Intelligent search engine Nigma. What is the difference between the Nigma search engine and how it works Nigma Russian search engine
The Russian intelligent search engine, known as Nigma, originally had a name written in Latin, namely Nigma. After Cyrillic domains were introduced a few years ago, the search system changed its name. Now it is called Nigma.rf. However, the site is also still available at Nigma.ru.
Unlike most of the most popular search engines, such as Google, Yandex, Bing or Yahoo, Nygma is not as popular among users. However, it is truly worthy of your attention due to some unique features. Quite a bit of money, but a lot of effort, was invested in the development. The creators have firmly established Nigma's position as a Runet search engine. Currently, attempts are even being made to enter the Southeast Asian market.
What is the principle of Nygma's work?
Many people call Nigma just a specific add-on over other search engines that have their own robots that index the Network in search of sites. But, in addition to their own index database, the creators also use other people’s databases, which are freely available. Nygma's share in the total data flow is not known for certain. The system is maintained by only a few dozen people, and probably not too much money is invested in indexing the Runet.
The main idea is to sort the results into categories. This process is otherwise called clustering. Its essence is to issue, upon request, the maximum number of documents corresponding to it. At the same time, headings and snippets, that is, small descriptions, are provided along with links. In this, Nigma differs from other search engines that find a huge number of files.
Google, Yandex and others are not always able to determine exactly what the user wants to see on the first pages of search results. In the vast majority of cases, multitasking plays a role. Different developers solve this problem in different ways. As for the creators of Nygma, they offer us special filters that can highlight certain clusters. In addition, filters can also remove these clusters.
If you open the Nigma search engine, you can see the filters on the left. Select the required clusters by placing a cross or a tick in front of them. A cross excludes a parameter from the search, while a tick does the opposite. This allows you to identify what is required in half a minute, thus getting rid of the gigantic display of unnecessary sites. This is how we increase relevance to our own needs.
History of the development of the Nigma search engine
Initially, the system, which was first launched about eleven years ago, had a fairly simple interface. But it was at that moment that the time to launch Nygma on the market was lost. Even then, the rapid development of other search engines was taking place, which lasted ten years. Yandex was then actively conquering its financial niche, and Google continued to conquer the Runet itself.
But, having appeared, Nigma had a number of advantages over Google, which at that time did not seriously take into account the morphology of the Russian language. Thus, it was quite possible to receive your “profit” from the search engine’s database. Google quickly corrected its own shortcomings, eliminating a small competitor from its path.
Nigma developers had to create new “features” of their system. And ultimately, the main ones were the ability to use broader hints, highlighting official online resources and identifying them. It was also possible to set special delivery settings. These settings are called "Math and Chemistry". The system allows you to search separately for torrent files or music tracks.
Perhaps the ability to search for files and compositions is the most important difference from other search engines. The latter try to stay as far as possible from anything related to copyright.
Latest updates
Four years after launch, the interface changed. At the same time, it became possible to search in Nigma by books in online libraries and by images from other search engines. The fact that the development was carried out by people directly associated with Moscow State University was the reason for the appearance of the “Mathematics and Chemistry” tool, which greatly facilitated the study of many students and schoolchildren.
The essence of this great feature is that you can enter a specific mathematical equation or expression in the address bar. The same applies to chemical formulas. As a result, we get not only an answer, but also a solution, not only in a digital, but also in a literal meaning. If there are problems with typing special characters, such as “x”, “y”, “logarithms” and so on, then you can simply enter a line in Russian, Nigma-mathematics will translate it into classical form.
Nygma-chemistry allows the system to be used even by those who have already forgotten what this item is. It is also possible to enter queries in text, and the system will translate. You can refer not only to sections of inorganic chemistry, but also organic.
As for the Nygma music section, here you can listen to the selected composition using the player built into the search engine, and even download it.
(April 12). It is unknown whether the choice of such a date was accidental or intentional, but this once again emphasizes the scientific orientation of the search system. For reference, it is worth noting that nygma are spiders of the Dictunidae family, colored greenish, no more than three millimeters long.
System Features
The founder of the project was the former vice-president of the famous company Mail.ru Viktor Lavrenko. A Moscow State University student helped him from the very beginning in creating Nigma. Today the project employs about 15 people.
