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Hakia Week - Part 1

August 6, 2007 This week I am going to tackle a few posts about a new search engine on the block, Hakia. What sets this tool apart is natural language searching. Hakia refers to this is being a "search for meaning." Their goal is to provide a search handler that introduces a more effective query interface to a web index (in this case, Ask.com).

How does this work? Hakia brings some serious language technology to the mix that will be explored in more depth later this week. For now, let's just say that Hakia sort of knows English. When you ask a question - and you can ask questions, not just list keywords - the tool looks through the phrase and finds the words that it thinks make up the essence of the question. One of the benefits of this is that it allows Hakia to construct meaning from context. Is your "bear" white, brown, stuffed, or a football player?

So think ahead to some of the questions that you might be asked as you start back to school (or enjoy the rest of the summer off for the Northeast). Maybe your students will need to know:

• How does the electoral college work?
• What is the theme of The Scarlet Letter?
• What natural resources does Peru have?
• What can I read that is like Harry Potter?

The engine is in beta (but then what isn't?) but shows great promise for use in school libraries. They are looking for feedback on your success with the site, so check it out and let them know how it works.

Posted by Chris Harris on August 6, 2007 | Comments (0)