[Search-l] Interesting news from Yahoo...?

[John McCormac]

Janet Hawtin wrote:
> On Thu, Feb 28, 2008 at 6:57 AM, John McCormac <jmcc at hackwatch.com> wrote:
> That is a cultural difference of opinion

Well I consider it the reality of the situation rather than just a 
cultural difference of opinion. I don't know if we are talking about the 
same thing. A search engine is not a Wiki. People searching for stuff in 
a search engine want clean, relevant results.

Some things scale well horizontally (as in the more people you throw at 
a problem, the quicker it is solved). Wikipedia is a good example of 
this. Other things, such as search engines, do not scale well 
horizontally. These depend heavily on centralised processing, algorithms 
and above all, careful monitoring of quality. This almost obsessive 
attention to index quality is missing in Wikiasearch.

In some respects it is an inversion of the simplistic Cathederal and 
Bazaar model. A search engine is like a great Gothic cathederal that 
requires the work of highly skilled and dedicated people, often over a 
long period. If you don't have the right mix of expertise, the whole 
thing comes crashing down A bazaar does not. It is just a market or 
small street of shops - the scale and intent is very different.

> People who participate in open communities do so because the licensing
> is underlying infrastructure for
> their continued access to their contribution. It isn't a nicety, its a
> flavour of participation and commitment.

I don't know if we are talking about the same thing. A search engine is 
not a Wiki. People searching for stuff in a search engine want clean, 
relevant results. The argument about Yahoo or Google releasing source 
code and algorithms is still moot. Even if people in Wikia had all the 
same brushes, paint and canvas, they are still not going to be at the 
Leonardo DaVinci level. Like great art, great search engines need that 
divine spark of genius. Wikiasearch is just moving out of the "paint by 
numbers" stage and has a long way to go yet. It can become a great 
cathederal or a bazaar. Philosophically, I wonder if it is a case of 
people seeing the great cathederals and thinking that they'd be a great 
place to put a bazaar? To some of us in the search side of things, 
that's sacrilege. :)

Regards...jmcc
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