I am not referring to the boy band of the late 80's (oops showing my age), but Search Engines the Next Generation.

Ok enough of my references to pop culture.... an article on CNET, "Next-generation search tools to refine results " mentions how search tools need to be reworked and refined to adequately search and find the vast amounts of information that is being put up on the web at an exponential rate. One new search engine called Flamenco (where do people get these names?!) is geared towards making it easier to search for works of art and antiques. Art and images in general is an area in my opinion, that is very difficult to search effectively on the web.

Another new idea in search engines is, Kozoru. (To me the name sounds like what you would get if Godzilla and Zorro were crossed.) According to their site "Kozoru is also a new way of looking at search technology. We focus not on the ability to index information and produce results, but on the deeper questions around providing meaningful information in the form of answers."

Oh my God is this some sort of search engine that will help me be more Zen?!
No, according to Kozoru, they are seeking to create a natural language search engine, free from the pit falls of boolean logic and search terms. Instead of search results one would receive the answers to their questions. (Ok that sounds a little Zen, or like AskJeeves...where did that go?)

I am a little skeptical of Kozoru....call it the controlled vocabularly loving MeSH librarian I am, but I just don't see a natural language search engine working yet. Of course I would love for Kozoru to prove me wrong, because I realize that I (like most librarians) am odd and freaky. I think in search terms, I live with boolean (don't tell my husband), and speak controlled vocabulary. However, I realize the general searching public doesn't have these unique qualities that I and other librarians posess. So if Kozoru can come up with a natural language search engine that works...more power to them.