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Define and View Relationships Between Words with Visuwords
Posted by Adam Pash at 6:00 AM on November 6, 2007
Web site Visuwords defines and displays relationships between words in a fast and effective graphical map of meaning. When you first search for a word with Visuwords, you'll see the word pop up in the centre and nodes pop out from there for each meaning of the word. Each of those nodes will spawn their own relational nodes, connected by lines that indicate meaning (for example, a red diamond indicates an antonym), and double-clicking any of those nodes will expand your tree of meaning from that point. Visuwords is a quick visual dictionary-and-thesaurus-in-one tool that offers a fresh and useful way to look at words, understand meanings, and find new ways of saying what you're looking to say.
Tags: dictionary | information | learning | search techniques
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
There are currently no AU comments for this post.
damen
Posted 5:45 PM 5/11/07
I'd like to play with the same idea, but with my own data. Is there an app for macs whereby you can create something similar? (not aiming for any web-based output - just on my computer)
damen
gpzbc
Posted 5:16 PM 5/11/07
hmmm.... really cool idea. It reminds me of the tree view in the research tool called 'tafiti'. They both offer a new twist on how to look at things. However it is mostly just eye candy....... which isn't all bad.
I just tried Visuwords and liked it when it worked. However, about 50% of the time I got a "XML Load Failed" message and also kept getting a "Service Temporarily Unavailable" message.
gpzbc
francesca
Posted 6:44 PM 5/11/07
It seems that Visuwords is just a free, unrelated version of Visual Thesaurus, which did this same work three years ago.
francesca
gpzbc
Posted 6:24 PM 5/11/07
I didn't have to pay anything to use it. In fact, the website says, "Visuwords™ is available as a free resource to all patrons of the web."
gpzbc
c2d
Posted 6:10 PM 5/11/07
Strange coincidence... I just happened to visit the site www.visualthesaurus.com a few minutes back. Yes, its just what the name says. Looked cool. I found out that trial is free, but you have to pay to use it.
c2d
BigJim45
Posted 7:45 PM 5/11/07
Yes Francesca, and like Word Menu (which seems to have died on the vine) prior to that.
BigJim45
Ace_NoOne
Posted 2:51 AM 6/11/07
Looks interesting - however, it's useless to me unless they add a URL parameter so I can use it as a Firefox quick search (or bookmarklet)...
Ace_NoOne
zenigmatic
Posted 10:20 AM 6/11/07
not only did I get the XML load error regularly, I don't see how it is useful unless you can direct some of those popping balls toward the word sense of interest. It just keeps on building a net of its own directive.
@Damen, there are some java based tools like Tom Sawyer software you can use and also expensive and complex visualization solutions that will locally key off of your database or set like WebTas.
zenigmatic