6 ms·

A search engine for knowledge and facts. I think there's huge value in a search engine of knowledge and facts, where all sources are verified. A search engine

A search engine for knowledge and facts. I think there's huge value in a search engine of knowledge and facts, where all sources are verified. A search engine that is objective and contains no opinions, crappy blogs or tweets, content farms. A search engine where you can't game your rankings through SEO techniques or through higher add spend. Google is amazing. Google Search is going to be here for a long time. I doubt anyone will be able to come up with a solid replacement. But one of the current problems with Google is that they have too much information. So far, i've put together a tiny version of this concept, which i've found very useful when i'm trying to learn new things or do some research. I would love to see some smarter people turn it into something more.

raving-richard 13y ago
It's been done. Wolfram Alpha[1] specifically. Also look up "linked data" (I'm not sure if DDG uses linked data or not[2]). [1] http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=How+many+people+speak+Basque%3F http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=How+many+people+speak+B... [2] https://duckduckgo.com/html/?q=linked+data https://duckduckgo.com/html/?q=linked+data edit: so "Hacker News" doesn't allow even basic HTML? Meh meh meh.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- aaronem 13y ago
  > "Hacker News" doesn't allow even basic HTML? I think that's to try to keep the focus on content rather than presentation, and also because parsing user-submitted HTML to pick out the safe bits is a pain in the neck. If you absolutely need presentation features you can't get on HN, then turn your comment into a blog post or a webpage and link to it from here. (But you probably don't need those features, and HN's formatter is easy to get used to.)
lucb1e 13y ago
This would require a full blown company, and a big one at that, to get it right. Not really a hackable idea that a reader could do in a few months of spare time.
xytop 13y ago
Search on Wikipedia? Or what sort of facts&knowledge?
DanBC 13y ago
I've previously said that I'd like to see a fork of Wikipedia. The new version would remove the toxic meta community. It would focus on narrow and defined topics ("science", "art over 50 years old") and would have rigorous fact checking and sourcing. It would aim for truth and accuracy, not whatever the hell WP currently does. It would also have much better introductory paragraphs for every article.
- zvanness 13y ago
  That would be a great! A verification algorithm of sources and how objective the information is. The concept I mentioned relies heavily on Wikipedia and Wolfram Alpha. It seems like unfortunately Wikipedia is starting to see it's own share of not so important/factual information.
avalaunch 13y ago
You could focus first as a search engine for everything baby or medical related. As a new dad I can't even count how many times I've searched for something like "what temperature should I bring my baby to the er" and find pages of mommy blogs and user comments. In instances like those I need accurate instant answers, not page after page of "my son had a 103 fever for 6 days and we didn't bring him to the doctor and he seems fine".
nathell 13y ago
Reminds me of OpenCyc [1]. I'll need to have a closer look at it someday. [1]: http://www.cyc.com/platform/opencyc http://www.cyc.com/platform/opencyc
epeterson19 13y ago
This new site called Meterfy came out on Friday (I think) that is trying to be "Wikipedia for numbers." It currently only allows submissions of individual numbers as facts, but if something like this could handle datasets it could replace entry level analysts. For example, thousands of people (and algorithms) pour over earnings reports to find out different information about companies. Much of this work could be done by fewer people, freeing up the productive efforts of the others...
revolly 13y ago
What about Freebase? http://www.freebase.com/ http://www.freebase.com/

raving-richard 13y ago

It's been done. Wolfram Alpha[1] specifically. Also look up "linked data" (I'm not sure if DDG uses linked data or not[2]). [1] http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=How+many+people+speak+Basque%3F http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=How+many+people+speak+B... [2] https://duckduckgo.com/html/?q=linked+data https://duckduckgo.com/html/?q=linked+data edit: so "Hacker News" doesn't allow even basic HTML? Meh meh meh.

deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
aaronem 13y ago
> "Hacker News" doesn't allow even basic HTML? I think that's to try to keep the focus on content rather than presentation, and also because parsing user-submitted HTML to pick out the safe bits is a pain in the neck. If you absolutely need presentation features you can't get on HN, then turn your comment into a blog post or a webpage and link to it from here. (But you probably don't need those features, and HN's formatter is easy to get used to.)

lucb1e 13y ago

This would require a full blown company, and a big one at that, to get it right. Not really a hackable idea that a reader could do in a few months of spare time.

xytop 13y ago

Search on Wikipedia? Or what sort of facts&knowledge?

DanBC 13y ago

I've previously said that I'd like to see a fork of Wikipedia. The new version would remove the toxic meta community. It would focus on narrow and defined topics ("science", "art over 50 years old") and would have rigorous fact checking and sourcing. It would aim for truth and accuracy, not whatever the hell WP currently does. It would also have much better introductory paragraphs for every article.

zvanness 13y ago
That would be a great! A verification algorithm of sources and how objective the information is. The concept I mentioned relies heavily on Wikipedia and Wolfram Alpha. It seems like unfortunately Wikipedia is starting to see it's own share of not so important/factual information.

avalaunch 13y ago

You could focus first as a search engine for everything baby or medical related. As a new dad I can't even count how many times I've searched for something like "what temperature should I bring my baby to the er" and find pages of mommy blogs and user comments. In instances like those I need accurate instant answers, not page after page of "my son had a 103 fever for 6 days and we didn't bring him to the doctor and he seems fine".

nathell 13y ago

Reminds me of OpenCyc [1]. I'll need to have a closer look at it someday. [1]: http://www.cyc.com/platform/opencyc http://www.cyc.com/platform/opencyc

epeterson19 13y ago

This new site called Meterfy came out on Friday (I think) that is trying to be "Wikipedia for numbers." It currently only allows submissions of individual numbers as facts, but if something like this could handle datasets it could replace entry level analysts. For example, thousands of people (and algorithms) pour over earnings reports to find out different information about companies. Much of this work could be done by fewer people, freeing up the productive efforts of the others...

revolly 13y ago

What about Freebase? http://www.freebase.com/ http://www.freebase.com/