I’ve been looking at another of what seems to be an endless flow of new search engines. The newer ones seems to be taking more of an aim at the Ask market - encouraging direct questions rather than the traditional search that link off to other websites.

Hunch seems to be an interesting one that claims to learn from your searches and asks a few questions up front to get to know you. As it’s supposed to help you make decisions I thought I’d test it out on a highly important subject - what type of beer should I drink? Hunch asked me a few questions to refine my search and returned exactly the right result for my taste Stout (or to be more precise Guinness). Not a new technology maybe but quite a nice implementation.

When am I ever going to use this? Probably never again I just don’t use this type of engine, same opinion I had for Wolfram Alpha. Another touted “Google-killer” which wasn’t quite on the right lines. I just don’t seem to search for a question I need a direct answer for - is it just my search style?

It never ceases to amaze me that lack of insight companies put into their “social media strategy”. Why do companies think that just putting up something on the Internet means they are going to generate business as if the World owes them a favour.

The fact is putting up a Facebook page or creating a Twitter account for your company doesn’t mean you’ve gone all Web 2.0. The “social” part of social media means engaging and interacting with people - this isn’t simply a broadcast medium.