3/30 Search SIG. Social Search Goes Big: Google Acquires Aardvark

Please join us for an evening of conversation with Damon Horowitzer, co-founder and CTO of Aardvark which was acquired by Google in February.

Aardvark is social search: ask any question and Aardvark will discover the perfect person in your network to answer in minutes. Aardvark launched a private beta in March, 2009, and has been growing rapidly since. Today people use Aardvark via vark.com, the Aardvark iPhone App, IM and email. Over the past few months Aardvark has had amazing reception by the industry and press, appearing in the New York Times, Time’s 50 Best Websites of 2009, TechCrunch, and winning runner-up as the Best New Product or Startup of 2009 at the Crunchies awards.

About Damon:

Damon Horowitz is a leading thinker at the intersection of technology and the humanities.

Horowitz was co-founder and CTO of Aardvark, the popular social search engine, overseeing product development and research strategy. Prior to Aardvark, Horowitz built several companies around applications of intelligent language processing. He co-founded Perspecta (acquired by Excite), was lead architect for Novation Biosciences (acquired by Agilent), and co-founded NewsDB (now Daylife). Currently, Horowitz is a Director of Engineering at Google.

Horowitz teaches courses in philosophy, cognitive science, and computer science at many institutions, including Stanford, NYU, University of Pennsylvania, and San Quentin. He has spoken at conferences ranging from TED to AAAI to Web2.0, and his work has been featured in media ranging from the New York Times to Discovery Channel to TechCrunch. Horowitz was recently named one of the AdAge “Creativity 50” most inspiring thinkers and innovators of 2010.

Horowitz earned his B.A. from Columbia, M.S. from MIT Media Lab, and Ph.D. from Stanford.

Agenda
The now well established Search SIG Agenda format will be used:
6:30-7:00pm – Registration / Food & Drink
7:00–7:05pm – A few words about the Search SIG
7:00-9:00 pm – Program

Price
$15 at the door for non-SDForum members
No charge for SDForum members

Google, Kosmix and the Exploration of the Deep Web

Google, Kosmix and the Exploration of the Deep Web Welcome to the Deep Web, the portion of the Internet not accessible to traditional search engines. Social networks, media-sharing sites for photos and videos, library catalogs, airline reservation systems, phone books, and all kinds of scientific databases lurk inside the Web, practically invisible today’s search tools. The volume of this hidden content is enormous: some estimates have pegged the size of the Deep Web at up to 500 times larger than the slice of the Web we see on search engines today.Ironically, the Deep Web hides some of the richest content on the Internet. The Web 2.0 revolution has enabled an explosion of sites dedicated to user-generated content, including Wikipedia, YouTube, Flickr, TripAdvisor and Yelp. Content on these sites grows so rapidly that it’s nearly impossible for Web crawlers to keep up. Social media sites like Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter pose the same challenge, and often add privacy protections that permit only “friends” to view certain information. In this session, Kosmix Co-Founder Dr. Anand Rajaraman and Dr. Alon Halevy of Google Labs will explore the mysteries of the Deep Web.  Prominent experts in this field, Rajaraman and Halevy will examine how the Deep Web will change the business of Search, offer insight into what content creators should expect as the Deep Web becomes more accessible, and comment on what this shift might mean for the end user. They will also address the question of whether the Deep Web will someday be fully exposed, and if not, why not.   Agenda The now well established Search SIG Agenda format will be used: 6:30-7:00pm – Registration / Food & Drink 7:00–7:05pm – A few words about the Search SIG 7:00-9:00 pm – Program Price $15 at the door for non-SDForum members No charge for SDForum members Date:  November 12, 2009 Location: Cubberley Community Center 4000 Middlefield Rd., RM H-1 Palo Alto, CA Agenda The now well established Search SIG Agenda format will be used: 6:30-7:00pm – Registration / Food & Drink 7:00–7:05pm – A few words about the Search SIG 7:00-9:00 pm – Program

Search SIG Tonight!

Using the Social Graph / Social Platforms to Enhance Search & Discovery

When: Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2008
Where: Yahoo! Main Campus, Sunnyvale, CA – Building C. Classroom 5.

Kevin Marks from Google
Aditya Argarwal from Facebook
Kent Brewster of Yahoo!
Eve Phillips CEO of Chirp

With Dave McClure moderating. This should be a good one!

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=8507947786

http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/421044/ 

Register here: http://sdforum.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Calendar.eventDetail&eventID=12986

Search SIG Feb. 12, 2008 – The Social Graph & Search

Hey, I know it’s been a long time. But we’re getting back up to speed with an awesome event.

Dude, Where’s My Car?  Using the Social Graph / Social Platforms to Enhance Search & Discovery

When: Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2008
Where: Yahoo! Main Campus, Sunnyvale, CA –  Building C. Classroom 5.
Who: Dave McClure will moderate! (more to come soon)

topics to cover:
– platform overviews / highlight unique features of each platform (API overview / features)
– explore social graph search / friend list lookup — as API feature  (on platform vs embedded external)
– discuss targeted search vs serendipitous discovery (search box vs news feed)
– enabling friend lists / social graph lookup from email / IM / other data sources
– opportunities for 3rd-party developers — distribution / viral acquisition / monetization
– review privacy mgmt / data portability — high priority or not?  alpha geek issue, or mainstream?

Upcoming: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/421044/

Register for the event (these fill up fast!):  http://sdforum.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Calendar.eventDetail&eventID=12986

May 8th Search SIG – People Search!

Okay kids, we’re all set (or getting there)…

The next Search SIG is May 8th at Google. The topic is People Search. The panel includes Wink and Spock, at the moment, with more to come. Michael Arrington will be the moderator. It should be a great discussion about the hot, new, and burgeoning vertical search category of people search.

The hype:

• 30% of all searches on Google or Yahoo! are for specific people or people related.
• Marge Simpson “googled” herself for the first time on the latest episode of The Simpsons
• Is there room for a smart new company to take the place of a general search engine to provide better and more accurate results for people queries?
• What’s more important… the head or the tail?
• What about disambiguation? How can that be achieved?
• How does the concept of identity management play in to all of this?
• more more more!

Come and join us…

Time: 6:30 (registration) 7:00 (presentation)

Where: Building 43 – Google Inc. 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway Mountain View, CA 94043

See you there!

Here it is on Upcoming: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/183783/

Next Search SIG May 8th – People Search!

Just an update. The next Search SIG will be May 8th. The subject is the burgeoning new vertical search space of people search.

Stay tuned for more information!

-beach

SearchSIG – Product Search – Speakers

We have a great lineup of speakers for the product search panel. February 13, 2007

Chris Saito (Yahoo! Shopping)
David Weinrot (Shopzilla)
Siva Kumar (TheFind)
Neil Mayle (Dotted Pair)

The panel is next tuesday, at 6:30 PM at Yahoo! Main Campus, 701 First Ave. Sunnyvale Classrooms 4 & 5 in Building C

Register Now: http://www.sdforum.org/SDForum/Templates/CalendarEvent.aspx?CID=2085&mo=2&yr=2007