* Watson, I want you
“Mr. Watson, come here. I want you.” Those famous words once uttered by Alexander Graham Bell to his laboratory assistant take on a whole new meaning in the context of searching for information on the Web.
The Watson I have been working with recently may not be a “Mister,” but it is a very helpful assistant nonetheless. I’m speaking of the context-sensitive search utility called Watson from Intellext. I’m growing very fond of the recently released Watson Version 2.0, which information workers might find very useful.
I know many of you use Google to search for information on the Web. I’ve been a solid user of Dogpile.com for years. I like Dogpile because, as a meta search engine, it returns the results from several other search engines all at once. I feel like I am doing the broadest possible Web search when I use Dogpile.
Watson, however, takes the meta search one step further. Not only does it return the results of searches from several search engines, but it also can search blogs, news sites and even research sites that require a subscription to access. You’ll still have to pay to access the subscription sites’ results, but I’m impressed that Watson can even search through such documents at all. Another helpful feature of Watson is that it can be customized to search your company’s internal knowledge system. You can use its Information Source Wizard to “build your own search engine.”
Aside from the deep search capabilities, Watson is different from other search engines in one great respect: it performs automatic contextual searches based on your current document and places results in front of you, like a dog retrieving your slippers when you walk in the door.
Watson is an unassuming application that runs in your Windows 2000, XP or 2003 taskbar until needed. Once fully opened, there is an easy to use GUI that is populated with only a few necessary buttons and menu picks. Intellext has done a good job in its minimalist approach to control and layout. All search results are returned to a pane in the application instead of your browser. The search results are categorized into default groups: Web, News, Blogs and Research. There’s also a master group called “Top Results” that contains all the unsorted results in one place.
The context-sensitive search works in the active window pane from within a number of different applications:
* Microsoft Word 2000, XP, and 2003.
* Microsoft PowerPoint 2000, XP, and 2003.
* Microsoft Outlook – if you use Microsoft Word as your e-mail editor.
* Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 and higher.
* Mozilla Firefox 1.04 and higher.
* Google Desktop Search.
* X1 Desktop Search.
* MSN Windows Desktop Search.
Watson starts its analysis as soon as you load a document in one of the applications outlined above, providing the document has enough content on which to search. About a sentence is all that is required for Watson to begin searching in the background, while you continue working, according to Intellext. It never pops up to get in your way when it’s finished a search, but waits like a conscientious assistant – available when you need it.
Take this article as an example. After I typed the first paragraph, Watson would return results about Alexander Graham Bell. These search results would sit off to the side waiting for me to investigate them if I so desire.
After a “good chunk of time,” as Intellext calls it, or after significant change is made to the document, Watson will again start its intelligent search process based on current document content. So after I typed the next three paragraphs, my automatic search results might shift to information about Watson, Google, Dogpile and other Web search engines. Forget Alexander Graham Bell, as he is no longer the major context of my article.
This “shifting search” can be annoying if you’re not done using the results found in the first search. However, Watson has a “Tack” button that preserves the results from its last search until you click on Tack once more to re-enable the search process.
As an intelligent meta search tool, Watson uses statistical language analysis as well as application-level semantics in its context searching algorithms. It focuses only on what the user is currently working on, ignoring things like template items or slide titles when determining valid search criteria.
Watson is available right now as a free three-day trial with options ranging from a monthly subscription service with a small monthly fee, up to enterprise licenses. Three days is pretty short for a preview period, but it won’t take you long to install it and give it a try. If you search for information as often as I do, I think you’ll find Watson to be a valuable addition to your tool kit.
