Seeking the Perfect Search

Two new online research tools recently appeared on my radar screen: WolframAlpha and Google Squared. (I'm not mentioning Bing because I see it as another option in the vein of Google, Yahoo and MSN Web searches.) Noodling with each has made me consider what makes a great search tool.

Whenever I hear about a new way to find information online, I get a little rush of adrenaline in the hopes that this will be the tool that combines all of the best parts of the search tools that came before it—the breadth and intuitiveness of Google’s Web search, the detail and transparency of Wikipedia—with a little dazzle drawn from narrower applications, like  Etsy.com’s color search. I’m also seeking the fun that comes from seeing someone’s obsession on display, but for the stuff I care about.

If my standards seem lofty and weirdly specific, it’s because, one time, I beheld the perfect search result. It started with a conversation that went something like this:

Oklahoman: “Like roly-polies.”
Me, a Minnesotan: “Wait—what?”
Oklahoman: “Roly-polies. You don’t have roly-polies here? Those little bugs that are everywhere and they roll up into a ball and you play with them when you’re a kid?”
Me: “Oh yeah. You mean wooly bears. They’re fuzzy.”
Oklahoman: “No.”

Through a combination of Google, Wikipedia and IBM’s engrossing Many Eyes data-visualization project, we found this gorgeous map. It’s specific, it’s interactive (note that you can change the display according to your name for Armadillidiidae), and it’s a slick presentation of a data set that someone obsessed over.

I think the act of searching transforms us. Aren’t you a different person when you’ve misplaced your keys? Usually, if what we seek isn't vital and we don't find it in short order, other priorities draw us away and we give up. But every once in a while, curiosity gets the best of us and we keep looking—online, on the phone, at the library, on the street. Curious people have compiled their own data on myriad seemingly random topics, and the Web has the potential to show us this information when we want it most: in that all-too brief state of wonder that overtakes us when we absolutely need to know.

WolframAlpha is great when you need a specific calculation, like the nutritional value of an ounce of pretzels plus that of a quarter-cup of peanuts. Google Squared is fun, at first for the laughable results you get when you're trying to learn how to use it, and later for comparing items in a class according to one or two characteristics, like the area and maximum depth of each of the Great Lakes. Neither one fulfills my search-tool fantasy. I guess I’ll keep looking.