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Finnish scientists just built a more intuitive search engine – Metro US

Finnish scientists just built a more intuitive search engine

Finnish scientists just built a more intuitive search engine
Aalto University

Until search engines evolve to read our brains, this new search engine could be the next best thing.

Researchers at the Helsinki Institute for Information Technology and Aalto University have developed a targeting system, essentially, for getting to the information you want. Type in a query, and SciNet produces a “topic radar” of keywords. Since people could be searching for a broad subject – say, grapefruit – for many different reasons – nutrition, skincare, drug interactions – the subject is surrounded by keywords that are closer or farther away based on relevance.

Besides offering an overview of the topic, seeing results this way is helpful for people who may not know exactly what they’re looking for or the right keywords to find the information. People may be at a loss to rephrase their question, but the cloud can give them an idea of which direction to go instead of randomly clicking on search results.

A new company, Etsimo Ltd., will take over developing and launching the search engine.