I was reading the WSJ today and came across an interesting article by Walter Mossberg, the Journal's computer guru, concerning a new type of search engine. Answers.com gives detailed infomation from a variety of web sources concerning 1 million different topics. The site doesn't simply give you a list of links about your topic of choice, it provides text and pictures compiled to help you get the background you're looking for.

I thought I'd check it out by doing some searches. I started by checking out a couple related to the article I'd read (i.e. Wall Street Journal and Walter Mossberg). Both were in the database with brief but informative articles. One thing I noticed right away is that the site is very fast, a crucial factor for its future success.

After that, I tried a couple of searches related to recent posts I've written. For instance, I ran the senior senator from Alaska, Ted Stevens, from my WT/ANC post. A little longer than the Mossberg piece, with lists of staff members and committees, brief bio, and links to his congressional websites. A good start.

Then I ran Steve Jobs and Apple Computer, two key players in my ThinkSecret post. That was a little more fruitful (couldn't resist). There is a lot of information about both parties from multiple sources, and a decent list of links and references that would make follow-up research very simple.

I thought it was interesting that when I hit the Answers.com home page, I found a prominent link to the Mossberg article online. It's understandable, since Mossberg was mostly complimentary toward the site. But he did point out that one of the possible weaknesses of Answers.com is its dependence on Wikipedia (the free-content encyclopedia) - at this point in time, at least. That may lead to a bias toward information related to information technology, and may explain the abundance of material on Jobs and Apple vs. some of the other topics.

My first impression is that Answers.com is something fresh, and I look forward to using it as one of the starting points for my online research tasks.