Serendipity In Search Will Lead To Bigger, Better Things
Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Sunday, 19 of August , 2007 at 8:56 am
(Source) I think we are just now seeing the early steps of expanding search beyond a pure focus on relevance and precision to offer an opportunity for serendipity. As the millions of people who use Digg, Delicious, and Stumbleupon can attest, there are times that you want to explore and discover. There are times that you want to see the interesting things that others have found. There are times that you don’t know exactly what it is you are looking for, but you will recognize it when you see it.
(Source) I think we are just now seeing the early steps of expanding search beyond a pure focus on relevance and precision to offer an opportunity for serendipity. As the millions of people who use Digg, Delicious, and Stumbleupon can attest, there are times that you want to explore and discover. There are times that you want to see the interesting things that others have found. There are times that you don’t know exactly what it is you are looking for, but you will recognize it when you see it.
This was a good article at Search Engine Land written by Larry Cornett, VP of Search Experience at Yahoo. The article focuses on a big word: Disambiguity in search. Simply put, that’s a reference to a search engine’s attempt to cull from a few words typed into a search query box just what it is a searcher is looking for. It’s called disambiguity because many times searchers don’t really know what they’re looking for so they can’t pinpoint specific information with the right words, or a lot of times there are no “right words” for the search you want to make. Cornett’s solution is serendipity.
I think serendipity in search is a good thing. All of the search engines are adding elements to make the search experience better for users and to create a serendipitous experience. Ask has its 3D, which looks cool but I haven’t explored it to its fullest yet. Google has Google Universal, which I think was an excellent idea. Yahoo is now rolling out its Search Assist feature, which is another good idea and I can’t wait for its full implementation.
These improvements from the search engines mean that they take customer service seriously. Instead of expecting users to change and adapt to meet their supply of information, the search engines show a willingness to change and adapt to meet the marketplace of ideas. In other words, if searchers don’t know what they’re looking for and don’t know how to find it then the search engines take responsibility for helping the end user get the information. I believe we’ll see a day when more than 90% of the searches performed by more than 90% of the searchers online will be satisfied with the right information. We’re not there yet. In fact, I’d say that many searchers have a hard time finding what they want at any given search engine on any given day. It’s a problem the search engines have to fix and from what I can see they are working diligently to do so. The future of search is good and getting better.
I’d be interested in know which search engine feature mentioned in this post you get the most benefit from. Is it Ask 3D? Google Universal? Or do you prefer Yahoo’s Search Assist? Let me know. Share your insights with the rest of us, please.
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Category: Search Engines
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