Everyone is anamored by the search prowess of Google. One trillion pages indexed, and all that. 

The web pages that Google indexes are just the tip of the iceberg.  What Google helps you do is find information, but what it doesn’t help you do is search databases.  You can’t search Google for “the lowest airfare from Portland to Boston,” I mean you could but it would be a fruitless search. 

Beyond those trillion pages lies an even vaster Web of hidden data: financial information, shopping catalogs, flight schedules, medical research and all kinds of other material stored in databases that remain largely invisible to search engines.

It is that stream of data that the next evolution of search engines are working to acheive.  In a manner of speaking, they are trying to solve, what Google claims, is the final 10% in the search equation. 

“Most search engines try to help you find a needle in a haystack,” Mr. Rajaraman said, “but what we’re trying to do is help you explore the haystack.”

That haystack is infinitely large. With millions of databases connected to the Web, and endless possible permutations of search terms, there is simply no way for any search engine — no matter how powerful — to sift through every possible combination of data on the fly.

To extract meaningful data from the Deep Web, search engines have to analyze users’ search terms and figure out how to broker those queries to particular databases. For example, if a user types in “Rembrandt,” the search engine needs to know which databases are most likely to contain information about art ( say, museum catalogs or auction houses), and what kinds of queries those databases will accept.

That approach may sound straightforward in theory, but in practice the vast variety of database structures and possible search terms poses a thorny computational challenge.

“This is the most interesting data integration problem imaginable,” says Alon Halevy, a former computer science professor at the University of Washington who is now leading a team at Google that is trying to solve the Deep Web conundrum.

One such search engine that is striving to advance web search is Kosmix.  Has anyone used it, or familiar with it?  Having only a cursory spin through the site, I like that it integrates information from Twitter, catalogues, news sites, blogs, etc.

But Google’s solution to the problem indicates that we’re moving to a semantic based web.  Google is spidering databases via search queries and then building database models from this. 

Google’s Deep Web search strategy involves sending out a program to analyze the contents of every database it encounters. For example, if the search engine finds a page with a form related to fine art, it starts guessing likely search terms — “Rembrandt,” “Picasso,” “Vermeer” and so on — until one of those terms returns a match. The search engine then analyzes the results and develops a predictive model of what the database contains.

That, of course, will make the Ubiquity Firefox extension that much more useful and the true future of web interfaces.

Ever wondered what “Revolution 1″ and “Revolution 9″ had to do with each other?

This is something that often kept me up at night.  Well, that and the repetitive droning sound of “Revolution 9.”

Anyway, a ten-minute, previously unreleased recording from the Beatles’ “White Album” sessions just leaked, and it should help make that connection slightly more clear. Better late than never. [Twelve Major Chords via Idolator]

Be a nose!, brought you from McSweeney’s.  Featuring music from Pat Carney of the Black Keys and artwork by Art Spiegelman.

If you’ve never read Maus or Maus II you should seriously consider reevaluating your life.

How much?  Try $28 milli (actually it was 22 million Irish pounds but semantics).  That’s $28 million, not $2.8 million.

Thankfully, it’s better than an exploding office chair, but still that chair better shit gold nuggets or rainbows or unicorns or come with a miniature Neil Patrick Harris.  Because, otherwise, whomever dropped that kind of money just got ripped off.

But there was no doubting the real star item on offer.

Known as the Fauteuil aux Dragons or “dragons’ armchair” because of the ornate sculptures on its sweeping armrests, the one-off rounded brown leather piece was designed by Ms Gray when she was in her early 30s and after she had moved from Enniscorthy to London to study art.

She became renowned for the luxurious finish of her lacquered furniture, but it was not until after her death in 1976 that she was truly recognised as one of the most important furniture designers and architects of the early 20th century.

The buyer was the same dealer who had sold it to Mr Saint Laurent in the early ’70s. Cheska Vallois raised his bid in increments of €500,000 to see off a phone rival with a bid of €21.9m, and was applauded by the 1,000 people present.

The highest amount ever paid for a piece of furniture was €27.5m — paid for an 18th century Badmington cabinet in 2004.

Decent all around, my only complaint is wanting Billy Idol to sing this version.  His voice is so distinct that just hiring anybody to see his song without the snarl is offensive on so many levels.

Striking photos of random people and places from a bygone era.

About 10 years ago while living in Oregon, I came across an old Nikon rangefinder in a seaside junk shop. The metal body was battered and the lens looked like a coke bottle that had been dragged down 5 miles of asphalt. The camera had been dead a long time. I was about to set it down when I noticed that there was a roll of film inside. I slowly rewound the film, popped the door, and was rewarded with a pristine roll of Kodachrome. I asked the guy at the counter how much he wanted for it. “Gimme a quarter” he replied. I paid the man and drove home with the mystery roll. And then I forgot about it for 2 years. The roll of film came back into view after we one again sold most of what we owned, tossed the dogs into the Jeep, and moved back to Maine. One day I was unpacking some clothes and found the solitary roll of film waiting at the bottom of the box. I sent it off for processing….about a year later.

