Feb
[ Editor's note: Charles Knight received honorable mention in the second annual Federated Search Blog contest. In recognition of this honor, the Blog is publishing his essay and contest sponsor Deep Web Technologies is awarding Charles a $100 prize.
Charles Knight is a blogger and leading authority on alternative search engines. Recently the editor of AltSearchEngines, he now blogs about "All things Search" for TheNextWeb at http://thenextweb.com/search. He lives in Charlottesville, VA. ]
How Federated Search can Make You RICH! by Charles Knight
Unlike all of the other entries to this contest, this is the ONLY one that will MAKE YOU RICH.
Yes, you heard me right, this is a COMMERCIAL application of Federated Search technology.
Feel free to PATENT, BUILD, and SELL this product and then WATCH THE MONEY ROLL IN!
The FIRST STEP is to print out and tape in front of you this image of a beautiful Gemstone Globe.
As you prepare for the 2010 Christmas shopping season, note that you would never want to actually sell one of these globes!! Why not? Because they are LIMITED and STATIC.
For the moment, just imagine the difference between a Microsoft multi-touch SURFACE table and an ETCH-A-SKETCH.
The globe that you will be developing will fix those two problems using Federated Search technology. IT’S THAT SIMPLE!
So the NEXT STEP is to make them multi-functional. The surface of the globe is actually a curved screen. Don’t worry, flexible screen technology will soon be available, but you would want to contact those vendors ASAP.
This change in your globes will allow you to touch (or SPEAK!) the globe and change it from one mode to another, e.g. political boundaries, typographical features, global weather (or warming for the GREENIES), population statistic icons and so forth, as many as you can dream up.
Finally, add the FEDERATED SEARCH technology. As soon as you select a mode (by touch or voice), the GUI runs a search query against specialized databases in real-time and sends the search results to the surface of the globe.
IMAGINE seeing political boundaries as they are at that minute, and always up to date! IMAGINE touching this magic globe and seeing all of the weather patterns around the world in real time, as they are that minute! SEE the clouds swirling around, the darkness falling, the precise areas of rain and sunshine, and all MOVING!!
Researchers can work at their desks while population statistics change in each country, e.g. birth and death rates. These globes are both BEAUTIFUL and PRACTICAL, and one in your home will be the ultimate conversation piece!!
This is a PUBLIC CONTEST and this idea is NOT PROTECTED, so HURRY and DON’T DELAY! Get started on it now!
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Tags: federated search
3 Responses so far to "Charles Knight: How Federated Search can Make You RICH!"
February 5th, 2010 at 1:07 pm
[...] I won Honorable mention and got $100! Woot! I have tweaked it just a bit - the original is here.Unlike all of the other entries to this contest, this is the ONLY one that will MAKE YOU RICH.Yes, [...]
February 7th, 2010 at 3:48 pm
This is a really nice vision of a User Interface. And, fortunately or otherwise, I can point you at a couple of examples of a better ‘teaser’ for the globe than the static image I am sure you have taped to a wall in front of you even now.
Take a trip to Seattle. Visit the Science Fiction Museum (where SciFi is still spelled that way!), and the visitor center at that software giant in Redmond. In both places you can see a 6′ version of the globe suspended in front of you.
Non-interactive, and projection technology (with some interesting optical challenges to get three or four externally projected images to meet without distortion), however able to display not only this planet - but others - and information about them.
The Fed Search and even real-time information element is definitely not there, but the display medium is a ‘stop and stare’ sight once you realize what is being done. I am sure there are others, but I came across these two in one day (plus numerous MS surfaces), and it was an experience.
February 8th, 2010 at 10:31 am
Greenies? Okay.
Keeping this constructive I’d suggest you don’t drag politics into a post about software; you’ve just turned off half your readers.