The Nigma search engine is a kind of laboratory for research. It will be useful to students and with its help they are already defending diplomas and dissertations today. At the same time, like all Internet search engines, Nigma also has a commercial component. For example, search engine results pages contain advertising from Yandex. But the creator of the project still notes that commercial gain was not the main goal of creating this system. The most important thing is the effective search for the necessary information based on document clustering. Search results are grouped by thematic sites. To do this, the Nigma search system combines all the results obtained from different search engines, using user queries and counters to sort them. For example, the site makes it possible to filter topics that are not needed by users, which greatly simplifies the search for useful information.
For whom was the Nigma search system created?
The main users of the search engine are students. Among other Runet users, the popularity of the system is at a fairly low level. Of course, the creators of Nigma are interested in promoting their search engine. For this purpose, various events have been and are being carried out. For about a year, Nigma placed its advertising on Yandex, advertising campaigns were carried out on the radio, and promotions were held for particularly active users.
Users can leave feedback on the system's operation or complain about search results using a special form. In addition, surveys are conducted to develop new algorithms and services, functions, including not only search. Systems, for example, correct errors in requests themselves. We can only hope that the creators of Nigma will continue to take into account user opinions in the future.
Index and document base
The Nigma search engine produces results using the database of several machines at once - Rambler, Altavista, Aport, Google, Yahoo, MSN and Yandex. In addition, our own documentary database has been created. In the search results, at the user's request, documents are generated, grouped by topic. This allows you to expand your search conditions by unchecking certain descriptions.
Programmers of the Nigma search engine are developing in an effort to advance one more step in the creation of artificial intelligence. Their main task is to create software for solving intellectual problems. In the future, the developed technologies can be used in other areas of human activity.
Kuznetsov Vladimir Georgievich, associate professor of the Department of TiMEMO and ICT, OGBU DPO "RIRO"Nygma- Russian intelligent metasearch system, the first clustering search engine in Runet. The project was created with the support of the departments of computer science and psychology of Moscow State University, as well as Stanford University (USA). The name "Nigma" (one of the genus of spiders of the family Dictynidae, en:Nigma) was chosen due to its association with the World Wide Web. The founders of the project are Viktor Lavrenko and Vladimir Chernyshov. The head of the Nigma.RF development team is Vladislav Kuznetsov.
At the top of the Nygma start window there is a menu bar for accessing all popular services.
This eliminates the need to open new windows or tabs to access these services, or enter special addresses. You just need to click on the name of the desired service in this menu and a social network or mail or TV program, or news will open next to Nigma.
So, for example, using the “TV program” menu commands, you can view the TV program for the current day or some other day of the week, indicating the viewing time (now, morning, afternoon, evening).
If we select the “maps.yandex.ru” command in the “Maps” menu, and in the window that opens, select the “Ryazan View on panorama” option, you can take a virtual walk around Ryazan.
Nygma's control elements
The Nigma search engine window itself consists of 6 tabs: “Internet”, “Pictures”, “Books”, “Music”, “Mathematics”, “Mini-games”, a special field for entering a query with a button for initializing information search for the entered query , and a number of other control elements. By default, the "Internet" tab is selected in the search engine window.
To switch to another tab, click on the button with the name of this tab located in the line of buttons located above the field for entering queries.
The name of the button for initializing requests depends on the selected tab. If the "Internet" tab is selected, the button is engraved "Find"; if the "Pictures" tab is selected, the button is called "Find Pictures!", etc.
Each tab below the query entry field has its own line for example queries.
Smart search in all search engines at once!
Nigma is designed in such a way that after entering a query from the keyboard and pressing the initialization button, the search engine will begin searching for the requested information immediately not only using Nigma, but also using other search engines, and immediately (Yandex, Google, Rambler, Bing, Yahoo, Altavista). It's convenient. At the same time, if the query is poorly formulated, too many documents will be found as a result of the search and it will take sufficient time to extract the most suitable document from this list.
To speed up the search for the necessary information in Nigma, you can use the following main methods:
- filtering the requested information on specific topics;
- use of a special block of control elements;
- use of advanced search capabilities;
- using your own query language.
Filtering requested information by specific topics
The essence of this method is as follows. Based on the user's request, Nigma generates a list of documents, dividing it into groups (filters). Using filters, the user can refine the query and quickly sort the found documents according to the topic he needs (select the ones he needs or exclude unnecessary topics).
Let us enter the general query “Medicine” on the “Internet” tab and click the “Find” button. As a result, we received an insanely large number of results - more than 150 million documents.
