Digle is Challenging the Search Ecosystem, Removing the Robots, and Making Results More Relevant

People-powered search platform, Digle, has officially launched its online presence. Leveraging human intelligence and decision-making from across the globe, Digle delivers more relevant results, faster and more efficiently than users are able to access via the standard search engine.

“You can’t compare a person’s semantic intelligence to a robot’s; we can listen to what someone says and understand what they mean, what’s most important to them, how all the different facets of what they are saying fit together, and so on,” says Nathan Fried, CEO of Digle.

Digle was born out of a frustration with the fact  that, in spite of their wide utilisation, search engines are not yet equipped to deal with the language that normal people use when they request information, or searches that contain comprehensive and/or multiple conditions and/or terms.

The notion of Google as the be all and end all of search is one that Digle has set out to dispute. Though Digle does not market itself as an alternative to the search giants, nor a counterpart of Q&A tools such as Jelly or Quora, it has positioned itself as an alternative to the way people search and find results for those searches online.

When web users simply don’t have the time to scout through price-comparison sites or product listings to find the cheapest deal, or when search engines are unable to grasp the multifaceted nature of a particularly specific search, Digle is the answer.

With Google’s share of the global search industry now at 70%, the search engine optimisation (SEO) industry is now valued at $65 billion, and the paid search industry estimated to be worth $136 billion by 2021 Digle had something else to challenge too: the resultant mass censorship of information. Albeit an unavoidable side effect of the way results have to be prioritised and listed, this system penalises businesses and sources of information where the quality of the offering does not exceed the ad budget of those involved.

USING DIGLE

Users who need to find something on the web (Searchers) provide a category, title, list of things that must/not-be-included, description, location, images, and links to their search. The more specific or detailed the search, the more powerful a tool Digle becomes.

Users are also required to provide tags, which are matched to the skills and interests of Finders. Finders can see searches that are relevant to them in their Search Feed, thus encouraging a culture of specialism, whereby searches are undertaken by the most suitable candidate.

A time limit and reward are also set by the Searcher. Rewards come in the form of free or paid-for credits. Rewards are set based on the complexity of the search criteria, and how soon the results are required by.

The credits-based rewards system works in tandem with Digle’s underlying gamification to incentivise the quality and speed of information found. After three finds (sets of results) have been submitted by Finders on a search, the Searcher is required to select the ‘Winning’ find. This winner will then receive the allocated credits set by the Searcher. Winning finds, and finds that are rated ‘Good’, will also be subject to receiving XP and badges, which increase users’ level on the platform, raising them up the leaderboard. With higher ratings, users are more likely to be trusted by other users, and will in turn receive more rewards.

As its community grows, Digle’s algorithms will be able to more accurately match Searches with Finders, and the efficiency and relevance of results will increase. Also, over time, the system will have accumulated so much specific data from across the web – double filtered satisfying links and websites related to specific keywords and conditions, powerful indexing opportunities will emerge that can  be used to serve users in different ways. As with all ‘crowdsourced’ projects, the more people who get involved, the better.

BRIEF OVERVIEW OF HOW DIGLE WORKS

1. Someone can’t find what they need on a typical search engine; either their search is too complex and contains too many terms, or they don’t have the time to trawl through pages of results, or they don’t have the correct keyword knowledge to create a successfully deeper search.

2. They log in and post their search on Digle, adding as much detail and as many conditions as possible (the more the better, in fact). They indicate what must and must not be included in any results, they upload any images and include links that support their search, and they set a deadline for results to be submitted by. They also set a reward for the top results, in cash or free credits.

3. Once the search is live, Digle’s algorithms get to work matching the categories and content of the search with the skills and interests of potential Finders. The algorithms learn not only from the profile and interests of Digle users, but from people’s search history, i.e. what types of search that have successfully delivered results for in the past.

4. Potential Finder are able to view the search, and mark ‘On It’ if they want to find and deliver results within the set time.

5. When a Finder locates what they deem to be the best results, they submit them on the search.

6. Once the allotted time has ended for the search, the Searcher rates all of the submitted results, and selects the best one as the Winner.

7. The Searcher can now make use of the results, and the winning Finder is rewarded with cash and in-platform benefits.

ABOUT

Digle is the people-powered search platform, offering users a whole new way to find what they need. The platform uses algorithms to connect Searchers with Finders in real-time. Searchers, who simply don’t have the time or searching skills to find what they need, can sit back and relax, whilst Finders do the hard work for them, and get rewarded for it!