Monthly Archives: July 2009

7 ways to improve informational searches – (7 of 7) Connect and stay informed

Posted on July 10, 2009 by | 1 Comment

Seventh of 7 ways to improve informational searches …

7. Connect and stay informed

The final way to improve informational searches is not to actually search at all in the long run, on topics of your interest, but still remain informed about new and relevant information. Do you have good ways to stay informed on topics of your interest on an ongoing basis?

Zakta gives you the tools to stay informed on topics of your interest.

Connect and discover information of interest to you

Here’s how:

  • You can use the social networking facilities in Zakta, and build your own network of trusted people, whether they are people you already know, or are finding on Zakta.
  • With your own trust network, you can more easily share information between each other, and collaborate more easily on specific topics.
  • You can also “Recommend” any information you’ve found on Zakta or using Zakta to your trust network, and likewise, benefit from the recommendations they make.
  • By connecting to trusted people, you can use Zakta as a tool to stay informed on topics of interest to you through recommendations from people you trust on those topics.

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Do you find these ideas to improve informational searches appealing? What other ideas do you have to improve informational searches?

Please take Zakta for a spin and let us know what you think. Zakta is just in public beta now, and we are eager to hear from you about your opinions and what we can do to make Zakta work really well for your informational searches.

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7 ways to improve informational searches – (6 of 7) Collaborate with people you trust

Posted on July 10, 2009 by | 1 Comment

Sixth of 7 ways to improve informational searches …

6. Collaborate with people you trust

Searching is usually a lonely process. Imagine though, just how powerful it would be if you could collaboratively find information along with others you trust. Can you search together with others you trust to find better information faster?

On Zakta, you can invite other people you trust, such as colleagues, friends, or family members to join you in finding information together.

Here’s how:

  • You can create a Zakta Guide on the topic of your interest
  • From within the Guide, you can invite others you trust to join you in editing the Guide
  • Collaboratively, you can find relevant information, and edit and enhance the Guide together easily

Collaboration with Zakta Guides

Collaborating with people you trust, you can safely leverage the knowledge they have and get smarter faster together on topics of mutual interest.

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7 ways to improve informational searches – (5 of 7) Share your knowledge and findings with others

Posted on July 10, 2009 by | 1 Comment

Fifth of 7 ways to improve informational searches …

5. Share your knowledge and findings with others

When you search for something on the Web, you are rarely the first or only one to have done that search. Many users before you would have done that search and many more after you will too, and yet, everyone sees more or less the same results, and no one benefits from anyone else’s search experience! Can you benefit from the search efforts or the knowledge of users before you? Or can you do something to share your search efforts or knowledge for the benefit of users after you?

Zakta enables you to publish your findings or knowledge in the form of Zakta Guides. And when you search on Zakta, you can also benefit from the Zakta Guides published by others.

A Zakta Guide is a living document that contains organized information on a topic that you may have found through the searching on a topic, or may have already known about a topic. A well-authored Zakta Guide is an excellent starting point to explore the topic it covers.

A Zakta Guide

Take a look at some of these Zakta Guides created and shared by other people:

Ivory Soap Advertising History

U.S. political satirists from the 1950s-today

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

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7 ways to improve informational searches – (4 of 7) Save what you’ve found, and save time when you return to search again

Posted on July 10, 2009 by | Leave a comment

Fourth of 7 ways to improve informational searches …

4. Save what you’ve found and save time when you get back

Searching for information is a process. Invariably, you have to stop somewhere and will have to come back to your searching later on. Can you pause your process and return to where you left it, later on, or do you have to start your search all over again?

On Zakta, all the changes you make to your search results, or things you’ve added to your ClipPad are all saved automatically into your Zakta account. You will automatically get “your search results” when you search the same topic next.

My Searches

You can also go to the My Searches page to see all your past searches, access the results with your edits, or delete them.

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7 ways to improve informational searches – (3 of 7) Own and control the search process and results completely

Posted on July 10, 2009 by | 1 Comment

Third of 7 ways to improve informational searches …

3. Own and control the search process and results completely

Often, the search results have a mix of personally relevant and irrelevant results. Can you edit, delete, or reorder your search results so they reflect what you personally find as relevant to you?

On Zakta, the search results are completely editable, and under your control. You can delete results you don’t like. You can drag-and-drop results to rearrange them. You can add tags and annotations to any result. Just hover over any result, and use the toolbar that is visible on the result and edit it the way you want it.

Edit your search results

Frequently, you have to do multiple queries to find information on the same topic, so the information you need is actually spread across the search results for multiple queries. Can you keep the interesting results from these multiple queries in one place for easy consumption?