But Nigma automatically grouped the found documents into topics that are similar in meaning, and displays a list of these topics in the column on the left.
To the left of the name of each topic/group of topics with a similar topic is an indicator in the form of a miniature square flag.
By clicking on the flag indicator, we can either turn on topics, or, conversely, turn them off so that they are eliminated during filtering.
If we click on the indicator for the first time, an icon in the form of a miniature red cross appears in the indicator, and the corresponding topic name will be crossed out, i.e. this topic will be excluded during filtering.
If we double-click on the indicator, an icon in the form of a green checkmark will appear in the indicator, and the topic indicated by the indicator will be included in the list of selected documents when filtering.
Enabling or disabling topics when filtering documents takes effect after clicking the "Filter" button.
If we want to turn off all the topics presented in the list, then we must select the “Exclude” command in the “With all” group.
If we want to include all the topics presented in the list, then we must select the “Select” command in the “With all” group.
If we want to reset all selected checkboxes (that is, not filter anything), then we need to select the “Reset” command in the “With all” group.
Suppose we need to exclude all topics when filtering, with the exception of the topic “Drug Directory”. The easiest way to do this is as follows. First, use the “Reset” command to exclude all topics from the list of topics. Then additionally click on the indicator of the topic “Directory of Medicines” so that instead of the icon with a red cross, a green checkmark icon appears in the indicator. Finally, click on the “Filter” button.
Using a block of control elements
Under the query entry field there is a block of control elements for configuring the search.
If we turn on the “In Ryazan” checkbox in this block, then the search for the information requested in the request will be limited only to the Ryazan region. The "Search Engines" button opens a list of available search engines: Yandex, Google, Rambler, Bing, Yahoo, Altavista, Nigma.
By default, all these search engines are connected with checkboxes and will be used to find the necessary information. If necessary, some of them can be disabled.
The "Language" button opens the list of available languages. By default, the "Any language" option is selected. At the same time, you can use the selector button to select other options: “Russian”, “Ukrainian”, “English”.
The "Sorting" button opens a menu for selecting a sorting method. By default, the "No sorting" option is selected. You can use the selector button to select the following sorting options: “By date (from new)” or “By date (from old)”.
The "Settings" button opens a group of options included by checkboxes in the search engine ("Autocomplete", "Translator", "News", "Mathematics", "Chemistry", "Fact Search", "Definitions"). Some of them can be disabled if desired.
Using Advanced Search Mode
On the right side of the line with buttons for selecting the desired tab there are two more buttons: and “Switch to help mode”.
Clicking on the "Advanced Search" button opens a special panel for selecting additional options for an advanced search for the information you are looking for.
A second click on the same button closes the advanced search panel.
By clicking on the "Go to help mode" button, Nigma is switched to help mode. In this mode, you can quickly get acquainted with the list of tasks that are available to the user using certain system controls.
Search images in Nygma
To search for pictures, you need to go to the "Pictures" tab. Let's say we want to find pictures of an Amur tiger.
In the field for entering a request from the keyboard, enter “Amur tiger” and click the “Find pictures!” button.
As a result, a window will appear with a selection of thumbnails depicting an Amur tiger.
Click on the thumbnail you like to open the picture in a separate window.
By right-clicking on the picture, open the context menu and in this menu select the command we need (to save the picture in a file, print the image on a printer, copy the image to the clipboard, save it on the computer as a background image to decorate the Windows desktop, etc. .d.).
Nigma - Smart Library
If we leave the request “Amur Tiger” and go to the “Books” tab, then we will automatically go to the section of the search engine related to literature dedicated, one way or another, to Amur tigers.
Moreover, based on the request (in our case, “Amur tiger”), Nigma generates a list of documents, dividing it into groups (filters). Using filters, the user can refine the query and quickly sort the found documents according to the topic he needs (select the ones he needs or exclude unnecessary topics).
1. Search in Russian literature
1.1. By author's last name
By writing only the author's last name (for example, Yesenin), you can find his works.
I have already pointed out that Nygma’s tabs are interconnected by the entered query.
So, for example, if we want to select the most suitable picture with the image of Sergei Yesenin, then we just need to go to the “Pictures” tab to see an extensive collection of pictures with the image of S. Yesenin
1.2. Text of the author's work
To find a specific text by the author, you need to supplement the query with the name of the work, for example: Chekhov Horse surname.
