There’s to be a couple of new and unique search engines soon.
One is a search engine where the visitors can rate the results and move sites up the search results page.
The founder of the world’s leading online encyclopedia, Wikipedia, is preparing to take on the world’s leading search engine, Google…. [T]his focus on human judgment [is] far more effective than using computer algorithms such as those adopted by Google. (source)
The other is a search for photos based on 3D imaging software called Polar Rose. You’ll be able to search for photos which have been entered into a database by typing in a person’s name. They are currently working on the database by scanning all photos on the internet. If one photo of a person has been identified, all photos can be identified because of facial “mapping.” Cool, huh? They’re going to have every image of every person in every photo on the internet labeled and searchable, and they’ll let users input info. (source)
So what’s the down side? This article explains it:
Imagine yourself minding your own business when a tourist at Times Square snaps a picture with you walking in the background and posts it on a public site [like Flickr]. Using a search engine like Polar Rose, your boss could easily find out you were out and about on a day you had called in sick.
Photographic evidence of me skipping work? No fair! I am so not liking this Polar Rose thing.
How does this affect homeschoolers? You tell me. I don’t really know. But I imagine that I’ll be using both searches.