Google’s dominance in online search hasn’t stopped hundreds of startups from trying to build a better mousetrap. Each is trying a new twist on search: geography, crowdsourcing, tags, user annotations, learned hierarchies and timelines. With $20 billion spent on online advertising every year, a killer search application can make a lot of money.

But will new types of search catch on? A recent study of the Google Generation, conducted by University College London, found that “users make very little use of advanced search facilities, assuming that search engines ‘understand’ their queries.” Many of today’s Internet users still don’t know how to use a search engine, preferring instead to type a domain name into the search box (which is why Yahoo is a top search on Google and vice-versa.) The reverse, known as type-in traffic, involves typing a search topic into the address bar to find results.

Alistair Croll‘s opinion

If the flurry of search startups can tie into the social graph of Google, Facebook and others without biting the hands that feed them, then they have a chance of succeeding. But if they’re betting their business on changing the way people search, they have a lot of work ahead of them.

I totally agree with Alistair. We don’t need more search engines. What we need is for the current search engines to do all they can to enable more relevance and trust. Battling against Google is mad to say the least. This is why Segala has been working on Content Labels for the past two and a half years. This blog is attracting new readers all the time so I won’t assume you know what I’m talking about. So, I’ve published below, an old post which explains what Content Labels are, how they work and importantly, why I think they will see mass adoption within the next 24 months.

How to enable current search engines provide more trust

Before I explain how Content Labels enable more reliable and relevant search results, I will first use an analogy to help explain in plain English, what a Content Label is. This will help you to visualise yourself making use of a label, whether you are an end user, developer, Web site owner, search provider, browser vendor or trustmark provider.

Think of Content Labels on the back of food packaging

Jackie goes to the supermarket to buy the weekly shopping. Amongst other things, her shopping list includes a tin of baked beans. Most of the time, Jackie is happy to buy Heinz without hesitation.

Adrian goes to the supermarket with a similar shopping list. He however, has dietary requirements to consider. Adrian likes to check the Content Label on the back of the beans tin (irrespective of how much he trusts the brand) to ensure he’s happy with the contents before making a purchase.

Joanna is pregnant and although she should be taking it easy, decides to do the weekly shopping. She’s aware that eating any form of cream cheese is dangerous for the unborn. To ensure she doesn’t endanger her baby’s health, she checks the Content Labels on items that may contain cream cheese before making her purchasing decisions.

The moral of the story

People have different needs, some will only buy products that are low in fat, low in calories, high in protein or have some other dietary consideration.

Some brands will do more than provide a Content Label to promote the contents of their products. Brands such as Weight Watchers, for example, will promote specific aspects of their labels as a unique selling point to differentiate them from competitors. This allows buyers to look specifically for Weight Watchers without searching for any other brand to make a purchase, even though other brands may be trusted. Other brands are simply not ‘relevant’ (at this time).

So, there are numerous reasons why people check the Content Label on food packaging. The main point to highlight is that we are all different, with different needs and preferences when searching for and buying products.

If it wasn’t for the Content Labels on the back of food packaging, we would end up having to search and buy lots of products in order to taste and discover the ones that meet our dietary requirements. Some people may even die if they eat something they’re allergic to (such a nuts) – this may seem like an exaggeration, but the analogy does apply to the Web – consider a user who buys medication online.

If you’re the type of person that doesn’t care to read Content Labels on packaging, at least keep in mind that a lot of people do.

The problem today

The only information search engines provide today is the title and description of each Web site, nothing more. How do you know which Web sites are trustworthy?

A range of trustmark (visual badges) schemes exist around the world. In each case, a Web site is awarded the right to display a seal of approval or trustmark following a review by an independent authority or internal assessor. Trustmarks normally hyperlink to a certificate page provided by the labeling scheme provider to authenticate its claims.

However, trustmarks are invisible to search engines which limit their value. A user must already be on a Web site before they know it meets a labeling provider’s claims. Moreover, the logo is often displayed on just a single page and therefore invisible to visitors who are viewing other pages on the site.

The solution

Taking the food analogy to the Web, wouldn’t it be beneficial if Web site owners could provide more information about their content before users hit their site? In other words, allowing users to read specific information about the suitability of their content from search results. Well, this is now possible using Web Content Labels.

• It’s now possible for site owners to provide more information about their content from search results.
• It’s now possible for search engines to provide more reliable and relevant search results.
• It’s now possible for users to read Content Labels and make informed decisions about the suitability of content before entering Web sites.