2. Search in foreign literature
In the search bar, you can write both the name of the author (for example, Galsworthy) and the title of his work (for example, The Forsyte Saga).
Nygma Music
Nigma Music is a service that simplifies the search for musical compositions. The Nigma.ru search robot finds music files on the Internet and indexes the tags contained in these same files, producing the desired result upon request.
Nygma searches for music all over the Internet, sorts and groups the results. This means that you can easily find the artist or song you need, and without leaving Nigma you can listen to and download them.
Search for music tracks by artist, album, song
The user can enter the name of the group, song, artist, album, etc. into the search bar (for example, Lyube, Alexander Malinin, etc.).
In the materials found by request, when you click on the “Read lyrics” link, a page with the lyrics of the song will open. For example, with the lyrics of the song "Shores".
When you click on the “Listen” link, the player control panel will open and the process of playing the ordered melody/album will begin.
When you click on the "Copy" link, a panel will open asking "Do you want to open or save?"
If you want to save the selected melody in the desired folder, expand the menu of the "Save" button and in this menu select the "Save as" command.
A standard “Save As” window will open, in which you just need to specify the destination folder and then click the “Save” button.
Nygma. Catalog of popular games
Nygma. Mathematics
The Nigma mathematical system allows you to perform simple arithmetic transformations and solve mathematical problems, taking into account various units of measurement and recognizing mathematical and physical constants. Queries for converting currencies, solving systems of equations, and plotting function graphs are also supported.
The mathematical system was launched in October 2008.
Nygma. Chemistry
In December 2008, support for queries on inorganic chemical reactions, both starting and final reaction substances, appeared. Subsequently, search for chemical reactions and support for organic chemistry were added.
As of 2011, the system allows you to search for more than 12,000 inorganic reactions. Substances can be specified either as names (“sodium chloride”, “rock salt”) or as formulas (“NaCl”).
Browse Search
Nygma is effective for overview search when collecting information. It allows you to quickly find public information from various areas and check if you have missed anything important using other search engines.
I have prepared a small brochure with a selection of exercises for accelerated development of the described online service, and you can download this brochure from the provided link. (doc, 6.99MB)
What do all RuNet search services have in common? They do not allow you to filter results.
Today, even the most venerable search services do not allow you to configure the relevance of a query as flexibly as a search engine with a cute spider on its logo (the name of the family of which served as the letter identifier for the search engine).
In addition, Nygma is the only search engine that has taken the slippery slope of music search and torrents, so ardently disliked by copyright holders.
In its output you can listen and download any songs. Against the backdrop of the copyright hype, this looks at least bold. In any case, “not caught, not an artist.”
Another radical difference is the ability to solve chemical equations right in the search bar. To do this, you just need to enter an example, and the search engine will independently solve it and show the conditions and features of the chemical reaction.
Search engine features
Nigma has relatively small human resources (several dozen employees) and adequate funding. Our own index database is small, but using public databases from other services can significantly expand your search capabilities.
Moreover, each of the seven services can be disabled at any time. In this case, the results will not appear indexed by the disabled search engine.
Thus, you can use your usual search engine (Google, for example), but with a convenient system for adjusting relevance.
Issue clustering
The search system forms separate groups (clusters) from the results. In this way, information, commercial and entertainment resources are separated. The user can filter out results that he does not need.
The filter on the right side of the screen allows you to customize search results in detail, excluding marked keywords.
It is enough to put a “tick” in front of the necessary queries, and a cross in front of the unnecessary ones and click the “Filter” button so that only the results that interest the user remain in the search results.
Smart Tips
However, interesting things begin even before the search query is completed. The search engine provides answers to some questions, such as “the capital/currency of such and such a country” before the search results, in a drop-down menu in the query line.
This allows you to get the information you need without even visiting the pages (and therefore without having to deal with the advertising placed on them). Most of this information is taken from the free encyclopedia; next to each result there is a link to the source.
When you hover your cursor over the result, a small help message will appear with basic information. In most cases this will be enough. The advertising display is organized in the same way.
Isolation of official sites
Using Google or Yandex, it is sometimes completely impossible to find the official website of a particular company. The search results are filled with the fruits of the labors of SEOs all over the world, but it doesn’t contain what you need. Nygma overcame this “sore” too.
In its search results, official resources of companies are marked with a special “thumbs up” icon.
