Ah, memories of the old movie Deskset…
A new mobile phone service is challenging big Internet search engines by providing exact answers to any question, such as the number of steps of the Empire State building, the 1928 manager of British football club Chelsea, or which color hat to put on in the morning.
The service, dubbed Any Question Answered (AQA), provides an unusual mix of computer-automated search and human research to come up with answers that cost one pound ($1.76) apiece.
Three major cellular carriers in the United Kingdom–Orange, Vodafone and O2–have introduced the service to subscribers in the last three weeks.
Content mobileTech, questions, search, service, voice recognition
Search engines boast a favored place in technology, but they fail if text can’t describe what you’re looking for.
In hopes of wrapping their arms around more of that stuff, computing researchers have developed new search engines that can mine catalogs of three-dimensional objects, like airplane parts or architectural features.
All the users have to do is sketch what they’re thinking of, and the search engines can produce comparable objects.
Content 3D, objects, search, text
In a paper reminiscent of the movie “Desk Set,” Cornell held a little race against Google Answers.
This paper presents the results of a modest study conducted by Cornell University Library (CUL) to compare and contrast its digital reference services with those of Google Answers. The study provided an opportunity for librarians to shift their focus from fearing the impact of Google, as usurper of the library’s role and diluter of the academic experience, to gaining insights into how Google’s approach to service development and delivery has made it so attractive.
Content information, question, reference, search