Zakta has the perfect tool for this scenario, called the ClipPad that you can use to save information that you want, in one place, from your various queries on the same topic.

ClipPad

The Web is so big that, sometimes, no single Web search engine can help you find all the information you need from one place. Can you easily search alternative sources to find what you are looking for?

Zakta has the ideal solution for this in the form of Zakta SearchPacks, which bring together the best Web search engines of a given type / category and lets you search them all from a single interface.

Finally, sometimes you find the information you need while you are browsing, not while you are searching, even if you started off with a search result page from some search engine. Can you keep these important finds together with other things you might have found earlier?

Zakta has an elegant solution for this problem, in the form of a Plugin for Firefox, that enables you to search anywhere, and clip and save anything you want from anywhere directly into your ClipPad (or your Guides, a feature we’ll cover in a follow on post).

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7 ways to improve informational searches – (2 of 7) Explore the topic of your query with related topics and subtopics

Posted on July 10, 2009 by | 1 Comment

The second of 7 ways to improve informational searches …

2. Explore the topic of your query with related topics and subtopics

Sometimes, the initial query you used might be ambiguous. For example, if you search for joe jackson, what did you really mean to search for? The musician, the baseball player or someone else? Your typical Web search engine results will be a mix of results you want and those that are irrelevant to you. Can you easily specify the right query corresponding to what you really meant to search for?

Try a search for joe jackson on Zakta, and you can see that it prompts you to pick from “Joe Jackson (musician) | Shoeless Joe Jackson | Joe Jackson, Sr. | …”

Disambiguation of queries - Joe Jackson

In this way, Zakta’s semantic disambiguation facility puts you in control of choosing what you really meant to search for, and get better quality information in the process.

When you are searching for information on a new topic, it takes extra time and effort in becoming familiar with the nature of information within that topic. Can you easily explore the subtopics or related topics corresponding to your search, from your search results page?

Try a search for jim crow laws on Zakta, and you can see that it prompts you to explore related topics like “Plessy v. Ferguson | Civil Rights Act of 1875 | Voting Rights Act | Civil Rights Act of 1964 » | Separate but equal | …“.

Related topics - Jim Crow Laws

Zakta helps the exploration of a topic, by automatically suggesting semantically related topics and subtopics for you.

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7 ways to improve informational searches – (1 of 7) Start with organized search results

Posted on July 10, 2009 by | 1 Comment

The first of 7 ways to improve informational searches …

1.  Start with organized search results

When you are searching for information on a topic you are not familiar with, seeing a flat, disorganized list of search results is a big hurdle. Can you get organized search results from your tool of choice?

Zakta organizes the search results for millions of topics of information into meaningful categories automatically.

For example:  Search for dementia on Zakta, and you’ll see how results are organized into Reference, Web Sites, Books and Articles, Educational, What It Is, Prevalence, Causes, Prevention, Symptoms, Risk Factors, Tests, Diagnosis, Medical Treatment, Alternatives, Research, History, Prognosis, and Resources. See below.

Organized search results for Dementia

Or, search for michael jordan on Zakta, and you’ll see results organized into Reference, Web Sites, Books and Articles, Educational, Bio, Career, Records, Teams, Controversies, Fan Fare, Video Highlights, and Trivia. See below.

Zakta organized search results for Michael Jordan

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7 ways to improve informational searches (Summary)

Posted on July 10, 2009 by | 9 Comments

Almost everyone who uses the Internet uses it at some point to search for something. But there’s a difference between transactional searches — the search for a specific fact, such as the price of an item, a map or the phone number of a local business – and deeper, more involved, informational searches.

Informational searches usually involve the hunt for information on topics or subjects that don’t usually lend themselves to a single or specific answer. Informational searches can be very broad, such as cars or mp3 players, or they can be narrow, such as caribbean destinations or voip service options for small business. And they can be everything in between. Usually, a person has to sift through one or more Web pages to find what they are looking for. Typically, informational searches are time-consuming. Sometimes, they’re downright frustrating.

Here are 7 ways to improve informational searches.

  1. Start with organized search results
  2. Explore the topic of your query with related topics and subtopics
  3. Own and control the search process and results completely
  4. Save what you’ve found, and save time when you return to search again
  5. Share your knowledge and findings with others
  6. Collaborate with people you trust
  7. Connect and stay informed

Do you find these ideas to improve informational searches appealing? What other ideas do you have to improve informational searches?

Please take Zakta for a spin and let us know what you think. Zakta is just in public beta now, and we are eager to hear from you about your opinions and what we can do to make Zakta work really well for your informational searches.

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