Aardvark – A New Approach to Search, Ideal for iPhone and iPod touch

This week, Aardvark unleashed a powerful mobile search tool for iPhone and iPod touch available as a free download in the App Store. Most of you probably haven’t even heard of Aardvark yet, but trust us, you need to get to know it, and soon. Aardvark’s unique approach to search will challenge Google and the other major search engines by mining the deep intrinsic knowledge of the most powerful computer on the planet, the human brain.

The big search engines are all built upon the same basic principle; they use complex mathematical algorithms to determine relevancy between keyword search and content. However, they all fail miserably in the area of subjective search. This relates to searches such as “was burning man better this year or last year?” Or, “why did the buffalo bills lose last night?” Each of those searches would yield very poor results on Google. This, however, is the area in which Aardvark truly shines because they’ve discovered that people, not machines, are the new algorithm. With Aardvark’s new iPhone app you can find answers to these kinds of search queries without having to sift through hundreds of results pages.

Aardvark’s Shines Where Google Fails

We’re all search users, and most of us have been using Google for so long we’ve been trained that internet search has to happen a certain way. Go to a Google search field, enter keywords, scan the list of results from the top down, click on enticing links and hope to find our answer on the other side. If not, go back and refine our search terms and try again. And sometimes, again and again. Now we know why Google put an “I’m Feeling Lucky” button on its home page.

The problem with this interaction into search is that for us, the users, the task becomes a chore, a commitment of time and often a distraction in our daily workflow. The beauty of Aardvark is that once you submit your question, you go back to whatever you were doing before. When Aardvark finds your answer it pushes it to you, on your iPhone, Facebook, instant messenger, where ever you are. This fundamentally changes search from being an active task requiring your full attention, into a passive experience that fits more naturally into your daily workflow.

Of course, to get an answer from Aardvark you have to ask a question first. To ask a question using the Aardvark iPhone app, you simply type your question into the entry field and then go about your business. Aardvark will work it’s magic and then push a notification to you when your answer is ready. Currently, most answers will appear within 5 minutes, but some answers may take longer. You can always view your questions by tapping on the Ask button on the bottom menu.

The Secret Sauce Is You, Me, Everyone – and a little math

So how does Aardvark find your answers? Well, Aardvark actually does use complex algorithms, just not in the same way the big search engines do. Instead of using logic to match your question to a set of web pages, Aardvark uses math to match your question to the person most likely to provide you with an answer. It sends them the question, they answer, Aardvark routes it back to you.

Aardvark isn’t new, it’s been around for a couple of years now, existing as a web product that integrates with instant messaging protocols. Here at Touchtip we’ve been gleefully using Aardvark on IM for many months and we are now absolutely delighted to have this on our iPhones and iPod touches. We can now more easily interact with Aardvark while on-the-go.

Get Started – Ask a Question, Be an Expert

When you sign up for Aardvark, you will be asked to provide at least three areas of expertise, and you can add more at any time. Existing Aardvark users can simply sign into their account from the iPhone app. Aardvark determines which experts are most appropriate to answer a particular question based on these topic areas in your profile. Other dimensions are also factored in, such as behavior, quality, and geographic location among others. This results in a surprisingly accurate correlation of question and expert which enables Aardvark to find you a high quality answer instead of leaving you neck deep in a list of thousands of links like Google will do.

Using Aardvark means that in addition to asking questions from the network of users, you may also answer questions yourself, based on the areas of expertise you flagged in your profile. On instant messaging, Aardvark appears as one of you contacts and sends you IMs asking if you can answer a particular question. On the iPhone, this would be very annoying so Aardvark changed this feature so that you can answer questions when you are ready to.

Tapping the Answer button on the bottom bar brings you to a queue of questions Aardvark believes you can help answer for someone. Since everyone is an expert on some topic, chances are you can help someone with their inquiry. If you can’t answer the first question, you can close it and move on to the next one and so on. There’s no pressure for you to answer questions, but it does feel good to be able to help someone.

Aardvark learns from your interaction with the product and gets smarter over time. The more you respond to questions, the more Aardvark learns about your expertise and is thus able to send you qualified questions. If you cannot answer a question, you have the option to mute that topic so that you won’t see more of those types of questions, or you can forward it to someone you know who can provide an answer.

With the iPhone app, Aardvark introduces a new type of qualifier for finding people to answer your question, location awareness. This uses the iPhone’s GPS feature to find your location and then uses that as a factor to route questions to you that may be location specific. You might see a question like, “where can i find a good lunch spot nearby?” from a person who is in your general vicinity. Again, this type of search in Google would be absolutely fruitless and more than anything, downright frustrating.

Aardvark and the Network Effect

Aardvark’s ability to find high quality answers for you is only as good as the network of people who use Aardvark. Since the underlying power of Aardvark lies within social networks, it’s only natural that as Aardvark’s active user base grows, so will its usefulness. You help Aardvark in this manner, not only by interacting with the product, but also by using the social networks you’ve already built. Aardvark currently integrates into your Twitter and Facebook accounts so you can instantly increase your own Aardvark network. Don’t worry, though, Aardvark will not spam your contacts in any way. You can manage your Aardvark network from the Friends tab in the iPhone app.

The multiplatform approach allows you to ask a question from, let’s say, your IM client, then get your answer on your iPhone. Push notifications work where ever question is asked IM, Facebook, Twitter, Web or Facebook. The creators of Aardvark plan to broaden its reach across even more mobile platforms social networks which means Aardark will fit into your workflow even more seamlessly. So far, we’ve found Aardvark to be an essential search utility for us, not to replace Google, but to augment it for subjective searches for which Google does not do well at all.

Still Reading This? Go Get Aardvark!

We love Aardvark and can’t recommend it enough. It’s a terrific tool to use right now, and it will only get better in time as more people discover how powerful it is, expanding the Aardvark network. It’s free, so go download it today and let us know what you think. After you sign up, feel free to add me to your network, I’m “dean at touchtip dot com”. I’m always glad to help answer your questions about the iPhone or iPod touch.

• Aardvark iPhone app – Free [app store]

Aardvark’s web site www.vark.com

 

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