[Web4lib] Re: Google News Timeline

[IsisInform at aol.com]

Hi Everyone --
 
Thanks to Brian for his response.  Here is the text of my private  message 
to him:  
 
The database offers three sort methods: date, source and  relevance.  All 
three sorts deliver the results in page number order,  however the database 
does not indicate that the sort is actually in page  number order.  It's a 
matter of clarity and usability.
 
For Bill's second response, we have a continued misunderstanding.  I  am 
not discussing relevance in general.  I am discussing relevance  when all 
items have equal relevance.
 
Thanks very much to Heather for her defense of an open dialogue and to Bill 
 for his apology.  I want to assure you that I am not cooled by Bill's  
first message but instead see it as an opportunity to return to the primary  
point of my original post, the lead sentence in the News Timeline  article:  
"At Google, we spend a lot of time thinking about how to organize  
information."
 
As a taxonomy consultant who began developing  subject-specific 
organizational structures 30 years ago, I also  spend a lot of time thinking about how 
to organize information.  That lead  sentence by Google is especially 
important since we have recently been  experiencing an assault on organized 
structures.  
 
One example is the book Everything Is Miscellaneous by David  Weinberger, 
who is so eager to dismiss the value of organizing that  he resorts to false 
spin tactics.  This is discussed further  in my _February  Searcher _ 
(http://www.infotoday.com/searcher/feb09/index.shtml) magazine article, "Beyond 
Findability:  Organizing Information in the Age of the Miscellaneous."  The 
main  theme of the article is the value of organized structures for  purposes 
additional to findability.  
 
It is refreshing to see Google acknowledge the importance of organizing  
methodology by placing that concept in the lead sentence of their article  
about chronologic presentation.
 
Thanks,
 
Katherine
***************************
Katherine  Bertolucci
Isis Information Services
Phoenix, AZ
_katherine at isisinform.com_ (mailto:katherine at isisinform.com) 
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