How does OneRiot Determine the Pulse of the Internet?
Posted: November 12, 2008 Filed under: ADSO, Browser Add-ons, Me.dium, oneriot, Search, Toolbars, User Experience 1 Comment »First Who is OneRiot?
As of today, Me.dium is now OneRiot. With this name change, the company is also changing it’s focus from sidebars/toolbars to a destination web site. OneRiot still leverage’s browser Add-on’s, but the company is switching the primary input to it’s system from implicit to explicit. The core technology remains the same with one major modification, we have added full text indexing to our behavior graph.
This change is dramatic and the use case for OneRiot.com is search. Like other search engines, we keep a running record of the contents of the Internet. However, unlike other search engines, we prioritize that information based on its current popularity with our community. This makes OneRiot’s search results relevant, fresh, friendly, and pulsing with the real-time energy of the web.
How does OneRiot Determine the Pulse?
OneRiot sensors currently collect between 25 and 30 million browser minutes per day.
OneRiot users vet between 12 and 15 million URL’s per day.
4 % of the daily URL’s visited by OneRiot users are search related.
OneRiot collects these signals and others in real-time, processes them and outputs the Pulse for the terms/phrases entered.
For example, if you wanted to find out what is happening right now with Jennifer Hudson, click the link. Also, OneRiot decorates the Pulse results with additional metadata. You will notice a new section, ‘Today’s Pulse On’.
In addition, The Pulse indicators shown above illustrate how active a specific URL is at this exact moment and the Average Visit Duration communicates how long people spend on this URL.
If you download the PulseChecker you can see this information for any URL you visit in the bottom right hand corner of your browser. Also by installing the PulseChecker you are helping OneRiot understand the Pulse of the web.
Try it and let me know what you think.
Composite Application or Web Browser
Posted: November 11, 2008 Filed under: Browser, User Experience Leave a comment »When you look at modern web browsers they come in different visual footprints, but they all provide a common set of architectural underpinnings.
What I find interesting is the way the modern web browser has morphed into a true composite application. This is happening under the covers and the mainstream user is getting enormous benefit without the need to understand the complexities. While, the developers/designers are able to leverage these common foundations to create an infinite amount of new applications.
The modern day Web browser has Plug-in, Add-on, CSS, and JavaScript architectures designed to support a greater number of UI paradigms. Plus, The almost ubiquitous access of TCP, HTTP and cellular has enabled connectivity from almost any point on earth. Add the latest advances from Webkit, the decreasing cost of LCD screens, the broad usage of 802.11 and we are on the verge of seeing composite applications on any device.
Times are a changing.
If you are interested in the future of the browser you should check out the closing keynote of Add-on-Con.
How to Become the Next Google or Microsoft
Posted: November 3, 2008 Filed under: Activity Context, Browser, Design, Search, User Experience 1 Comment »Search is almost never the task, it is always a step in the process. The task maybe trying to fix an old DVD player or trying to get directions to where you should vote.
One large problem with today’s web search engines is context switching. When a user needs to perform a search on the web, they are required to stop what they are doing, and transfer some portion of their current mental model to the web search engine. This is like the game of telephone, but each application has a different interface and requires a different piece of information. And just like the game of telephone you never really know what is going to come out at the other end.
We are training people to think in fragmented terms in order to support antiquated input requirements. This must evolve and web search engines must figure out how they can plug into the user flow and leverage context. The first company to figure this out will change history and become the next Google or Microsoft.
A simple example where applications work together and automate the flow are on the mobile phone. If I am looking at an email showing voting locations in my district, the phone number’s and addresses are represented as links. Clicking on either of them launches the appropriate application and set’s its context. For example, if I selected the map link on my iPhone it would launch Google Map’s, highlight the voting location on a map, and provide a method to get directions from my current location. This is a seamless context switch integrating search into the process.
As we begin thinking about tasks instead of applications, we will change how we develop software. I personally think this change will be as fundamental to the future of software development as writing multithreaded applications.
Processor speeds are peaking and the current trend of multi-core is here to stay. We need new ways of thinking about writing computer programs if we want to change the world. Integrating search into the user flow is a logical step. Who wants in?
