Thursday, August 16, 2007

Google doesn't know what you are looking for

Stowe Boyd got me thinking about search.
His post points out that his /message blog appears higher than the yahoo message boards... on google's returns (wonder what happens on yahoo?).
So I tried the search term 'faster future' on google.
And ff comes in at No4 on the list. Hurrah!
Sounds good, dunnit?
But it's a bit rubbish really. I know what I'm looking for. Google doesn't. That's why the result I actually want comes out at number 4. The result I'm actually looking for should be number 1 - in fact the only result - shouldn't it?
Yeah, but google couldn't possibly know what I was thinking as I entered those search terms, could it?
Not yet - but it is working on it. And the answer - as with most things - relies on unleashing the power of networked communities.
Social search engines strive to understand, from my previous interactions, ratings, and recommendations, what I mean when I type a search term.
What a social search engine does is give context. And as we've often said before - without context there is no meaning.
So with standard old google search Stowe is right to let out a whoop of joy on appearing on page 1 of google's returns. But it's also why when I type Bike Test - and a mean motorcycle - I get a load of returns about bicycles.
I wish social search engines, such as google's custom search well - and salute their illustration of the power of networked communities of interest.

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