SpiffySearch

From MashupCamp

We had a small but mighty group for this one. I showed SpiffY!Search and discussed some of its implications and ramifications.

Briefly, SpiffY!Search uses Yahoo!'s open APIs to return search results and related search terms without leaving the page or requiring the user to click anything. Results may be filtered by domain, including the domain the page is hosted on or any domain from any search return, and may be instantly bookmarked through Yahoo!'s MyWeb service, again without leaving the page. The point is to allow the user to search and save without forcing him off the page he really wants to read.

SpiffY!Search depends on JSON objects, which may be imported directly into a document through the use of the script tag hack and programatically manipulated by Javascript. Since there are no proxies involved, it runs quite nicely from a file on one's desktop, and is quite fast.

Since I'd just done ten five-minute demos in a row for SpeedGeeking, the demo went very quickly. Remains of the session were spent talking about:

• JSON objects and their significance
• social search
• tagging and the possibility of anti-tagging
• affinity clouds (the interface between tags, taggers, and tag-ees)
• instant, context-sensitive reputation

It was grand; thanks to all who came.