Wink Social Search Engine Beta 2

Today we released Beta 2 of Wink.

Wink is a Social Search Engine that uses people’s contributions and feedback - like bookmarking, rating, and organizing links - to make it easier to find and share current, relevant results.

This is a major upgrade, with several new features and a number of improvements in user experience. Marshall Kirkpatrick posted a preview at Techcrunch recently.

We know we are trying something really big - and really difficult. We think people can help each other find the best information on the Web, better than machine-based algorithms alone. Sure, the big search engines do a great job in many cases. But we think there’s more to searching the Web - like locating hard to find information and seeing what people have discovered recently. It just takes a few people who take the time to weigh in with their preferences to create a super experience for everyone else.

Laughing Squid did a post here. Andy Beal at Marketing Pilgrim has this to say.

Here are some of the key features of Wink 2:

Search - You can use Wink just like Google or Yahoo! The difference is Wink results include input from real people. When you like a result, click the thumbs up. When you don’t, click the thumbs down. Even though the millions of votes so far are few compared to the indexes of the big search engines, think about it - each vote is someone saying “I like that!”. If you see a result that just doesn’t belong - whether it’s spam or just irrelevant, click the ‘remove’ button and watch it disappear. Wink includes Google search results so you can always find just the right link if no one’s bookmarked it yet.

Collections - Wink Collections are a cool way for you to gather and share the best links on any topic. A collection can be about anything - hilarious videos, your favorite band, the best restaurants in your area, or research on a new gadget - you name it. You create a collection and add links to it and it shows up in search results. Others can add links to the Collection - a great way for people to share what they know and improve search.

Friends - Wink is a social search engine. It’s all about sharing great information with people. Connect with your friends, and people you meet on-line. Find someone who’s expert in a topic you’re passionate about or who’s created an awesome collection - add them as a friend. Check out who finds the best links - and connect with people who have similar interests.

Bookmarks - We all need to keep track of sites we find so we can go back to them or share them with a friend. You can use the “Add to Wink” button or the Wink Toolbar (coming soon) to bookmark any site you come across, or bookmark right from the search result by clicking on the star. You can add tags or comments to help you find the site later. It will also help others find the site. Also, if you use del.icio.us, you can sync your bookmarks in both directions. And if you use Flock, you can choose Wink as your bookmark service by installing the Wink Flock plug-in.

Getting the Most out of Wink:

From the Tools page:

Save to Wink - drag the “Save to Wink” bookmarklet button to your browser toolbar so you can bookmark pages wherever you go.

Install Search Plug-in - install this plug-in if you use Firefox, Safari or Flock to search from the browser search box

Sync with your del.icio.us bookmarks - coming very soon!

Install the toolbar - coming very soon!

From the Collections page:

Create a Collection - create a collection on a topic that interests you

From your “My Page”:

Fill in Your Profile - upload a photo and add some detail, such as tags that describe you.

I hope you enjoy using Wink. There are still lots of rough edges, but we wanted to get this out there for people to try. There are a lot of new features, and we still have more on the way – such as the toolbar, RSS, and forums.

Feel free to drop me a note to tell me what you think, or if you have any questions. And check out our blog at http://blog.wink.com for updates and news.

Thank you very much for taking the time to try Wink.

Cheers,
Michael Tanne

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6 September 2006 | beta, Wink | Comments

5 Responses to “Wink Social Search Engine Beta 2”

  1. 1 Matt Harwood 7 September 2006 @ 6:44 pm

    Michael,

    I cannot thank you enough for creating, what seems to me, to be a very very nice, community (read: social) based way of finding new and interesting things. I feel like I am “worth more” here than del.icio.us - maybe because the main idea is to create collections and bookmark for the good of the community - rather than purely for personal back-up.

    I highly commend your (obvious) hard work - and wish you every success for the future. I will certainly be here supporting you!

    Best wishes,
    Matt

  2. 2 teknokool.net » Blog Archive » It’s Alive!!! wink 2.0 7 September 2006 @ 7:28 pm

    […] well kids I had said last week that wink 2.0 would be launching and yes it was a bit later then last week but it is now live so if you are a social bookmarking, tagging, web2.0′er, social searching geek like me then this is your search engine. […]

  3. 3 Web 2.0 roundup: Wink beta 2; Treemo; Zyb – 21talks 8 September 2006 @ 7:26 am

    […] Wink social search engine hits the beta 2 [Wink blog] “This is a major upgrade, with several new features and a number of improvements in user experience.” […]

  4. 4 David Mackey 9 September 2006 @ 2:37 pm

    Very nice job with the new release. The ability to thumbs up or thumbs down sites was an essential addition and makes the use of the remove button much more appropriate - as some links shouldn’t be high in the results but it doesn’t mean they should exist at all. I am very excited about your idea, as I think I have mentioned previously, as it was something I had wanted to do several years ago. You guys are on the right track and sure to hit success.
    I’d still encourage you to think about paying guides a small amount of money to do reviews - at least at the beginning. Right now the human results aren’t that great. You could give paid reviewers a little more say, so they could make sure good links come towards the top. People such as myself who have spent years on the net, as I am sure you guys have, have a humongous knowledge of the best links. And while I am more than happy to submit my knowledge for free when I am searching something, I would be much more voracious if I was being paid. Even just a few cents per link.
    Ahh well, its your business not mine. Either way I think you guys are on the road to success, its just a matter of how long.

  5. 5 Library clips :: Wink has the right idea, but… :: September :: 2006 22 September 2006 @ 2:06 am

    […] Wink just released its Beta 2, and its main focus is a search engine for the human indexed web. […]