Get the NewsletterWorio Finds What You Didn't Even Know You Wanted
CMSWire applauds those that take a current solution and put it on its head. Worio, a small search engine, isn't your traditional search engine, in that it all it does is find what you're looking for. While it can do that, Worio also aims to find the things you didn't even know you were looking for.
They call it a discovery-engine and it blends social media with algorithms that use user behavior as data points, rather than end points. For the past six months, they've been working hard to provide you with a broad range of discoveries related to the topics you search for daily on the Web. Today they announced that they have increased their discovery index from less than 10 million Web pages to "a critical mass" of 100 million since opening its public beta last July.
We had the opportunity to talk with Ali Davar, CEO and Mike Klaas, CTO, the folks behind the scenes at Worio. First things first, Worio does not plan to "out-Google" Google. In fact, they aim to complement it.
Worio isn't a Semantic Search Engine
Secondly, discovery-based isn't semantic. Worio isn't trying to understand what users want to find. Instead, by taking user-driven data as a way to leverage data, they have made Web 3.0 searching and discovering interoperable.
Markedly, it's a paradigm shift. Semantic search can do more with more words, but Worio steps outside keywords and attempts to find something outside them. "The goal isn't to find the tail," Davar says, but rather to push users in another direction.
Worio Search
How Worio Works
Worio relies on three primary sources of information to determine which content to show:
- Page content – Leveraging advanced machine-learning technology, Worio determines the topical context of each Web page in order to determine the topics of greatest interest to individual consumers.
- User preferences – Worio users can tag and rate pages, allowing the system to better understand their interests and improve discovery suggestions over time.
- The social layer – By analyzing social data, Worio also allows consumers to receive Web page recommendations from friends. Worio’s core technology makes it possible to cut through the clutter and identify the most interesting and relevant pages.
Worio Activity Feed and Discovery Feed
Worio Library
Worio uses major search engine APIs (Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft) to provide standard keyword search results alongside its discovery results, which highlight useful sites users may have missed in their regular Web search. The results are clumped by utility and function.
Social Networking Wrapped Up in Search
Users can sign up, share and recommend the results they find, creating a social networking aspect that's different from del.icio.us or digg, in that it uses organization as a data point and not an end point.
Worio is a find what you're not searching for engine that is too unique to ignore.
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Hey Marisa,
Good stuff. I like the fact that it isn't a straight semantic search engine (which has its own place in life) but like you said, they sort of turned the idea of semantics and web 3.0 on its head.
It should be interesting to see where this goes. I expect to see Google addressing these types of things soon.
I started using Worio off and on and now I am addicted. Now that I am used to getting the extra stream of information I can't go back. Plus I like the way I can create and share my library with my group of friends. And if I want to use Google, I can do it through Worio without leaving, which is convenient.
Thanks Marisa, great post. I thought I might follow-up on your semantic web comments. Worio's take on the semantic web revolves around its web-scale tagging system. By auto-tagging the web, we create a layer of semantic meaning that helps us to enable discovery. As you mention, this differs from the typical goal of semantic search, which is to improve the relevance or precision of search results. These, of course, aren't competing ideas, but just different approach to using this data. I expect we will see a lot more in the years to come. Thanks again for your post!