instaGrok
March 11, 2013 3:45 PM Subscribe
instaGrok is a website that presents information in a mindmap-style visual interface, which allows users to learn about topics by exploring the connections between concepts and facts.
It's kind of neat, though ... it reminds me of James Burke's Knowledge Web.
posted by Myca at 4:27 PM on March 11, 2013
posted by Myca at 4:27 PM on March 11, 2013
I clicked on some of the examples, but didn't learn anything new. There were links to other sources of information, but when I clicked on them I just got the jello jiggly vibrations that b1tr0t mentioned. Maybe I'm missing something.
posted by Blue_Villain at 4:27 PM on March 11, 2013
posted by Blue_Villain at 4:27 PM on March 11, 2013
yeah, this looks cool but doesn't really add to the store of knowledge so far for me. I really don't need a fancier method of being directed to Wikipedia.
posted by Lipstick Thespian at 4:37 PM on March 11, 2013
posted by Lipstick Thespian at 4:37 PM on March 11, 2013
While I'm all about intuitive and interesting ways to present information, I've never met anything that has a better interface/open-source characteristics as FreeMind.
posted by kurosawa's pal at 4:38 PM on March 11, 2013
posted by kurosawa's pal at 4:38 PM on March 11, 2013
I think it's broken. I entered "boobs" in the search. It showed some garbage but eventually made a little map of circles.
The main one, "boobs" says: Boobs Can Stop Breast Cancer followed by some javascript.
It has two branchings, labeled "False" and "Function". Clicking False does nothing. Clicking Function does nothing.
Function also has "boob" attached to it. Clicking that, it says "140 Edit Additional Details First, I too was once a teenage boy with boobs"
posted by RustyBrooks at 5:00 PM on March 11, 2013 [1 favorite]
The main one, "boobs" says: Boobs Can Stop Breast Cancer followed by some javascript.
It has two branchings, labeled "False" and "Function". Clicking False does nothing. Clicking Function does nothing.
Function also has "boob" attached to it. Clicking that, it says "140 Edit Additional Details First, I too was once a teenage boy with boobs"
posted by RustyBrooks at 5:00 PM on March 11, 2013 [1 favorite]
Next though I searched for "Venus" and it seems to work. Clicking on nodes brings up lists of facts for the node and opens more connections.
posted by RustyBrooks at 5:02 PM on March 11, 2013
posted by RustyBrooks at 5:02 PM on March 11, 2013
I think it's broken. I entered "boobs" in the search. It showed some garbage but eventually made a little map of circles.
The main one, "boobs" says: Boobs Can Stop Breast Cancer followed by some javascript.
It has two branchings, labeled "False" and "Function". Clicking False does nothing. Clicking Function does nothing.
Function also has "boob" attached to it. Clicking that, it says "140 Edit Additional Details First, I too was once a teenage boy with boobs"
This is how Kirk once defeated an alien supercomputer.
posted by Artw at 5:08 PM on March 11, 2013 [4 favorites]
The main one, "boobs" says: Boobs Can Stop Breast Cancer followed by some javascript.
It has two branchings, labeled "False" and "Function". Clicking False does nothing. Clicking Function does nothing.
Function also has "boob" attached to it. Clicking that, it says "140 Edit Additional Details First, I too was once a teenage boy with boobs"
This is how Kirk once defeated an alien supercomputer.
posted by Artw at 5:08 PM on March 11, 2013 [4 favorites]
Today I learned that Mississippi and food are related, but catfish and food are not.
However, "Catfish are raised in warm climates, are inexpensive, and are safe food for the local grocers."
Safe?
posted by 23 at 6:31 PM on March 11, 2013
However, "Catfish are raised in warm climates, are inexpensive, and are safe food for the local grocers."
Safe?
posted by 23 at 6:31 PM on March 11, 2013
One little quirk of this is that, maybe to avoid cycles in the graph (?) some nodes are duplicated. If you click on the photosynthesis example, you can get it do display "light", "sun", and "sunlight" as separate nodes. More strangely, you can get it to display "electron transport chain" in two different nodes (why not just have one "electron transport chain" node that is just more connected?).
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 8:10 PM on March 11, 2013
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 8:10 PM on March 11, 2013
I did not grok this. Also, usability and accessibility nightmare. Also, linear is sometimes the best way to digest information, for everything else there's hypertext and opening things in background tabs.
posted by Happy Dave at 3:42 AM on March 12, 2013
posted by Happy Dave at 3:42 AM on March 12, 2013
This was ... not the best of the web.
posted by flippant at 4:19 AM on March 12, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by flippant at 4:19 AM on March 12, 2013 [1 favorite]
Does not work on IE (which I'm forced to use at work).
posted by pointystick at 6:08 AM on March 12, 2013
posted by pointystick at 6:08 AM on March 12, 2013
However, "Catfish are raised in warm climates, are inexpensive, and are safe food for the local grocers."People used to think that catfish, as scum-sucking bottom-dwellers, were inedible. There seems to be some old rule about it, too.
Safe?
posted by fantabulous timewaster at 8:04 AM on March 12, 2013
I love the idea of these mind-maps, but I've never encountered a useful one.
posted by fantabulous timewaster at 8:05 AM on March 12, 2013
posted by fantabulous timewaster at 8:05 AM on March 12, 2013
Okay. I typed in "Heinlein Society". It doesn't grok grok. They should pay a percentage of advertising proceeds to the society.
posted by Goofyy at 9:11 AM on March 12, 2013
posted by Goofyy at 9:11 AM on March 12, 2013
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posted by Artw at 4:24 PM on March 11, 2013