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2022 in Review: A year of SearchResearch

Dan Russell • December 28, 2022
 SearchReSearch
Republished with permission from SearchReSearch
2022 in Review: A year of SearchResearch Dan Russell

Once again we're at the close of the year...

Sunset over the Pacific with a tiny green flash

... and I'm trying to summarize all that happened in SRS as a way of looking back over the year. It's a bit of a complicated story--we certainly covered a number of topics (see the list below), and touched on a number of SearchResearch topics, methods, and means. We talked about whether a parakeet is really a kind of parrot, where the oldest solar observatory is in the Americas (A: Peru), and how to read in language and scripts that you don't recognize.

This was also the year where I taught the Human-Computer Interaction & AI class at Stanford (with Peter Norvig) which was a tremendous amount of fun, but I'd forgotten how much time standing up a full class takes, even if it's in a domain that you know well.

Despite the class and a few trips here and there, we managed to keep SRS rolling along. We had 55 posts this year, just over 1 per week and just a few less than last year.

I hope you found these entertaining and educational--that's certainly my intent in writing them. I want to encourage your curiosity, and give you some of the tools I've found that help me with my curiosity addiction.

I'm looking forward to next year's crop of SRS Challenges. Where in the world will we go next?

If you would, leave a comment about what you found most interesting in SRS during 2022, and if you have ideas, what would you like us to cover in the year ahead? The comment line is always open.

As always,

Search on!

Jan
SearchResearch Challenge (1/5/21): A new year, a n...Carolina parakeets... or parrot?
Image identification is great, when it works.Google Lens caution
Answer: A new year, a new Challenge about parakeets!
How to find downloadable books in Google BooksHow to find open access books
SearchResearch Challenge (1/19/21): Time and tides...Are tides different in different places?
Answer: Time and tides in different places?
How to find anything #4 (part 2/3): News and Late ...How to find current news
Feb
SearchResearch Challenge (2/2/22): Search in a wo...Dealing with constantly changing names
Answer: Search in a world of changing names?
How to find anything #5: (part 3/3) Assessing Cre...How assess credibility of sources
SearchResearch Challenge (2/16/22): How can I sear...Searching for sounds
Answer: How can I search over audio?
Mar
SearchResearch Challenge (3/2/22): What are some g...How to find near real-time satellite images
Answer: What are some good (almost) real-time sat...
SearchResearch Challenge (3/16/22): Finding the c...Finding special connections and terms (krumholz)
Answer: Finding the connections?
SearchResearch Challenge (3/30/22): Where is the o...Oldest solar observatory in the Americas (Chankillo)
Apr
Answer: Where is the oldest solar observatory in t...
SearchResearch Challenge (4/13/22): Why water the...Why would you water Astroturf?
Answer: Why water the astroturf?
May
SearchResearch Challenge (5/11/22): Why... in New ...Symbols of New Orleans
Superb example of SearchResearch... in AlgeriaA great SRS tale from Algeria--tracking down mysterious holes
Answer: Why... in New Orleans?
SearchResearch Challenge (5/25/22): Finding origin...Using patents to find dates of old machines (apple parer and stapleless stapler)
Jun
Answer: Finding original patents?
SearchResearch Challenge (6/8/22): Why do gnats D...Gnats swarm, but why?
Answer: Why do gnats DO that?
SearchResearch Challenge (6/22/22): Why is there a...Elephant statues in Wisconsin
Where's Dan? A slight SRS delay this week...
Jul
Answer: Why is there an elephant statue in this Wi...
SearchResearch Challenge (7/13/22): What is this ...Identifying abandoned oil rigs in the PA woods
SearchResearch Bonus Challenge (July 20, 2022): Wh...US city population density
Aug
Answer: What's a large US city with very low popu...
Answer: What's this rusty thing I found in the woods?
SearchResearch Challenge (8/17/22): Horses are nat...Where did horses come from?
Answer: Horses are native to... where?
How to find anything #7: How to Find News and Late...More about how to find current news
SearchResearch Challenge (8/31/22): How can you fi...Finding those hard-to-find terms
Sep
Answer: How can you find answers to those mysterio...
Extra: Napa Soda Springs to return to life?Update on Napa Springs
SearchResearch Challenge (9/14/22): Can you find t...Finding Starbuck and Queequeg
Hint 1: Can you find the characters from Moby Dick...
Hint 2: Can you find characters from Moby Dick in ...
Oct
Answer 1: Can you find characters from Moby Dick i...
Answer 2: Can you find characters from Moby Dick i...
SearchResearch Challenge (10/26/22): A missing bui...Exploring the hole in Conordices Park
Nov
Answer: A missing building in the park?
SearchResearch Challenge (11/9/22): Questions abou...Bats: why sleep upside down?
Answer: Questions about bats--How many? Why do th...
More surprising insights about bat predation
SearchResearch Challenge (11/23/22): How to read o...How to read text in languages you don't recognize
Dec
Answer: How to read other scripts and languages?
AI writing systems, a poetic prompt, and The CyberiadThoughts about AI-generated text
SearchResearch Challenge (12/14/22): Does animal c...Does bird coloration change by latitude?
Answer: Does animal color and weight change by lat...


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About the Author

Dan RussellDan Russell

I study the way people search and research. I guess that makes me an anthropologist of search. While I work at Google, my blog and G+ posts reflects my own thoughts and not those of my employer. I am FIA's Future-ist in Residence. More »

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