When computers try to do too much
You may have seen my previous post about Yedda’s interest-matching engine. Well, Yedda’s at it again, and this time they seem to think that I’m an expert of some sort on Toilet Paper Rolls.
This is an example of computer software trying to be too smart. Computers, no matter how smart they get, will never be able to comprehend context as well as a person, and this is why Yedda has so much trouble figuring out what I actually am an expert in, and what I am most likely to answer questions about.
Last time I brought this up (Yedda said I was an expert on “What’s that smell?”), Yaniv from Yedda stopped by and pointed out:
As for why you received this one, I guess that the Yedda active distribution system figured out on its own that it’s a pretty good match for “tool, basketball, and (?) perfect circle�. Perhaps we should change our slogan to “Interested in silly topics? Get silly questions!�
Gee, thanks, Yaniv. Even if I was just entering “silly topics”, I’d say the “active distribution system” doesn’t seem too smart if it thinks that “tool”, “basketball”, or “perfect circle” had anything to do with “What’s that smell”, or the latest question I got on toilet paper rolls, eh?
The crew at Yedda is asking a computer program to determine the actual meaning of things, and computers aren’t very good at that yet, so this is what happens. The technology just isn’t ready. This is why on Answerbag we ask users to tell us what categories they want to answer questions in using a full hierarchical category structure to give context, and we only send them questions in that category.
Yaniv, my interests may sound silly to you, being based in Israel, but someone from the US in my rough demographic would probably recognize Tool and Perfect Circle as popular American bands. A good categorization system would be able to differentiate a tool that you hammer with, and a Tool whose CD you can buy. Answerbag uses a full category hierarchy to achieve this, so “Tool” is a category under “Musical artists” giving us the proper context to know what the user is really interested in. Yedda’s system tries to figure out what “tool” and “perfect circle” are with no context, and, being a computer system, it just can’t figure out that these are bands. It probably thinks I’m interested in tools and geometry.
A common theme in interaction design these days is to make the system smarter, so the user doesn’t have to think, but this assumes that the system can be made to be smart. However, in order to make certain systems work correctly (like context-determination), we still need to rely on our users to do a little thinking of their own.
Explore posts in the same categories: Internet, Social Q&A, User Experience
January 22nd, 2007 at 12:51 am
Joel,
I really appreciate your feedback, being one of our earliest users, dating back to the invite-only beta days. We must be doing something right if you’re still with us, more than 6 months later.
I fully agree with your statement – “Computers, no matter how smart they get, will never be able to comprehend context as well as a person”. Still, over here at Yedda we do like to try to make Yedda as smart as possible where it makes sense – mostly, where the value this provides to our community justifies the huge amount of effort we put into our algorithms and implementation.
Guess what. It’d be much easier – from a development point of view - to go with categories. But the thing is that we believe that our users have questions to ask and knowledge to share, and we’d like them to be able to do that even if they’re not sure what category it belongs too. In fact, in a fast-changing world, and with human interest spanning so many different areas, choosing the right category for a question could be quite a challenge.
This is why we went the extra mile, removed the need for categorizing questions, and went with free form topics instead. Not only that, but we also went the extra-extra mile, and we suggested to our users what topics would be most appropriate for their questions. No, this mechanism isn’t perfect – but it certainly is helpful. We like to be helpful
Plus, we figured that some people actually have a life, and may like to have a limited amount of questions on certain topics sent to them when appropriate. This is why we went ahead and created a way for people to say which topics they’re interested at, how many questions they’d like to receive and how often. This one isn’t perfect either, but it’s also quite helpful, and the community at Yedda appreciates it.
Over the last few months, I think it was pretty obvious to anyone following Yedda and AnswerBag, that AnswerBag picked some of the ideas introduced by Yedda, and that is fine – perfectly natural evolution of the category. I have to admit I don’t use AnswerBag actively, but I do visit the site once in a while, and I do believe that it’s a good service with a great community. I like your site’s design and philosophy, and I wish you continued success.
You might also note that there are no answers on AnswerBag which contains about 100 links to Yedda (I am sure the answers on Yedda which contained hundreds of links to AnswerBag were probably someone’s innocent mistake, no big deal
As for “Tool” and “Perfect Circle”, while I appreciate you taking the time to expand my musical background, it’s not about my demographics or location. It’s about the people who use Yedda. May I just point out that (outside your rough demographics) there are probably more than 30 bands and performers that should be listed under the Entertainment >> Music >> Genre & Artists >> Pop & Rock category, so you may want to expand the list of categories on AnswerBag under this specific branch. In any case, my own feeling is that some people would prefer the Yedda approach of adding (or selecting) the topics “music”, “Perfect Circle” to their question, over having to drill down the list and select Entertainment >> Music >> Genre & Artists >> Pop & Rock >> A Perfect Circle (if it was there). BTW, where would you put Perfect Circle, under … Pop & Rock or under … Alternative? Or maybe under Progressive Rock?
Both approaches are valid, and we both try to do what’s best for the people using the services we created. Let’s carry on
January 22nd, 2007 at 4:47 pm
Yes, it’s about approach. Tagging has its limitations as does a category hierarchy. Have you tried our category finder yet? It’s pretty slick and makes using the category tree much, much easier.
You said “Over the last few months, I think it was pretty obvious to anyone following Yedda and AnswerBag, that AnswerBag picked some of the ideas introduced by Yedda.” If anything, you guys used our base concept to begin with, seeing as how we’ve been around almost 4 years. I’m not sure what features you think we adopted, or what features you think you have that are not shared by Y!Answers, MSN Live QnA or Askville…you might want to be more explicit if you’re going to accuse us of something like that.
You also wrote: “You might also note that there are no answers on AnswerBag which contains about 100 links to Yedda (I am sure the answers on Yedda which contained hundreds of links to AnswerBag were probably someone’s innocent mistake, no big deal” I’m not sure I know what this means…sas someone spamming AB over on your site? I assure you if that’s the case, it was not done by anyone working here. That’s not how we do business. (On that topic, thank you Helium for advertising on Google for the keyword “answerbag com”. Real classy.)
I do wish you guys the best, and I love some friendly competition. I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t keep my eye on you guys.
I just get amused when I get emails telling me I might be interested in toilet paper rolls.
May 18th, 2007 at 10:33 am
Wow, you are a creative writer!! I love the article, and your humorous approach kept me reading to the end, and then some!
Good point in the article that tag clouds are what web 2.0 users are becomming accustomed to! “Lists” just look “old school” and are quickly starting to look outdated. Amazing how quickly trends take over in a virtual world!
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