CNET News.com has introduced a visual tool THE BIG PICTURE for news search. Here's straight from the source:
The Big Picture is a CNET News.com special feature. It creates visual maps that show relationships between stories, companies, and topics within the News.com site.
*How it works* For every story published, News.com editors and reporters included relevant links to other News.com stories. In addition, News.com highlights the important companies that appear in a story as well as attach appropriate topics to each story.
Each story has a visual map which shows related stories, topics, or news from the same company. Stories on the map are represented with "bubbles" - the more popular a story, the larger the bubble.
It's an interesting feature - and a vast improvement over the textual tag cloud which is currently a popular method of displaying data by importance. Tag clouds, however, miss the "relationship" element and don't show how stories connect to one another - which is the beauty of THE BIG PICTURE tool.
I have loved it!
The Big Picture
News Search Gets Visual
Trend Themes
1. Visual News Search - Creating visual maps for news search to show relationships between stories, companies, and topics within a site presents an opportunity for companies to differentiate and enhance the user experience.
2. Story Relationship Mapping - Introducing visual maps that show how news stories connect to one another presents an opportunity for companies to add value to their content and distinguish their brand from competitors.
3. Data Visualization - Developing alternative methods to displaying data by importance, such as the use of visual maps, presents an opportunity for companies to provide a more engaging and informative experience for users.
Industry Implications
1. News and Media - News and media companies can leverage visual mapping tools to differentiate their content and provide a more engaging and informative experience for users.
2. Technology - Technology companies can innovate their search tools by developing visual mapping software to show relationships between topics and companies on their sites.
3. Data Analytics - Data analytics companies can provide value by developing tools that create visual maps to display data relationships in a more meaningful and comprehensible format.