Ambient Findability
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Ambient Findability
by Authors:
Peter Morville
Released: 01 October, 2005
ISBN: 0596007655
Paperback
Sales Rank: 2913
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List price:
$29.95
Our price:
$19.77
(You save: $10.18)
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| Book > Ambient Findability > Customer Reviews: |
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Average Customer Rating: 
Ambient Findability >
Customer Review #1:
 A good survey, timely...
I find the book most useful as a survey of technologies and ideas suitably themed "ambient findability". I agree with the idea that the future of search will be more than cyberspace. The ability to search the physical world with a search engine will be extremely useful and how to make (physical world) objects findable (even at different levels of granularity) an interesting challenge (RFID tagging is one way but perhaps there are others). The combination of cyberspace and physicalspace and how to bridge between them (from augmented reality, ambient objects, to ambient sensing) is interesting. The book provides a convenient overview, in one place, of where much of computing is heading.
Ambient Findability >
Customer Review #2:
Critical Issues - Critical Insight
Look, Im new to the OReilly series so Im not ready to just jump on the bandwagon of love just yet.
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lt;br /gt;However, after Morvilles FINDABILITY, I will at least *hail* said wagon.
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lt;br /gt;The genius of this book on design of informatin is stepping back and looking at the information design of this book. Peter takes you from an actual physical location, and then, drops you into familiar search engine territory, and then, gets you lost in the problem of why are we getting lost so you feel your own need to get out there and solve this problem - even if only assist in your own little small little way.
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lt;br /gt;Findability addresses all the critical issues of the next evolution of the web (I will refrain from calling it *that name*). It also provides the critical history surrounding these issues, and, some of the research and the insights of the leaders trying to make the world a better place by answering this.
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lt;br /gt;Kudos to Tim Ebbers Lee for calling forth the semantic web. Bollocks to the schmo who called him out afterwards (and I will not even deign to mention said Schmos name).
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lt;br /gt;And kudos to this OReilly series from a non-lay, but non-doctorate reader.
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lt;br /gt;I highly recommend this book (though I suppose it helps to know more about me for that to mean more than text semantics).
Ambient Findability >
Customer Review #3:
Programming librarian gives big thumbs up
The thesis of the book is that we are on the threshold of a convergence of Internet technologies and mobile devices so that finding information in cyberspace and finding people and objects in physical space will merge. The issues related to finding physical items are becoming relevant to cybersearchers, and the issues associated with cybersearching are becoming relevant to being found in the physical world. The need for finding and being found surrounds us, hence its ambience. This thesis allows Morville to explore the concept of information interaction, or how people handle and use information, and what limitations that places on the success of various technologies and techniques.
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lt;br /gt;This book is not perfect. I think it has flaws. But it is excellent for those new to the concepts discussed. As someone who has studied search engine precision, I was impressed by the authors command of many of the broader issues in information science and architecture. The book is wide-ranging, offering something for marketers, technology investors, futurists, and librarians. It is too general for those at the cutting edge of the field.
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lt;br /gt;As for the reviewers that were negative on the book, they are clearly already heavily involved in the communities that the author discusses. This book is more for people new to the issues of tagging and democratic metadata. It is not an advanced discussion of details of the topic, but a big picture thought piece that feels fluffy to experts in the field.
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lt;br /gt;Examples of flaws: he does not squarely face the contradiction between web sites that should have high search engine findability, such as the National Cancer Institute, and ones that game the system to get high rankings even if they do not warrent findability. Everyone wants to be found, but how many of us should be? Another flaw: his optimism makes him uncritical of current technology. Also, his grand thesis stretches thin in places.
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lt;br /gt;For some of the strengths: He does a good job of describing the issues around search relevance, precision and recall in Chapter 3. He does a good job showing the need for balance between push and pull. He gives a good critique of the issues surrounding the Semantic Web and the power of social software and folksonomies.
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lt;br /gt;All in all an excellent book that ties some of the issues surrounding the traditional library to the wider world of ubiquitous computing. For more details, see my review on WorldCat.
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Ambient Findability >
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