Content Labels are files used to classify content in the form of metadata. The information contained within a Content Label is not generally found on the Web site, unless it’s in the form or a Trustmark. Content Labels not only contain information about the content, they also contain information such as the company name, asserter, creation date and expiration date.

The type of information contained in a Content Label very much depends on what the site owner wants to make claims about. It’s important to note that Content Labels have a very specific use. They’re used to make assertions about conformance to industry standards and codes of conduct. They’re not used to make assertions that are ambiguous. Although it’s debatable that most standards and codes of conduct are open to interpretation.

In concept, Content Labels act in a similar fashion to SSL Certificates. SSL Certificates are used so browsers can tell if a site is secure for credit card transactions. However, Content Labels are much more flexible. They can be used to make claims about a specific URI without the restriction of having to make a claim about an entire domain.

Content Labels are a lower cost solution than SSL Certificates as sold by companies such as VeriSign and GeoTrust. Oh wait, VeriSign bought GeoTrust which was their biggest competitor, so that provides them with a monopoly using proprietary technology. This is something we intend to disrupt!

We’re also helping to build other elements of the ecosystem. We have instigation the creation of ContentLabel.org. Contentlabel.org facilitates the creation and harmonization of new codes of conduct for which Segala will create new Content Labels. The idea is for any organisation or association worldwide to create a code of conduct and then have it reviewed in an open forum, formalised, endorsed and promoted.

It’s also possible for organisations and associations that already have a code of conduct (even if they have a trustmark) to have it recognised by industry and promoted to encourage mass adoption.

We intend to start with a new code of conduct for blogs as it appears to go down well with the bloggers we’ve spoken to. Anyone can participate so get in touch if you would like to get involved.

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The most applicable point for me in Damien’s post, was

It was in a past blog post here where I said that if we controlled our activity data, we could actually make money from search engines and the likes of Microsoft HealthVault, so there’s potential there. So I was quite interested when Mozilla announced Weave, their system which will store your Firefox preferences on their servers and when you install a new Firefox on a new computer, it can go to the Mozilla servers and download all your preferences and bookmarks.

According to Mozilla

The idea behind Weave is that all your personal information — bookmarks, passwords and account names, for example — are synced to your Mozilla account via Firefox. If you lose your computer, you can download Firefox, log into your account and you can restore all that information. You can do some of this today if you use Google Browser Sync and Dot Mac services. You can start by creating an account with Mozilla Services. You will need Firefox 3.0 or higher to get this working.

This is relevant to me as the functionality behind the Mozilla Weave has been available in Glaxstar‘s Firefox browser for more than 2 years. When I say available, I’m referring to every single last detail. Whilst Glaxtstar’s Glubble browser is new, I’ve had insight to their technology for quiet some time.

Glaxstar is possibly the only development company in the world that could build a competitive Firefox browser to Mozilla in my opinion (Flock is a 1.0 effort compared to what these guys can do!). That’s if Ian decided to take that route. As it happens, he’s just interested in helping guardians to protect their loved ones from inappropriate content.

Note that I didn’t say, help to protect minors, or help governments protect people. That’s not his job. It’s not Google’s job, it’s not Segala’s job and it’s not the Government’s job either. Ian’s job is to help guardians who are responsible for deciding what’s appropriate and inappropriate for the people they’re responsible for. Technology should be perceived and used as an enabler, not a prohibiter. Furthermore, what a guardian in Germany deems approproate is not likely to be the same as what a guardian thinks in the UK for example. This is why I’d like people to perceive Content Labels as an enabler to help mainstream search engines and browsers to provide better content discovery, not a method for policing the Web.

So, I wouldn’t be surprised if Glaxstar gave the Weave code to Mozilla given that they’ve had it for more than a couple of years and they built Mozilla’s mainstream browser extensions for companies such as Google, Yahoo!, PayPal and eBay. They also maintain spreadfirefox.com and are responsible for resolving defects in the mainstream Firefox browser. That makes Glaxstar the most qualified company in the world to build Firefox add-ons in my opinion.

Luckily for me, Ian Howard, Founder of Glaxstar, is a personal friend of mine. So, who better to build Segala’s Firefox trust extension (not plug-in, that’s something different) Search Thresher. Our extension really is based on The Semantic Web, unlike the claims made by many of the co-called Semantic Web search engines.

