Turning the concept of search on its head
Searching for information, whether it's online or on your hard drive, works pretty much the same way: You type a couple of keywords into a search box and hit ''go." Use the wrong keywords and you get back irrelevant junk. Use the right keywords and you still may have to pick through a mountain of results to find a few useful nuggets.
Wouldn't it be great if your computer could do all of the work for you? If, for instance, it would anticipate what you need, search for it, then automatically deliver relevant information. You'd never have to guess the right keywords or lift a finger to type in the address of a search engine.
Well, that's the idea behind Watson, a tool that turns the concept of search on its head.
Watson, software produced by Chicago-based Intellext, does the searching for you. It runs in the background as you work, analyzing your documents and looking for relevant information. The results (clickable links) are continuously delivered in a side panel on your screen. Watson goes to work when you open a Microsoft Office application such as Word or PowerPoint, or the Internet Explorer browser.
Watson is all about search, but it doesn't index information like a search engine. You configure it to use existing free and premium paid search services and websites by setting up ''connectors" in Watson's ''Site Search Wizard." It then uses built-in intelligence to make educated guesses about what you'd want to search for and automatically finds it as you work.
The program was spawned by researchers at Northwestern University, one of them an expert in artificial intelligence. Released in January, Watson has been recently upgraded to version 2.0. It's available as a beta (or test) product.
The company has tweaked Watson based on user feedback, including the addition of the side-panel results window and a wizard that lets users customize the list of sites and services that Watson searches.
I took the Watson 2.0 for a test drive, with mixed results. I fired up Microsoft Word with Watson running; during installation Watson had noticed that I use Google's desktop search and allowed me to add it to the list of places it searches in the background.
While you can customize the program to search specific sites, I started by running it with just the default categories turned on (the Web, news, blog, and ''research," which searches specialty research site highbeam.com) and Google desktop search.
As I typed this column, Watson worked alongside, eventually compiling a list of 159 search results based on what I was writing. How many of the links were actually relevant?
Initially, just a handful. The Web results were peppered with links to info about Sherlock Holmes's sidekick, and oddly, a site about whaling. A couple of the blog and news results mentioned the product, and the ''research" category was a total bust.
However, I as I continued to work, the program continued to search and improve its accuracy, presumably because it had more detailed information to work with. I found that Watson's ''hands-off" searching appears to be most accurate when your content is narrowly focused.
You can also improve Watson's accuracy by highlighting a word or phrase and clicking a ''focus" button. You can also enter keywords directly in a search box the old-fashioned way.
No, that's not exactly hands-off searching, but it's a simple and quick way to fine-tune results. Customizing Watson is also simple thanks to the wizard that steps you through adding your preferred search sites and services or grouping results into categories.
The results panel can be docked either on the left or right of the screen. In the nice-touch department, you can roll your cursor over the list of results to get a pop-up summary, so you don't need to open each link to see what's there.
Watson stalled when it attempted to analyze Web pages with comprehensive content such as news sites. It responded with: ''This document covers many different topics or contains too little information to discern what would be useful to you," and advised using the focus button. Watson also won't search if it doesn't have enough information. It needs at least a sentence to get started.
It's not surprising that Intellext chose to integrate Watson with widely used Microsoft Office and Internet Explorer in the initial release, but it's disappointing that the upgrade doesn't include support for other browsers, such as the popular Firefox.
Watson also comes in a Professional Edition that can be configured to work with corporate intranets, databases, and various custom search applications and to search more than 3,000 information sources.
With the proliferation of products and services aimed at improving the search experience, Watson offers an intriguing twist that could prove to be a time-saver.
Watson requires Windows 2000, XP, or 2003; 256MB of RAM or greater; a 766MHz CPU or greater; and a broadband Internet connection is recommended. It works with Microsoft Word and PowerPoint 2000, XP, and 2003, Microsoft Outlook (for users who choose Microsoft Word as their e-mail editor), Internet Explorer 6.0 and higher and Google Desktop Search.
The beta of version 2.0 is available for free download at intellext.com. The final product will cost $99.
Michelle Johnson is a freelance writer. She can be reached at mijohn@mail-me.com. 
