Time Explorer

An interesting new research tool is in prototype state at the Yahoo Barcelona Research Lab. The tool was demonstrated over the weekend at a Human Computer Interaction and Information Retrieval (HCIR) workshop in New Brunswick, NJ.

The tool organizes news stories according to the years they were published and the years they refer to. So if an article refers to 2020, it would appear under that year, extending the timeline into the future. The tool can be used to gain an understanding of thinking at some point in the past, and also what thinking has taken place about some time in the future.

At present, Time Explorer only contains select stories from the New York Times, but one can see that if it is extended to include a variety of sources and writings beyond news stories, it could be a significant aid to researchers doing survey work.

It adds a new dimension to research, essentially enabling the researchers to become virtual time travellers. This article explains in more detail.