Search as a "Session" thing..

This one's small.. not a groundbreaking, game-changing idea as such. But for once, its my own idea and not something that I came across while randomely browsing..

So, all of us use search as our gateway to the web. We fire, on an average, 10-15 queries per day.. if you think of your own search behavior, you will find an interesting pattern. Generally, your searches per day are broken into 3-4 "search sessions". That is, when you visit a search engine, you fire a query on the top of your mind, and then you realize you also wanted to search for something else, so you fir those queries too (like grocery shopping, you go to a grocery shop to buy a bread, and you realize that you also need milk...). Another scenario is, you fire multiple queries to find relevant information on the same topic by toying with the search string..

The second scenario is very interesting to me. Let me give you an example from today. I was researching on "best practices for intranet design". My behavior was as follows:

1. I type in the query string "Best practices for intranet design". I get some results, I click on a few and I find some information useful. But I am not done yet.. I want more relevant results

2. I type in the query string "Intranet portals best practices". Some of the results I get are different from the previous set of results. I click on a few and find some more useful info. But I am not satisfied yet..

3. Now I try "Study of intranet portals".. Get some results, click through, and read some article..

4. While reading, I suddenly feel the urge to go back and see some result that I found in step 1. So I type in again "Best practices for intranet design" and look for that link which I had read..

Doesnt this happen with you..??? It happens with me everyday..whenever I am researching on whatever..

Thinking of it, the solution is simple. Treat search as a session activity, and somehow provide easy access to previously tried query strings in that particular session. Something as simple as a dropdown on search box can help. Every time I load the search engine page, a new session starts. As long as I am on the search page, the session is on, and every search query that I try, gets added to the search box dropdown. The problem solved..?? I dont have to recollect and type the same querystring again.. A small benefit, but definitely a benefit..!!!

We dont want users to login to search engines, that drives more than half users away.. but we can still achieve this session like behavior by using good old "session variables". Obviously, there are perf and memory issues on the search server..what if one user tries million search strings back to back....?? Its an implementation question, and I am sure someone better at coding than me, will have an answer..

So, if we think of search as a session activity, what are the other things that we can provide the user with? How about a "session search box" where you can drag and drop every link you found interesting while you were trying different search strings..?? Imagine on the right top corner of the search results page, a notepad like something. You can sinmply drag and drop links that you like in there in a session, and at the end os session, just save that thing as a notepad file or something.. That will be a great utility for all researchers...

Any other ideas..???

Rewind...

"In order to influence the Future, we must understand and appreciate the Past."

Here are some people who defined the way technology influences investments, businesses and the way the world thinks today.



















Tim Bernes Lee - Founder of the WWW

Larry Page(L) and Sergey Brin(R), founders of Google.Google was originally named 'Googol'. After founders the presented their project to an angel investor, they received a cheque made out to 'Google' . So it Google it remained!

Linus Torvalds of Linux Operating System Linus Torvalds originally used the Minix OS on his system which he replaced by his OS. Hence the working name was Linux (Linus' Minix). He thought the name to be too egotistical and planned to name it Freax (free + freak + x). His friend Ari Lemmk encouraged Linus to upload it to a network so it could be easily downloaded. Ari gave Linus a directory called linux on his FTP server, as he did not like the name Freax. Linus like that directory name and he kept the name of his new OS to LINUX.

The Steves of APPLE Computers.

Social networks: An amazing platform for e-listings & auctions..

Lets say you have an extra guitar and you wanna sell it.. How would you go about it..?? MOst probably, you will try to spread the word around through your friends in your social network, see if someone you know is interested.. if no, then go to ebay like auction or craigslist type listing service...

Why..?? Well, if the transaction happens within your social network, both the transacting parties are winners.. the feeling of benevolence for the seller is a lot more pronounced when he knows the buyer personally, at the same time, for the buyer, the social bond translates to trust in transaction..

This is no rocket science. Its simple proven psychological behavior.. It really does surprise me that no social networking website or online auction website has productized this knowledge to reap insane profits..

Imagine you putting a listing on your MySpace/Facebook/Orkut profile for your spare guitar.. All your friends will know about it, they will pass on the word to their friends, someone intersted will contact you and the transaction will take place, MySpace/Facebook/Orkut will either charge you a fix amount to put up a listing or make money as percentage of transaction. Idea of ebay-like auction within social network can be worked out similarly as well..

Social networking is big today.. people have been pondering about how to make money out of em.. everyone believes there is a huge monetary opportunity there, but how is a question still to be answered. I think merging social networking with online auctions or listing services is defintely a promising avenue..

Chris DeWolfe, Pierre Omidyar/Meg Whitman.. Are you guys listning..?? :)

Are Today's Managers Tomorrow's Leaders?

Let's get some brainstorming started on this blog!

"Work" is stimulating experience. Enjoying work, managing work is key to success. Creativity is no doubt important, but its the power of communication that eventually takes people places. Very often we shall find that our biggest challenge at work is not dearth of ideas, but effectively communicating them to a receptive audience, and managing expectations.

So here's a relevant case (loosely-copied from HBS Online) about setting/managing expectations and the importance of communication.

"You are a new manager. You believe that one of your recently-hired junior developers is consistently under-performing. Now he/she is working on a large high-visibility project with great organizational impact. "

Is it time to supervise him (her) more closely? What do you think is the best course of action?
1. Try to identify the root cause of potential problems and alleviate them? "Let's Chat Mode"
2. Would you give him (her) decision-making independence?
3. Would you threaten him (her) with ultimatums for poor performance?
4. Would you diplomatically try to goad good performance out of him (her) through better training?

