Shared Searching from Microsoft - a new form of Social Search

The New York Times reports that Microsoft is developing a tool to enable users to collaborate in real-time on web search. This free IE7 plug-in allows users at different computers to divide up a search task among themselves, and then pool their results and recommendations in a shared space displayed on their browser.

 

Meredith Ringel Morris, a computer scientist at Microsoft Research in Redmond, Wash., has created one of these collaborative tools, SearchTogether, now available in a test version as a free download at http://research.microsoft.com/searchtogether. The program is designed to work within the Internet Explorer 7 browser.

 

“Web search is usually considered a solitary activity,” Dr. Morris said. “But many tasks can benefit from joint searching.”
...
The system also has a “peek and follow” feature that lets a group member watch another member search.

This is a fascinating idea that hasn't been tried before. Although search is commonly an individual activity, there are many scenarios when being able to directly share the search activity and discuss the results is invaluable; e.g. in a business context, geographically distributed team members could collaborate on project tasks that include internet search activities; similarly, in a family context, you could remotely assist less-computer-savvy adults or children in completing tasks that include web search.

Coincidentally, earlier this week Google also launched their own take on social search. The Google SearchWiki enables you to customize search by re-ranking, deleting, adding, and commenting on search results. These results only affect your own searches, but you can share your annotations and changes with others; although as Marshall Kirkpatrick notes on the ReadWriteWeb, viewing these annotations leads to a poor user experience. No doubt that will change soon; the area of social search is very important to Google, as Marissa Mayer noted in a VentureBeat interview in January of this year.

Of course, there are many other social search engines - Delver, OneRiot, Scour, Tusavvy, Yoono, et al (I still remember Lijit, but it seems to have turned into a publisher application); Mashable has a has a list .

---

Comments

[Barney Moran]

Remember a critical component of allowed Search on our blogs is the revenue the company is sharing with the publisher, for the revenue driven ones the next step is getting transparency from companies like Lijit & Google on their actual revenue vs. the % the Publisher may or may not get, and use of our content when we decide to use either. P.U.B. has a F.A.Q. on the Lijit issue on our
http://www.lijit.blogspot.com .

[Kaitlyn Young]

IE7 plug-in is a great news for all web searchers.This is the latest discovery of Microsoft.

[Registry Cleaner]

I have already put this to good use. It is an awsome tool.

[ugg france boutique]

Même si Noël est encore quelques semaines, il n'est pas difficile de trouver vous-même immergé dans le son de la saison grâce à l'chants de Noël et des jingles entendre jouer dans des centres commerciaux et stations de MTR, ou avec les conversations animées avec des amis au sujet de votre grande fête plans . Ce sont les sons pour vous réchauffer le cœur et vous remonter le moral, quelle que soit la dureté du reste de la vie peut sembler.

[Wholesale Monster Energy Hats]

Many thanks for the article. I will have a link back to this information from our fresh blog. Thanks again.

http://www.cheaphatcaps.com

http://www.cheaphatcaps.com

http://www.cheaphatcaps.com

[thomas sabo onlineshop]

Schmuck online auszuwählen spart nicht nur Zeit sondern ermöglicht Ihnen jederzeit ein glänzendes Einkauferlebnis auf unserem Online Shop für Schmuck.

[timberland boots sale]

I like this article you wrote.It has lot of information.Your post is knowledgeable and had good content.I like it so much!

[uggs.com]

this is definately a way to sustain your growth. Who doesn't need more clients? Give it away if you can, and keep traffic coming in!

[tiffany canada]

they are help to me.I expect to see your new share.ma le scarpe non ti donano. meglio dei sandali con stringe più sottili e caviglia libera Perfect!

[dirección]

this is definately a way to sustain your growth. Who doesn't need more clients? Give it away if you can, and keep traffic coming in!

[Nike TN]

you could remotely assist less-computer-savvy adults or children in completing tasks that include web search.

[dress]

good article, thank you !!!

[Pandora Bracelets Sale]

Même si Noël est encore quelques semaines, il n'est pas difficile de trouver vous-même immergé dans le son de la saison grâce à l'chants de Noël et des jingles entendre jouer dans des centres commerciaux et stations de MTR, ou avec les conversations animées avec des amis au sujet de votre grande fête plans . Ce sont les sons pour vous réchauffer le cœur et vous remonter le moral, quelle que soit la dureté du reste de la vie peut sembler.

[Canada Goose Montebello CG55]

These articles written too great,they rich contents ma le scarpe non ti donano. meglio dei sandali con stringe più sottili e caviglia libera Perfect! rately.they are help to me.I expect to see your new share.

[RHQ]

Wonderful illustrated information. I thank you about that. No doubt it will be very useful for my future projects. Would like to see some other posts on the same subject!

[LouisVuitton]

Achievement presents the only genuine delight in life

[Evering2010]

Thank you for sharing them with us , I think it's worth reading

[womens north face jacket]

Well, your pup is about the cutest thing I have seen as of late! Oh MY GOSH! He could be a model! hehe!

[vacchianoes]

thanks for this exceptional info ill recommend your wordpress blog to every single one of my colleagues as we have all been looking for this for along time now.