News Patterns Discovery 2: Searches Without You Needing to Type

In my previous blog, News Patterns Discovery - The Disciplined Enabling of Serendipity, I referenced a Wall Street Journal article. In this blog I will continue my reliance on the WSJ with an interview of Google CEO, Eric Schmidt. On Saturday (August 14, 2010) , the WSJ published this interview of CEO Eric Schmidt: Google and the Search for the Future conducted by Holman Jenkins. In the article, Schmidt had these things to say:

"...more and more searches are done on your behalf without you needing to type."

"I actually think most people don't want Google to answer their questions," he elaborates. "They want Google to tell them what they should be doing next.":

These are two ideas captured by our existing News Patterns innovations.  :

* Our patterning and radars suggest interesting market events that are discovered with powerful algorithms.  Then with a single click, a user can access the desired articles that are retrieved with complex search logic.  The end result is that simple clicking results in potentially interesting or surprising articles that were not typed in as searches.  We call this process Discovery. News Patterns implements this type of "searches without you needing to type" in visual News Radar interfaces and discovery briefing email.   :

* Our algorithms also suggest what our users should look at first or "should be doing next" by first discovering patterns, then prioritizing many possible patterns to investigate.:

Beyond that sophisticated algorithms that enable the above innovations, News Patterns and Google are relying on a useful context for their users. In the above WSJ interview, Eric Schmidt uses the example of real-time proximity enabled by GPS phones, that might tie a user's needs with near locations of products or services that can satisfy those needs. In the situation of News Patterns, the context that we create regards potential market or political threats driven by rivers of news signals. By seeking relationships among many different competing factors, then alerting users when relationships might be changing or new relationships are emerging, News Patterns draws users attention to information areas that might be interpreted as threats or opportunities - without typing search terms!:

The net result is a faster and more timely provision of useful information to News Patterns users without them even knowing that they should be seeking the particular news articles.