Prefound - A Search Engine for the "We" Generation

Earlier this year, in a scandal that rocked the Internet, researchers at America Online accidentally released the search histories of more than 650,000 users (identities removed). This list, which spread quickly, contained 21 million queries and gave a glimpse into the lives of Americans through their queries. Using tools built to browse the data that sprung up immediately thereafter; one could find everything from ordinary to outlandish.

But something else emerged as I browsed some of this information — largely thanks to my conversations with Bath County native Steve Mansfield, co-founder of PreFound.com, a Lexington-based search engine company. Many people are searching for the same things, and often repeating searches in frustration. Pew Internet released a study in which they showed that only 17 percent of searchers find exactly what they want when they set out to search. We love being able to search, but not everyone has it mastered, and the machines that give us the results are far from perfect.

But what if you could capture the energy of earlier search successes and share it with later ones? If an expert in a field has found results that relate to what you’re seeking and posted them, why would you want to repeat the work? I often find that the information you get from a search engine is like answers from a gardener with clean fingernails — everything is theoretically correct, but the results are missing “soul.” Perhaps it’s time to “Wiki-fy” search with a little humanity.

This concept is fundamental to the business model of Prefound, which is aimed at a new breed of Web surfer. “When we started out a few years ago, the Internet was an anonymous system where we surfed alone. Now, people expect to share what they know — to show off their on-line persona,” said Mansfield. Indeed if Web 1.0 was about hunt and gather, Web 2.0 is about share and subscribe.

But until recently, many thought Web users were too lazy to share expertise for the common good with no clear expectation of pay-back. “Sharing is a way to assert your persona, and the Y Generation does it all the time,” Mansfield reminds me. I admit, as I used Prefound, I felt tempted to stop and build lists of things in which I felt proficient at every bend — a sort of obsessive-compulsive need to set things straight. Self-publishing activities such as blogging, Wikis, MySpace, Playlists, Amazon Lists, and Flickr, demonstrate the concept even more clearly — so why not search results?

As with any social search tool, Prefound depends on categorization-narrowing techniques, sharing, and human ranking for the presentation of its results. It’s no accident these offer a rich, targeted advertising property, thanks to the system’s ability to “triangulate” on users’ interests.

Other search engines are taking notice of socialized search, somewhat slowed by their “query reflex” culture. From humble beginnings with its smiley-face/frowney-face toolbar in 2001, Google has its recently enhanced “Co-Op” product to include some very Prefound-like features. Yahoo!, for its part, has made several moves, including a new tagging toolbar, the acquisition of del.icio.us, and organizational adjustments around the new My Web 2.0 system. Even Microsoft is throwing money at socializing live.com. This adds validation and possibly competition for the Prefound concept. It was Tim Mayer, Yahoo!’s product manager for Web search, who offered recently, “It’s the right time to augment Web search results with some human touch.”

Prefound’s tagging process is quite easy. First, the regular Web surfer does a one-time installation of a mini-application called the “PF Finder,” provided free from prefound.com. The tool is not a browser toolbar or plug-in, but a sort-of “cursor extension” you use to tag a link. Tagged links are saved to be organized when you have time (nice) where they are posted, reviewed, and rated. It’s an extremely easy and non-invasive process.

This is precisely what Mansfield wants to hear. “PF Finder is meant to be an organic extension of surfing, while adding some really great browser-enhancing features.” I agree. Even if I weren’t gathering links for the search aspect, the other features are keepers and make my humble Google Notebook look downright, well, notebooky. The toolbars aren’t even close.

As for the future, one must keep an eye on this space. Recently, smaller search companies with good ideas have been snatched for their staff and patent portfolios. There have been jokes about these companies just being “features” under development. But Prefound is way beyond interesting — it’s where life-tech meets society through our wisdom and need to share. I appreciate them letting me tag along.

I'm hoping that Prefound will dump the "sitepal" on their search page. That whole thing weirds me out. I find myself dreading their home page because of it, and frankly I cannot see even one sliver of benefit. With such a great technology (PF Finder) and a solid conceptual tagging engine, such a gimmick is unnecessary in my opinion.

Having Adsense on the blog itself also seems sort of out-of-place. Unless it's bringing in serious dollars, I'd scrap it from the blog. Let your messages shine through!

Related Links - make sure to subscribe to their blog, Steve has a lot of great write-ups on Social Search:

Here are a few hilights:

http://www.prefoundblog.com/2006/05/google_introduces_coop_prefoun.html

http://www.prefoundblog.com/2006/05/google_notebook_vs_prefound_pf.html

http://www.mansfieldmanifesto.com/2006/05/i_wont_blog_about_google_coop.html

http://www.prefoundblog.com/2006/05/prefoundcom_passes_the_social.html

http://www.prefoundblog.com/2006/06/the_space_heats_up.html

Prefound.com - Search for the "We" Generation