The New Big » microformats http://thenewbig.com Small pieces of the new big world Sun, 08 Feb 2009 22:32:55 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 Why can’t Google create lists? http://thenewbig.com/2007/02/27/why-cant-google-create-lists/ http://thenewbig.com/2007/02/27/why-cant-google-create-lists/#comments Tue, 27 Feb 2007 07:28:55 +0000 stumax http://thenewbig.com/2007/02/27/why-cant-google-create-lists/ phone_guide.jpg

I want to create a list of Seattle tech blogs. Well, actually, I don’t. What I really want is to have access to a list of Seattle tech blogs. I don’t really want to have to do the work to get one. What I want is to type the words “seattle tech blog” or “seattle startups” or “famous clowns of the 50s” into my favorite search engine and have it return a fairly definitive list to me. But even though Google will find lists of blogs that other people have put together, Google doesn’t really understand how to create a list for me within a category. (Google Directory is an interesting attempt to pull assemble lists automatically, but typing “seattle tech blog” into GD brings back the Seattle Times website and Techcrunch on the first page. Not exactly what I’m looking for.)

So, Google is good at parsing enormous amounts of data, but pathetically inept at deriving meaning from them. I suppose that’s why things like microformats and the semantic web are all the rage.

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