Cliff Kuang of Fast Company introduced me to Ask Ken, a cool new visual search tool, in his post Infographic of the Day: Ask Ken, a Visual Browser for Wikipedia. I wanted to share it here because:
A. I think it’s cool
B. You should know about it
Why is Ask Ken Cool?
Good question. I took a screen shot of why I think that it’s cool, despite it still being a little rough. In his post on Fast Company, Cliff talks about the demise of the hyper link and I think that tools like Wolfram Alpha and Ask Ken are early pioneers in that regard. Imagine if you wanted to know about the Hoover Dam, but you didn’t want to read about it, you just wanted to explore around the pertinent facts.
I have the Hoover Dam surrounded by the architect and engineering firm who created it, one of it’s main uses, and the type of dam that it is all on the same screen. What I really like about the visual display all on one page though is the idea of the relationships between seemingly disparate topics. Like the fact that Bechtel, the firm that engineered the Hoover Dam also engineered the Chunnel between England and France.
Good stuff, right?
What Do You Think?
I don’t think that Ask Ken is the end all be all of search. I do think that it’s another step in the right direction though. Let me know how you feel about it in the comments below.
There are many Chris Hall's in this world. This one blogs and tweets under the code name: hallicious.
