MARIE’S PICKS: Semantic Search Engine Hakia

I truly enjoy using Hakia for my queries — not key words–I get more focused (hence less) answers. I use it first before Google. “Search for meaning” indeed. Here is the value described by Hakia verbatim:

hakia is building the Web’s new “meaning-based” search engine with the sole purpose of improving search relevancy and interactivity, pushing the current boundaries of Web search. The benefits to the end user are search efficiency, richness of information, and time savings. The basic promise is to bring search results by meaning match – similar to the human brain’s cognitive skills – rather than by the mere occurrence (or popularity) of search terms. hakia’s new technology is a radical departure from the conventional indexing approach, because indexing has severe limitations to handle full-scale semantic search.hakia’s capabilities will appeal to all Web searchers – especially those engaged in research on knowledge intensive subjects, such as medicine, law, finance, science, and literature.

Dr. Riza Berkan, CEO, states that searches take an average of 11 minutes and 50% are abandoned. He also claims that web search is in its infancy.

The search biz has ballooned with vertical applications including search engines for videos (Purevideo) and blogs (Blogdigger). There are hundreds now. There are Clustering Search Engines (Kartoo), Meta Search Engines, Talking Search Engines (AbbyMe – truly an avatar like person talks to you – great fun!), Filtered Search Engines… There is a lot out there to challenge the supremacy of Google which frankly is the time-gobbler among them all. It is truly this factor that has spawned so many.

Soon we will need a search engine of search engines.

MARIE’S PICKS: Top Technology Innovators 2007

The following innovators from the stalwart behemoths to the bootstraped entrepreneurs are worthy of praise–they are changing our future. I am confident I’ve forgotten a few. Sadly, I am not omniscient. It is a live list that I will expand in the same updated post daily, weekly. Your suggestions are welcome. These ideas are actionable, useful and often border on genius. All are worthy of praise whether they make it to the finish line or not. So they are NOT PRIORITIZED. It is a democratic list. Their innovations are recent 2006 and 2007–some are so fundamental yet “new” that I ignored their birth date.

Listed as: Brand Name, Corporation, (description)

1. iphone by Apple (the most robust phone device yet)
2. Qode by Neomedia (Mobile Phone Bar Code Scanner)
3. Zink by same (portable inkless printer for digital devices)
4. Eyejot by same (video sharing thourgh email)
5. PayPerPost by same (Paid consumer blog network for advertisers)
6. Joost formerly Venice Project (richer alternative to YouTube)
7. Lotus Connections  byIBM (Collaboration software)
8. LinkedIn by same (Answers/Experts Low cost procurement of soft expertise)
9. Yah00! 100 brands  by Yahoo! (Media Channels for advertisers)
10. ejamming by same (voip for musicians)
11. Apollo by Adobe (web apps to the desktop)
12. Mobio Networks  by same (mobile mashup platform)
13. Scram by Ceelox (embeds encrypted messages behind images)
14. Sentinel by Iwerx (catches blog content pirates)
15. D’Fusion by Total Immersion (inserts 3D into live video images)
16. Advanced Photonics (No name yet) by Alps Electric / CAPE (holographic image from mobile devices)
17. BitTorrent by same (bandwidth enabling video distribution like no other)
18. Orb Networks by same (allows users to view and create videos on their mobile devices)
19. Sundance Global Short Film Project /Robert Redford (creating short content for mobile devices)
20. Sitemaps by Google, Yahoo and Microsoft (new search protocol by stie maps)
21. Wibree by Nokia (radio technology dual core chip uses so little energy for smallest devices like a watch)
22. Tagworld by same (social network with all-in-one capabilities)
23. RDF and OWL – Semantic Web by Tim Berners-Lee (application-free framework and language that allows data interchange)
24. Videoegg by same (simplifies video capture)
25. iUpload by same (blogging platform that requires no programmer)
26. Xensource by same (moves mutliple virtual servers without friction)
27. Scrybe by same (robust and elegant productivity tool driven by a calendar-perhaps the best)
28. Geni by same (great hosted genealogy app )