On Wed, 2008-01-30 at 12:34 -0700, Janet Hill wrote:
> Why do I loathe natural language search boxes? No good reason, probably.
> And probably because of a career's-worth of experience with catalogs and
> controlled vocabulary. To me, the "natural language" approach (especially
> as complete sentences) seems just -- stupid. The computer isn't interested
> in the little words that we dress our sentences up with. And posing these
> questions seems to me to be anthropomorphizing. To me, the "natural" way
> to approach the question is through controlled vocabulary.
Yes until Google provides good support for natural language queries, you
are better off searching for phrases in which the information you seek
is stated positively, e.g. "Coots eat ..." and get Google to fill in the
blank. "Coots eat ..." returns:
The Preposterous Coot
Coots eat almost anything they can lay their white beaks into, and top
it off with such delicacies as water milfoil, bur reed, and wild
cdelery. ...
www.geocities.com/naturenotes/coot.htm - 12k - Cached - Similar pages -
Note this
American Coot- BirdWeb
Opportunistic feeders, coots eat mostly plant material but will also
feed on small fish, tadpoles, snails, worms, insects, and eggs of other
birds. ...
birdweb.org/birdweb/bird_details.aspx?id=131 - 17k - Cached - Similar
pages - Note this
» What Do Coots Eat?
What Do Coots Eat? Turns out that coots are omnivorous, but prefer plant
matter. Why. coots, diet, what do coots eat, what coots eat ...
maisonbisson.com/blog/post/12082/what-do-coots-eat - Similar pages -
Note th
"Coots will eat ...", which returns:
ADW: Fulica americana: Information
It will eat small aquatic animals (fish or tadpoles), insects, and
vegetation found in the pond. Coots have the ability to dive after its
food, ...
animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Fulica_americana.html - 42k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this
RGJ.com: Young or old, you gotta love the Coot
3 Nov 2007 ... The coot will eat roots, leaves and seeds, according to
"Stokes' Field Guide to Birds," and in water, will consume insects,
worms or small ...
news.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071103/LIV/711030302 - 45k -
Cached - Similar pages - Note this
American Coots
The coots will not tolerate adding eggs in any form, so this is an egg
free recipe. The coots don't like cinnamon and will eat around it. ...
www.beakycoot.com/pudding.html - 4k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this
It's interesting to note though that Google does provide more than
free-text search over the web. A fraction of the information in the web
is actually converted into some kind of structured knowledge base. Try
searching for "pacific ocean area" or "capital of kazakhstan" and you
will get an actual answer:
Pacific Ocean — Area (Total): 155.557 Million SQ KM
Kazakhstan — Capital: Astana
Also you have the "define" operator in Google. Searching for
"define:coot" returns
Definitions of coot on the Web:
* slate-black slow-flying birds somewhat resembling ducks
wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn
* The coots are medium-sized water birds which are members of the
rail family. They constitute the genus Fulica.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coot
I can see why they start with basic geographic facts and term
definitions, but it seems to me in principle possible for Google to
extract coot dietary information in the same way. Perhaps one day you'll
be able to ask "coot diet" and have Google tell you:
The coot will eat roots, leaves and seeds, according to "Stokes' Field
Guide to Birds," and in water, will consume insects, worms or small
invertebrates.
This, incidentally, is what the Semantic Web is all about.
--
Conal Tuohy
New Zealand Electronic Text Centre
www.nzetc.org
Received on Wed Jan 30 2008 - 19:18:04 EST