The Spacilus Search Engine Assistant for Google offers Google users the ability to categorize results in order to assist users in selecting the most relevant search results related to their query.
By employing Bayesian statistics as the backbone of its search result labeling, Spacilus provides users with the ability to tailor its categorization methods to fit their needs.
Users are given three options for labeling search results: Informative, Commercial, and Spam. Once a search is conducted, users can apply the appropriate label to individual results, depending on their preference. Once this process begins, Spacilus adapts to your personal preferences and will begin to apply the labels itself, based on the users labeling habits. Essentially, Spacilus learns the user’s methods of categorization.
An icon that represents the three categories available accompanies search result labels. The implications for this tool are obvious: the ability to label search engine spam as such is a valuable commodity. Because a large amount of search engine users are still not quite familiar with the concept of search engine spam, training Spacilus to recognize these results can be advantageous. And because it only takes a couple of labels to adapt Spacilus, training the add-on should not be that difficult.
Once Spacilus begins categorizing results, unwanted returns can be dimmed. This ability should make finding relevant results an even easier task.
The tool was developed by Claus Spacil, who appears to be a freelance IT consultant. Currently, Spacilus is a free utility and can be downloaded here.
Chris Richardson is a search engine writer and editor for Murdok. Visit Murdok for the latest search news.
