News sites look to predict the future

22 February 2008

Internet users may one day search the future, if a Yahoo patent application bears fruit.

The application, filed in August 2006, details a method for examining the references to time and date within information on the web, and using it to index future events against the time that they are predicted to occur.

The patent application details a December 2003 study on a web-based news service, which Yahoo estimated held around 50,000 unique articles about the future. A second study in July 2005 produced almost 100 articles discussing events in 2034, nearly 30 years in the future.

"This kind of future search... would recognize expressions about time, dates, and durations, and the probabilities that certain events will happen," blogged Bill Slawski on SEO by the Sea.

"In addition to providing information about possible futures that might be used to help support decision making in many fields, the same system could be turned backwards to look at past events, and perhaps understand them better," he added.

Meanwhile, Edinburgh-based startup Hubdub is using a community-based approach to forecast the outcome of new and breaking stories. The site's users can use 'play' currency the Hubdub dollar to bet on how stories might turn out.

Members can also pose simple questions, with examples ranging from "How many missiles will it take to destroy the failed US spy satellite?" to "Will Dick Cheney bag another attorney this year when hunting on the Armstrong Ranch?"

Category: Natural search, Online journalism, Search engines, Social media