This caught my eye this evening, I thought it might be of interest to you guys.

"VortexDNA, a Christchurch technology company, claim to have developed a plug-in to the Firefox browser that can improve the relevance of Google search results. And they're looking for thousands of volunteer web-searchers to give it a free trial."

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10409369

the website:

http://vortexdna.com/

Somehow I believe Google already works very hard (maybe harder than Vortex, with more smart people behind it) to make search results relevant... and even if Vortex had a great way to find relevant stuff, they could only choose from the top 10 Google offers, as they only highlight a result, right?

What I think they're trying to do is work on algorithms that relate people with those search results.

Why could it only be the top 10? I don't see why they can't do a loop-back to the server to get more results with their extension... There are extensions out there that do just that, and scripts on other websites that get googles results and search through them to find specific websites etc.

I do believe they're trying to solve a problem which Google itself is working on, but perhaps Vortex is trying a different view (and they do have a fresh view).

I am still not understanding how value is created.. After all, the extension is pulling the results of the Google Farm, but how does it rationalize relevance without tracking mydna and historical trends ?

From what I gather, the product does not track you!!

"The user's personal search 'DNA' is created by answering a few short questions as the plug-in installs into Firefox."

Quote from the article. In other words, you indicate what would be of interest to you, and VortexDNA points to results that match what you're interested in.

A more interesting extension would be to locally track the results I click on and build a profile based on these – although there'd have to be some sort of post-back to their servers for each URLs classification. I'd be willing to be they've got a set number of categories that they classify each URL into.

In my opinion this is interesting, but to be innovative they'd need to track your specific behavior and feed that back to you. And that's where they can one-up the Google algorithms that simply say "these are the best results according to everybody."

mrbene: I agree to a lot that you mention. Its a fact that relevance is most important in todays space...

==>> "'DNA' is created by answering a few short questions"

This kinda locks down a user into a specific zone. However, the reality is users are constantly changing.. 5 yrs ago a "honeypot" to me meant real honey.. but today that same term means something else totally.. and tomorrow it may mean a totally different thing!!!!

"The catogries of human thought are never fixed in any one definte form; they are made, unmade and remade incessantly, they change with time and place" – Emile Durkheim

hi there,

your DNA is your profile created from your purpose, values and life focus. this DNA is then added to every link you visit thus building a DNA profile for that link. when you search you will be shown links (within your search) that are most relevant to your DNA. as time goes on each link will start to get an accurate profile of the people to whom that link is most relevant and then use that to match that link back to whoever has matching dna.

this is just the start of what the technology will actually do. its complementary to other contextual/externally based pattern searching.

PD, You are right that people change and your profile can be updated any time you like, daily, weekly, monthly or on a random basis. the vortexdna profile is free and you can login into it through vortexdna.com. its based on complex systems theory and complex systems (the universe) is always changing and feding back those changes into the system. that's how vortexdna works.

you can also use your profile to match with other individuals as well as find a job in the right place. a recent survey showed a company's culture, purpose and values as the no 1 issue for jobseekers.

vortexdna is a complete relevance over/underlay technology to the internet in all its forms.

Raf, thanks for that feedback, certainly clarified certain things for me!!

However, you say : "this DNA is then added to every link you visit thus building a DNA profile for that link"

But you website sez this : "We don't track your browser history – Guaranteed! "

If your not tracking my browser histroy then you can't add links to my dna.. correct ??

So could you clarify the difference between your website and your statement above. What am I missing ??

hi pd,

its the other way around. your dna is added to the links you visit and that is all that is recorded. as others add their dna to the same links, the link builds it own profile and that is then matched back to any new searcher when that link is pulled up via a search.

so your actual browsing is not recorded...we could never have enough storage :-)

hopefully google or any other search engine will use our technology to completely reorder or rerank the links they pull up for you to so you get the most relevant first and the rest in order of relevance.

lets face it alot of links are not at all useful.

its like going through a labyrinth where people like you have left you directions to the place you want to go to.

i hope that helps.

Yes. thanks Raf – btw-- Gandhi is one of my hero too :)-

pd, that's good to hear :-)