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Clustering in SERPs

milivella [PersonRank 10]

Tuesday, July 29, 2008
15 years ago3,221 views

You probably know
http://clusty.com/
a search engine that let you refine your searches through clustering. I find the clustering engine not only interesting, but also well done. Still, I never use Clusty for my searches. The main reason is that the idea behind Clusty is that search should be a dialog between you and the search engine. As Alex Iskold put it:

"The problem is that human interactions are fundamentally iterative, while our interactions with computers are mostly stateless. Perhaps we could get to the perfect search results if we could have a dialog with the computer? Clustering technologies, particularly the one offered by Clusty, give computer a chance to clarify [...]"
from http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/overview_of_clu.php

But I as user am lazy, I don't want to clarify, I just want my results, the best results that information technology is able to produce, given my query. For a similar opinion, see
http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=5463

Still, I think clustering could be used in SERPs, in a simple way. If you are good at clustering – and, again, IMHO Clusty is quite good at it – you could offer the "10 boring vanilla blue links" in different clusters. As Philipp wrote
http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2008-04-25-n83.html
"diverse results are good". But, at the same time, they are _diverse_. So, wouldn't it be a bit easier to read them if they are divided in clusters?

Quick example of a SERP with clusters, using the same "[google blog] search" example used by Philipp in that post:

*Official Google blogs*
1. Official Google Blog
2. Official Google Blog post
7. Official Google Webmaster Central Blog
8. Official Google Mac Blog
9. Google Online Security Blog
10. Official Google Reader Blog

*Google Blog Search*
3. Google’s Blog Search

*Google Blogging Platform*
4. Blogger

*Indipendent blogs about Google*
5. Google Blogoscoped
6. Google Weblog

Maybe this idea is not so good, let me know your opinion. And maybe it's already implemented by some search engine (possibly I saw it and forgot): again, please let me know.

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

15 years ago #

Google has something related to this... take a look at the query [philipp], for instance, which has 13 organic results – 3 of them intermittent ones separated with a blue line and introduced with "See results for: *philippines*":
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=philipp

milivella [PersonRank 10]

15 years ago #

Thanks, Philipp, for the feedback. And congratulations: it seems that you are the most popular Philipp in the world, according to Google!

Anyway, I was thinking about something different: not a suggestion of "related" searches, but the same old 10 blue links (OK, nowadays with videos, images, etc., but you've got the idea). Just, they could be organized, i.e. categorized in different clusters. (I know, I should compose a mock-up SERP to visually show what I mean, but I'm pretty lazy ;) : please refer to the [google blog] example I used in the original post.)

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