I was staring in frustration at the search results when I thought, “I wish I had some way of marking which of these results are useful and which aren’t, and then have an AI analyze the different sets for language use and give me suggestions for how I can revise my search to get more useful stuff and less crap.” Then I thought, “Oh damn, that sounds like a good idea, I should make that.” So I did.
Using Google Books for Web Search: Concept Compassing
I’ve been spending my weekend playing with how Google Books could guide Web search after someone asked me about #3 in Five Ways Google Could Improve Search In 2025 That Have Nothing To Do With AI. How could Google Books make search better? I had some ideas and I applied JavaScript to them. After a few days of doodling around I’m at that point where I’ve got something that works so well I keep falling down rabbit holes playing with it. 😂
A Reddit Search Which Offers Paths, Not a List
Recently, I’ve been following a lot of Internet culture news stories and discovered that Reddit has a lot of useful information and backstory that I’ve missed. I decided to create my own Reddit search tool, Reddit Paths. Since I had access to full search results *and* I didn’t have to pay for them, I further decided to do a little experimenting and stunting.