisface 7y ago
  They could, but then everyone would see them do it, and kind of the whole point is that they won't do it.
  - amelius 7y ago
    But who in their right mind would allow the Javascript code of one tab to access data in other tabs?
- solso 7y ago
  Not sure I get your point. But contextual search only works for the search within Cliqz browser, on the address bar dropdown, on the client space. The same approach cannot be done on the (web-page SERP page, beta.cliqz.com), because from a web we have no access to the tabs opened. It could only possible via tracking and user-profiling, which is something that we do not do, or want to do.

HenriNext 7y ago

I had very similar idea a few years ago, did some quick numbers and came to conclusion that it was not going to fly commercially. Interestingly the working name for my idea was also "ResearchEngine", so i guess it summarizes pretty well the unmet need you and me have.

basq 7y ago

Agreed. tried replicating this with org mode, which required an extensive learning curve to meet the needs akin to what you listed. Although at some level it did the job, I could imagine a tool that does it better.