Newer Search Engines Add Twists to Search - Pieces of a Whole?
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With each of these search engines and their new features, it seems to me that what we’re seeing is parts of a whole solution when it comes to the problem of search. Each one shows a different way to approach the matter. I’m tempted to say that each one approaches the question of search a little differently, but the truth is that each one poses slightly different questions, so of course you will get different answers.
For True Knowledge, the question seems to be “how can we help the user get the most accurate, most relevant answer to a natural language question as quickly as possible?” For Enetez, the question is more along the lines of “how can we help the user zero in on the exact thing they’re looking for?” And Hakia’s approach is one answer to the question “how can we help the user find additional relevant information about their query, perhaps in a social context?”
In the search field, there doesn’t seem to be one right answer – because there isn’t one right question. Searchers themselves will approach search differently. Two different people can put the exact same query into a search box, and may be satisfied with slightly different results. For that matter, even the same user will approach different searches with a different attitude.
For example, if I put the query “Thanksgiving in Disney World” into a search engine, am I looking for discounts, good places to eat, another family’s experience, or what? I might be looking for a hotel discount at one point; later in the planning, I might be looking for the best place to eat in Disney World for a Thanksgiving dinner. That latter might be a good topic for a social search, incidentally; everyone who has been to Disney during Thanksgiving is bound to have an opinion (as far as I’m concerned, it’s the Liberty Tree Tavern on Main Street, but I’m just one person).
Since everyone has different goals when they search, it is a good thing to have different approaches to search. Hakia and Enetez have the right idea by offering a default search mode/interface that most people are used to, but providing the option of doing something differently. Even True Knowledge offers links to related documents as part of their search results. With all this idea fermentation going on, it won’t surprise me in the least to see the major search engines adapting themselves more to how their users approach search – and giving them more options – over the next year.
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