Employees are an organization's most valuable resource - they are the seat of creative intelligence. How you approach such situations can either make or break careers - wrong techniques can hinder your growth irreversibly.

Looking forward to your feedback guys....and I mean everyone!!! :-)

Power of Intelligent (or rather self-adaptive) Suggestions..

Intelligent suggestions are no new to us. Amazon.com has been providing "Recommendations" for a long time now.. but it is now that suddenly so many applications of these intelligent suggestions are springing up all over the web..

Social computing is big today. Its all about mapping the social life of a human being to web based applications. One of the key characteristics of our social life is our compliance to suggestions/recommendations from our peers. If we want to know which car to buy and which dealer to go to..we generally ask our friends, colleagues, family and their recommendations make a hell lot of difference.. Mapping this to the web requires sophisticated context-sensitive suggestion engines, a research area that has drawn immence attention over the years, but has delivered little good.

Still, today we see a lot of websites attempting to make intelligent suggestions.. Most of these websites take advantage of patterns found by mining data that users provide.. For example, some websites (shitt, i dont remember the name..) provide suggestions for "Tags" when you are tagging some article/blog or something.. These suggestions are not from some intelligent system which has "read" the blog and has idetified the context, but they come from how other readers have tagged the blog. These systems generally give most commonly used tags for that blog as suggested tags.. at the same time it takes your tags as input and does further processing.. so these systems are not really intelligent but they are self-adaptive.. anyways, they do a pretty decent job..!!

One area which in human social life propagates through suggestions is art or creative property like music, books, movies, paintings etc.. How we discover music..?? Generally some friend recommends it..!! Same is with books..isnt it..?? So, has this area got some attention on the web..using these self-adaptive suggestion engines..?? Well, yess...

Check out Gnod. Click on music/movies/books whatever you are interested in.. It will ask you to provide some of your favourites..and then it provides you with something else which you most probably would like.. big deal, u might think.. now the freaky thing.. go to the homepage and click on one of the links on the right.. lets say, Led Zeppelin.. it will show you a map of floating suggestions with Led Zeppelin at center.. obviously the bands with music genre similar to Zeppelin's music, which a Zeppelin fan is more likely to like, floating near center.. Click on any of the bands..and boom, you have a new music map.. Its so very intriguing.. I simply loved it..!!!

Another one which does a good job at suggesting music is Pandora. You type in a band name and it will populate a playlist for you with songs which are generally liked by people who like the band you entered.. I have had an amazing experience with this tool too.. It could identify my music choice almost spot-on.. Awesome stuff..!!!

Imagine a tool like Pandora integrated with iTunes or upcoming Zune-Urge music store.. Thats like a killer app..!! I would expect Zune to do something like this more than iTunes, as Zune is selling itself on the idea of music as a social experience.. It already is wi-fi enabled so that you can transfer song you like to your friends device and make him listen to it.. Later after a week, that songs DRM will not allow your friend to listen to the song, and will ask him to buy it from Zune-Urge.. Awesome idea in itself.. Imagine extending it with an app like this..

What can be the other applications of such a intelligent suggestion engine..?? Basically any online store which sells whatever can use something like this.. but further think about discussion boards where you post your doubts about lets say .Net something, or "How to click photos in Polar regions?".. Imagine such an engine actually suggesting you the people you would want to ask this question to.. It will ensure a lot more speedy and more reliable reply.. I am thinking..where else can it be used..??

Any ideas...??? :)

Touchscreen ordering: The future of restaurants..??

What if a restaurant can do away with service staff and menu cards..?? I am talking about a physical establishment and not an online one.. Well, it translates to a great deal of savings..and obviously, a lot more profit..



Thats whats happening at Bytes, a newly opened cafe in UK town of Canterbury. Its difficult to imagine, but apparently, Bytes is the first restaurant in the world to deploy "Touchscreen Ordering" to replace service staff comepltely.. (I dont believe this, but still it is probably the first restaurant to deploy this successfully) and its definitely giving some food for thought to other restaurant owners..

Each table at Bytes is equipped with a 15-inch touchscreen, from which patrons can place their orders.Aside from helping Bytes save money on wait staff and menu printing, the touchscreens allow the restaurant to build a database of customer preferences, and to change items and prices on the fly. The touchscreens also double as game consoles, keeping the kids occupied. Nice use of an existing technology, I must say..



A detailed report can be found at SelfServiceWorld

Light Bulb..!!

Light Bulb for me signifies ideas, innovation and creativity. Thats exactly what this blog is about.

Today the world around us is changing.. and this change is happening at a much faster rate than ever before.. Software, electronics, media..even age old automotive and mechanical industries are suddenly bustling with innovative ideas.. Innovation has become the new buzzword in the boardrooms..

Somehow, over the last few days, this frenzy has gotten to me..!!! My brain is stormed with new ideas for products, services, business models, advertising and what not.. I am gonna use this blog as a platform to document my ideas and brain storm with all similar, creative individuals all over the world to refine them.. I sincerely request you all to comment, critique, contribute ideas.. Lets make this blog a repository of ideas for tomorrow..

Lets put our thinking caps on and start visualizing what tomorrow can look like....