Search Thresher - enabling trust on the Web
Everyone is talking about the lack of trust on the Web.
Search Thresher is a cool browser extension that enables users to find Web sites which can be trusted. Users can now filter out Web sites that don’t meet their expected level of trust, even if the Web site owners have spent loads of cash on SEO!
How do you know who to trust?
Can you trust what you find in search results?
Over half of all adults have searched for medical related information on the Web. If searching for information on a medical condition, wouldn’t you like to know which sites promise to follow a code of conduct before entering them?
Wouldn’t it be even better if you could filter out Web sites that haven’t been verified by an independent medical authority?
When conducting a search, wouldn’t it be great to know which sites claim conformance to accessibility standards before entering them from the search engine? Better still, if you like or need to increase the size of text on a Web page, wouldn’t you like to know which sites have this specific capability before you enter them?
Enabling trust on the Web
Search Thresher is an extension used to demonstrate to search engines and mainstream browsers, how they can now provide users with more trust on the Web using a method called Content Labelling. Content Labelling is an alternative method to the outdated W3C recommendation called PICS, which is still in use by Microsoft Internet Explorer for filtering content today.
The W3C Web Content Label incubator activity project recently completed its final report after conducting research into the most appropriate method of labelling content on the Web. Search Thresher reads these labels to display additional information about a Web site *before* users visit the site.
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[…] Search Thresher is a plugin for Firefox which can read metadata associated with websites and change the results of your searches accordingly. […]
I downloaded and installed the software without problems, it ran perfectly.
A Google search for “Segala” brings up several pages which have been certified (not surprisingly) and it’s easy to see how being able to restrict search results to sites which have been through the certification process would be useful.
I believe the same process can be applied to Google Adwords results which will be very helpful.
My staff do a lot of desk research and being able to remove the noise and ‘adult’ sites will cut down the time spent wading through irrelevant spam sites.
Good job guys and good luck
Peter Bennett
http://www.london-translations.co.uk
I am sure I am not alone in the frustration with web searching these days. So I am always willing to try different options, so tried this latest Segala offering. The install was a breeze, and having more control to sites returned in search engines, is the only pactical method of getting more relevant search results.
Early days, but it is only a matter of time before efforts such as this become a standard practice. Any site serious about its audience will apply for this kind of certification, and long may it continue in this way. Exercising control on web search results, rather than futile attempts to control the web, means the essential freedom of the web is not compromised.
Paul Littlebury
http://www.jaffamonkey.co.uk
The future of the Internet in 2 minutes…
I’ve been invited by Robert Loch to give my 2 minute sound bite on where I think the Internet is heading. So, you’ll just have to attend the networking event if you’d like to hear my thoughts.
Generally the Internet People events are very cool a…
[…] Segala have just released a new Firefox plugin called Search Thresher. Search Thresher allows users to selectively find Web sites which claim conformance to standards and best practices in standard web searches using a method called Content Labelling. […]