Sorting the wheat from the chaff

As I’ve said, Glaxstar and Segala have been working together for the past couple of years. Although, we haven’t updated our extension in over a year (I guess that demonstrates how ahead of the curve we’ve been). As of February though, you should expect to see regular updates for our Trust extension.

Search Thresher is just one of the pieces in our jigsaw to help demonstrate why and how we feel very confident that 2008 is the year to tell Segala’s story. You will notice me talking less about conferences that I host and Chair and more about our Semantic Web method of classifying content.

What’s with the name?

The thrashing machine, or, in modern spelling, threshing machine (or simply thresher), was a machine first invented by Scottish mechanical engineer Andrew Meikle for use in agriculture. It was invented (c.1784) for the separation of grain from stalks and husks.

For thousands of years, grain was separated by hand with flails, and was very laborious and time consuming. Mechanization of this process took the drudgery out of farm labour.

Today, searching the Web is equally laborious. You may or may not find what you’re ’searching’ for and even when you do find what you want, can you trust what you find?

Think of Search Thresher as a threshing machine. It’s a Firefox extension used to demonstrate to search engines and mainstream browsers, how they can (and should!) provide users with more trust on the Web using a method called Content Labelling.

We haven’t touched the extension for over a year as we’ve been focused on other stuff that I’ll tell you about soon. If you’re a designer and would like to be recognized for your work, please feel free to volunteer your services to rebrand the Web site. Search Thresher is a non-profit standards based browser, so this may be of interest if you’re a standards enthusiasts.

We’re not emotionally attached to the name Search Thresher. What do you think of it? We’re open to suggestions if you can propose something better.

Read more about Content Labels – this post also includes sample use cases.

Watch a quick video about Content Labels

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About Content Labels

When browsing the Web, wouldn’t it be nice to get more information about Web sites before having to visit each one? Wouldn’t it be nice if Google provided more that just the title and description of each Web page from the search results.

For example, wouldn’t it be nice to know which sites comply with accessibility standards, or which sites are appropriate for children or mobile phone browsing? You might want to know which sites have been independently verified by a medical authority when searching for advice on something which may influence your decision to buy medication online. Well, until Content Labels came along, none of this has been possible.

In summary, a Content Label is a file that contains Metadata. To help enable more trust on the Web, organisations use a Content Label alongside Trustmarks to demonstrate that their Web site complies with specific Web standards and best practices.

In concept, Content Labels act in a similar fashion to SSL Certificates. SSL Certificates are used so browsers can tell if a site is secure for credit card transactions. However, Content Labels are much more flexible. They can be used to make claims about a specific section of a Web site without the restriction of having to make a claim about an entire domain. They can also be used to make claims about any type of standard, best practice or code of conduct.

As you can see from the screen shot of our Firefox extension above, browsers that read Content Labels provide more information about Web sites by placing a small icon next to each search result. When a user clicks on the icon, more information about the appropriateness of the Web site is presented in a certificate.

Some people jump to the conclusion that we’re trying to ‘police the Internet’. We’re not. Web site owners don’t have to use Content Labels to make assertions about anything. Furthermore, it’s possible to label your own Web site without having to use a trusted third-party such as Segala to verify your claims. For example, Creative Commons is free, so you won’t have to pay for a Content Label for that type of badge when we’ve created one.

Content Labels, now known as POWDER in the W3C, will replace an old W3C standard called PICS; the system currently used by Internet Explorer for filtering content. POWDER (Content Labels) is not owned or patented by Segala. It’s soon to be a ratified standard.

Read one of my previous blog posts for an in-depth explanation to help you gain a better understanding.

What’s needed

We need a brand identity that represents terms such as Trust, Relevant and Reliable. Iconography would include an icon in the browser status bar. The icon would light up when a user visits a Web page which contains a label. We also need iconography for the Web site.

Take a look at Microformats.org for an insight to what’s needed for ContentLabel.org – it’s pretty much the same. Contentlabel.org is intended to help industry create new best practices to help improve trust on the Web.

Getting paid

This is an open standards project so we’ll ensure your work is widely recognized. We’ll also buy you a beer or two, or three
If you’re interested, please provide us with a few examples of your work. We’ll publish the short list and get the public to decide on the most appropriate designer. This project is open to agencies, freelancers and students.

We must have the brand identity and main logo complete by December 4th as we have a marketing campaign setup for around that time.

Get in touch now if you’re interested in contributing to this new exciting project.

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