To enhance search results, Blekko seeks participation of users and expert editors. People can invite others to edit their own slashtags that in a way leverage the expertise of all the community members. Revolving around hundreds of highly topical slashtags meticulously curated by experts, the engine also allows users to create their own slashtags with the sites the trust, apart from those provided by the engine to dig out the best possible websites.
- To enhance both domain-specific and generic search results, Blekko seeks participation of users and expert editors. People can invite others to edit their own slashtags that in a way leverage the expertise of all the community members. Revolving around hundreds of highly topical slashtags meticulously curated by experts, the engine also allows users to create their own slashtags with the sites the trust, apart from those provided by the engine to dig out the best possible websites.
2. A slashtag is a tool used for filtering search results and help search quality sites sans spam or content farms. It helps in an easy-to-create custom search. For example, if you look for diabetes /health topics, nih.gov, webmd.com, cdc.gov and other trusted sites appear high in results. It’s quite easy for users to create their own slashtags. They simply need to enter URLs/ slashtags to be included. They can search for websites to add the same to it easily. Adding relevant general part of the URL will throw more results. For instance, inserting cnn.com will generate more results than adding a particular news article.
3. It is possible to upload sites into your slashtag directly with .txt/ .opml files as well as to invite other users to edit a slashtag before making it publicly visible. The 3 broad types are topical, user, and built-in. Created by the engine and curated by experts, the former will search only top websites for specific topics such as health, recipes, tech, etc. User slashtags, created by the blekko community, can be personalized. On the other hand, built-in types programmed in the back-end do specific search functions like changing the results sort order or generating a quick overview of traffic or even searching third party APIs.
4. A slashtag’s creator is by default its editor-in-chief. For instance, Stack Overflow functions as tech-related slashtags’ editor-in-chief. A publicly visible slashtag can be edited by multiple users. Blekko also uses slashtag boosting for enhancing search result quality, to boost relevant websites on basis of the search query category. Some built-in slashtags display data in a content box right at top of the result. Users can opt to list the results by date or carry date range searches. It is easier to share the result page on Facebook or Twitter.
5. A Slashtag of the day is picked based on major events happening each day. Users can click on it to pivot their search to incorporate that slashtag. They can search for any other slashtag by topic or user. Entering a username or topic will throw up a slashtags list or that query. The ‘slashtag directory’ link includes a complete list of slashtags.
(Image courtesy: Blekko)
6. By clicking prefs in the upper right hand corner will highlight search preference settings. Users can control view of the results page. They can set search results to open in another window, do away with Facebook likes, alter the number of results displayed, and make other changes to customize the results. Last but not the least, Blekko lets all choose a privacy level one is comfortable with – enabling the relevant options.
