Marti Hearst: Tech Talk on Search User Interfaces
Earlier this week, Marti Hearst gave a Tech Talk at Google about her recently published book, Search User Interfaces. Fortunately for those of us who missed (myself included!), it is now available on YouTube. Enjoy! (via Jon Elsas)

Can We Learn From Anti-Social Users?
One of the interesting challenges we face as both both developers and consumers of search technology is that social signals are a double-edged sword. On one hand, social signals have proven essential in distinguishing signal from noise–be they links, re-tweets, or any number other ways that online consumers (or more correctly “prosumers”) actively and passively communicate value judgments about information. On the other hand, our reliance on these social signals makes us vulnerable to positive feedback and spammers. Consider MusicLab, an “

Exploring Explortatory Search
Google’s recently released Image Swirl is slick. But I’ve been struggling to figure out whether it’s useful or simply a showcase for cool technology. And that’s prompted me to think about the overloaded term “

An Ad-Supported Model With Teeth?
A computer-implemented method for operating a device, the method comprising: disabling a function of an operating system in a device; presenting an advertisement in the device while the function is disabled; and enabling the function in response to the advertisement ending. So reads the first claim from a patent application that Apple recently filed for technology to deliver a rather compelling ad

Call for Speakers: Enterprise Search Summit 2010
I’m no longer in the enterprise search business, but I know that many readers here are. If you are one of those readers, then I strongly encourage you to consider participating in the Enterprise Search Summit, which will take place next May in New York. I presented there last year and enjoyed the opportunity to meet fellow presenters and attendees. You can read my recap of the event. The deadline for