Two weeks later the box of slides showed up at the post office. The weight of the package was disappointing. Without even opening the container it was apparent that most if not all of the roll was not even worth of being mounted. The 5 or so images that were in slide mounts were simply amazing. I had no idea where the film had been shot. I had not even the slightest idea who the people in the photos were. I really knew nothing but was just floored by the color saturation that kodachrome had retained after all the years of sitting in that old Nikon. From that point forward I made an effort to look inside old cameras whenever we would stop in antique stores and Sunday flea markets. All it took was this one image from that first roll of film.

[via Neatorama]

Röyksopp’s actual debut video for their forthcoming Junior album is this Reuben Sutherland-directed number which does real-life Space Invaders better than anything I’ve ever seen.

Sutherland’s no stranger to games invasions: he was behind two fantastic ad spots for Insomniac’s PS3 shooter Resistance, both of which can be spotted at his demo reel site.

Junior hits stores on March 24.

New PSA directed by acclaimed filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen for ThisIsReality.org, with the aim of debunking “clean coal” industry propaganda. It was produced in partnership with Al Gore’s Alliance for Climate Protection. Just released yesterday.

Superbad director Greg Mottola’s followup looks like it good be a solid entry into the coming-of-age dramedy.  Solid cast with leads Kristen Stewart and Jesse Eisenberg, could be a nice surprise.

Whew, that’s a relief.  Josh Saviano AKA Paul Pfeiffer from The Wonder Years is a 32-year-old NYC lawyer.  32?!?  32!?!  He looks like he’s 45, easily.  Does hanging with Kevin Arnold age you like a president. 

[via]

This TV by Studio FRST is shaped to do both full-size widescreen and 4×3.  Love that notch in the lower right corner.  Though, I don’t know why anyone would want to watch anything in 4×3.  Especially now that most television shows – the one’s worth their salt – are all shot in 16×9.  [monoscope via kottke]

A fascinating article from the March 2009 issue of Vanity Fair describes how The Godfather got made, even though the producers, the real-life Mafia, Frank Sinatra, and Paramount executives all fought against it.

The studio executives wanted Laurence Olivier, Ernest Borgnine, Richard Conte, Anthony Quinn, Carlo Ponti, or Danny Thomas to play Don Corleone. Anyone but Brando, who, at 47, was perceived as poison. His recent pictures had been flops, and he was overweight, depressed, and notorious for causing overruns and making outrageous demands. WILL NOT FINANCE BRANDO IN TITLE ROLE, the suits in New York cabled the filmmakers. DO NOT RESPOND. CASE CLOSED.

But Coppola fought hard for him, and finally the executives agreed to consider Brando on three conditions: he would have to work for no money up front (Coppola later got him $50,000); put up a bond for any overruns caused by him; and-most shocking of all-submit to a screen test. Wisely, Coppola didn’t call it that when he contacted Brando. Saying that he just wanted to shoot a little footage, he arrived at the actor’s home one morning with some props and a camera.

Brando emerged from his bedroom in a kimono, with his long blond hair in a ponytail. As Coppola watched through the camera lens, Brando began a startling transformation, which he had worked out earlier in front of a mirror. In Coppola’s words, “You see him roll up his hair in a bun and blacken it with shoe polish, talking all the time about what he’s doing. You see him rolling up Kleenex and stuffing it into his mouth. He’d decided that the Godfather had been shot in the throat at one time, so he starts to speak funny. Then he takes a jacket and rolls back the collar the way these Mafia guys do.” Brando explained, “It’s the face of a bulldog: mean-looking but warm underneath.”

Coppola took the test to Bluhdorn. “When he saw it was Brando, he backed away and said, ‘No! No!’” But then he watched Brando become another person and said, “That’s amazing.” Coppola recalls, “Once he was sold on the idea, all of the other executives went along.”

It just goes to show that a strong director can really make a difference. I couldn’t imagine that movie without Brando, Pacino, James Caan, et al.

Are overdubs going to be the remix/mashup of 2K9?  It’s doubtful because so many of the ones on the site are just terrible.  The creators are taking various elements of the songs and simply laying them on top of one another.  Sometimes you get lucky though, like this overdub between Radiohead’s “15 Step” and jazz maestro Dave Brubeck’s “Take Five.”

It’s an amazing synergy between the two.   The textures blend nicely between the saxophone and piano of “Take 5″ with the vocals, the snapping rhythms of the drums, bassline, and other noises from “15 Step.”

Radiohead & Dave Brubeck – “Five Step”