Researchers in Australia have developed a new method of exploring the web that could have a big impact on the search engines we use today.Ori Allon is the 26-year-old PhD student behind the Orion search engine that’s earning praise from Bill Gates among others for its ability to return pages on not just the keyword entered in, but also pages with content that is strongly related to the keyword. Conventional search engines return pages in which the keywords occur – some of them related to the topic, others not.
Query results are displayed via “expanded text extracts” that show relevant information without requiring a visit to the web site. Says Allon:
“By displaying results to other associated keywords directly related to your search topic, you gain additional pertinent information that you might not have originally conceived, thus offering an expert search without having an expert’s knowledge.”
This development is exciting, but don’t expect it to radically alter the landscape any time soon. Orion is designed as a complement to existing engines like Yahoo, Google, and MSN, rather than a direct competitor.