Summary:

China Internet Weekly published an in-depth article on a new type of search engine designed by Microsoft Research Asia called "Guanxi". The functions and properties of the new technology are carefully explained, including the ability for Guanxi to provide people with detailed results regarding related terms, including everything from related people and places to organizations. It is explained that Guanxi is a brand new application of the Object-level Vertical Search technology. The article says that Guanxi is not only a tool that helps acquire information, but also has the ability for active information organization, collection, guidance, and navigation. It is hoped that with this new technology, search engines will not only be providing people with mere answers, but also with additional relevant information, so as to save them from the burden of performing countless searches on multiple websites.

The articles acknowledges the Six Degrees of Separation theory formed by Stanley Milgram in 1967, which fully illustrates the complicated relationships between everyone in the world, as well as how easily one could be connected to another. For those curious about the intricacies of relationships, Guanxi provides the perfect solution. The results page of Guanxi is divided into two sections, where the right hand side is basically the same as that shown by traditional search engines and the left hand side displays a list of related terms. Those terms are the highlight of Guanxi and can be turned into new searches themselves, allowing users to fully grasp the relationship between people, places, and other things. Visual effects are also described, including the placing of pictures to match names, where the size of the picture indicates the popularity of the person, and where its distance from the object of the search indicates the closeness of their relationship. Boosting efficiency with its ability to judge the relevance of search results and provide pertinent information, Guanxi has yet to display even greater potential.