Kosmix Blog

We got asked this question at one of the career fairs we visited. Basically, why is Kosmix different from other search engines and do we need one more? This is a pitch we tried, to explain in layman terms how Kosmix Technology enables users to find better information, faster.

Kosmix is the next generation search engine, that uses its core categorization IP to provide a better search experience. We think we provide two main value adds over other players

You don't need to know what you want :

Traditional search engines are good at finding information if you know the question (right way to phrase the query). Kosmix algorithmically generates an overview around any topic and lets you explore. So you are interested in going to hawaii, you don't need to know what you can do there - we tell you what you can do, where you can go and where you can stay.

We get you the answers not just links :

As opposed to the Google/Yahoo model where you are provided with a set of links to go look for the information you desire. We bring answers to the first page, means fewer clicks and less searches to get to the information. Example are drugs for conditions (e.g. death cap mushrooms, lasik), common problems with cars (toyota), activities at destination, etc.

So we have very cool technology that helps us understand the content, all the pages on the web. Using similar technology we can understand the user query, hence make an intelligent guess at the intention. This helps us match the intent to content better, leading to a more fruitful search experience and definitely a wiser user :)

My source of entertainment yesterday evening was somewhat unusual... to say the least. I had sent an email to the k-krew at around 7pm.... And check my email later, to find numerous comments...

A snippet of my email:

"Can we all please, at the very minimum, tidy up after ourselves to ensure the freshness of food in the kitchen? I have seen ample times when croissant containers/muffin containers/cookie boxes are open… these things go dry and then are pretty much useless after that."

Snippets of everyone's comments below:

"I confronted Vijay and what did he say
I claim he messed up he said no way
The mess on the counter, said wasn’t he
Spilled milk on the counter, said wasn’t he
The bagel in the drawer, shouts wasn’t he!"

"The other day I saw a banana peel on the floor .. ? The risk it poses (and I am told we are not insured against it) is significant. So I did some modeling using decision trees and the finest brew of data mining mixed with a shot of machine learning and built a gigantic graphical tree to assess the risk. The results .. two employees cannot both be in the kitchen at the same time .. how simple and yet how much analysis did it take .. occam's razor .. that's all there's to it ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam's_Razor ). But there'a a catch though .. how can we catch all those who are not closing the jars ... if two employees can't be in the kitchen at the same time. How can we catch the culprits red handed .. catch 22 you say ... that's what we're all about .. we solve tough problems .."

"I’m a firm believer in making the best of every possible situation. We can show consumers how to use protection against staleness: always remember to close containers, use bag clips, and always carry a battery-powered vacuum sealer and extra vacuum sealing bags with you. I think our target market for this is huge. For instance, annually, 20 billion pounds of bread are produced – of which 3% (600 million pounds) is returned and an unknown additional amount is thrown out by consumers battling staleness. Assuming a price of $2/lb, we could save the bread industry over $1.2 billion annually. This is an opportunity which cannot be missed."

So I tell our krew, who needs tv when we have each other........

Recently Sesh Seshadri (our CTO) and I got into an involved discussion about Kosmix technology. Thought I would report some snippets of that here:

One of the grand challenges we have addressed and continue to improve on is the ability to categorize the web into millions if not hundreds of millions of categories. We are unique in that we have figured out a way to do this in a scalable manner compared to the various human-intensive efforts

We have built a fully functional search engine all the way from a full crawl to the distributed query processing frontend in 18 months with 10 engineers. We have built this as a platform to support different kinds of web 2.0 applications.

Another of the challenges we would like to tackle is to produce an SQL like interface to the web as well as other data sources. We want users to be able to ask questions, test theories and inspect data using a very simple language (SQL). This would make the web an experimental platform for innovation.

In a company like Kosmix, we have challenges in every area of computer science...File Systems, Operating Systems, Distributed Computing, Distributed and Very Large Databases, Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence to name a few.

Though I have been at Kosmix a while now, chatting about our technology with Sesh gave me a different way of looking at what we are doing.

Kosmix Kricket Klub

Kricket is a favorite sport among the Kosmixers. They don't have to wait for the regular TGIF’s or even for a Friday. The game starts anytime in the evening and quickly catches on with everybody. People keep pouring in to join the fun. The klub has been constantly expanding and so has been the list of rules. The rules are personalized. To quote Sailesh, the evolution of rules has become rather so convoluted that players often find themselves strangling, stifling, and struggling to play their natural form of the game. A few highlights from the Kosmix Kricket Klub rulebook are:
• The over isn’t over until the bowler agrees to give the ball away.
• The batsman doesn’t leave the crease until s/he so chooses.
• Different styles of spin, “Yorker”, 90 degrees run up by Vikram
• Girls get the extra privilege of slow balls being bowled, extra batting chances and not getting yanked at on missing the catches.
• If a person is not playing and is hit by the ball, he is responsible for buying dinner for all the Kricketers.