Search engine services
In addition to interesting Internet search capabilities, Nygma has many other additional services. Search by music and torrents, computing capability in the search bar and a developed currency converter. Below you will find more details about each of the services.
Computing facilities
Among the sadly small audience of the search engine there are many schoolchildren and students. The service owes its popularity to its excellent computing capabilities.
Their presence is natural, given that the project was created by a student at Moscow State University and has the support of Stanford University. To solve an equation, just enter it into the search bar.
If necessary, the Nigma search engine will show the sequence of actions for solving a mathematical equation. In addition to linear equations, Nygma is also capable of solving systems of equations.
A full list of possibilities is available at the “List of tasks to be solved” link located under the answer.
And if writing formulas is inconvenient, you can type the example directly in text
It was Nygma mathematics. The same possibilities are available for solving physical and chemical (inorganic and organic) formulas.
Nigma chemistry search system allows you to enter formulas not only using the designations of chemical elements, but also with their names.
In this case, a converter works between systems of quantities that can be indicated in words and used in formulas.
There is also a built-in currency converter that perfectly recognizes slang names for currencies.
We must pay tribute to the small group of people who are developing such useful resource functions. I would like to believe that in the future the search engine will “shoot” like its “senior colleagues” Google or Yandex.
Search form builder
Anyone can place a search form from Nigma on their website. For this purpose there is a special constructor. The whole process takes place in three simple steps. First, you will need to select a design option for the form itself and the search query button.
Then assign possible locations and types of searches.
Click “Get code” and copy the code that appears in the form to your website. The search form is ready to use. Computational functionality is not available in it, but it is organized quite well.
What Search Engines (SE) do you use? Yandex? Google? Mail? Rambler? Many users do not even understand and do not know what they are using to search for information on the Internet. In this article you will learn about such an interesting PS as Nigma. Perhaps someone already knows about it, but others do not, but in any case you can get more detailed information about it.
I want to immediately clarify that I am not advertising it and no one will give me anything for this article. I myself have been using it for several years now and find it the most convenient for searching. Perhaps you will like it after reading this article.
You can get to the search engine website using the link or
So. When you go to the main page, you get to the most important thing - this is the search query line
As you can see, there is nothing superfluous or unnecessary. But if you look closely, you will notice such interesting links as Pictures, Books, Music, Mathematics and Mini-games
Those. You can search no only in the usual way, and also search by images:
Books
and Music
About searching for music, I would like to add that you can listen directly online and from different sources, as well as download a composition without going to another source site.
A service such as Nigma-mathematics deserves special attention, which is sometimes used even more than the search engine itself:
I won’t write in full about this service, because it’s too much and if you wish, you can familiarize yourself with it.
I would also like to note that chemical formulas can be calculated in the same way.
Now about the search itself. The search bar has the intellectual ability to immediately provide the necessary information as you type. For example, I entered a word and the official website appeared in the list, as well as information about it (it appears when you hover over the icon):
And please note that this information can be obtained without even pressing the Enter button.
In the same way you can find out the price of any product:
It only works if this product is in the product catalog from Mail.
If you do this, the search information window looks like this:
What you should pay attention to here is that the information is also located on the right, marked with an icon on the official website, but it is also possible to switch to Music or other information, depending on the search criterion.
Now pay attention to the left block, which displays Filters with which you can expand your search:
Another feature of Nigma is how it helps to search for torrents (?):
This also helps significantly.
A special feature of Nigma is that it has its own search robot that indexes sites, and it also uses other PS robots (Yandex, Google, Rambler, Yahoo, AltaVista, Bing and [email protected]) links to which are located below pages:
when you click on them, you will be redirected with this search query to the selected PS, which also makes the search easier if you don’t like Nigma’s results.
Now let's go back to the main page and pay attention to the top:
Here are the most frequently used Internet resources in various categories. for example you can send SMS:
I won’t write about all the sites...
There are also useful links at the bottom of this page:
Here you can switch to the lightweight version of the search engine (if you have a slow Internet connection) or to the mobile version (if from a phone or tablet), as well as set the default Nigma search engine in your or instead of .
Well, basically, stop describing this PS. I have not yet written about some of the “features” of Nigma, for example about their forum, history, advanced search, choice of language and search engines, choice of location and settings. You yourself can figure them out over time if you use it. And if anything is not clear, write in the comments. I will definitely help. As you can see, this is a very interesting and useful search engine that can significantly reduce and simplify the search for information. Perhaps you, like me, will also love it.