Shaping Information – Now and in the Near Future

Google's recently released financial details seem to indicate that there's plenty of money to be made in the search space. Plenty of impetus it would seem to come up with bigger and better solutions to people’s information needs. Certainly all the activity and news surrounding Google's recent success is spurring competitors to take search technologies to the next level.

Indeed, all comers are now targeting the arena that Google has dominated. From high-end rivals like Microsoft and Yahoo! right on through to relative newcomers such as Vivisimo and ChoiceStream, and all in between, there are a great many, spending literally billions of dollars in coming up with new and better ways to help people find information.

Such aggressive competition in the search marketplace poses a very real threat to Google's dominance of Internet search. In so doing, the next few years seem set to revolutionise user's expectations, the methods they will use to search the Web, and more importantly, what kind of results they will get in return.

Where are the major developments likely to take place?

Four areas of major development are likely to take place that users of Internet Search systems will enjoy. They are:

1. Personalisation
2. Trend Searching
3. Using Search for place(s) other than the Internet
4. Returning more meaningful results to your questions

Personalisation – is this having my very own search engine?

This area of development is probably one of the most imminent and is being tested and considered right now. Whilst personalisation is not having your very own search engine, it is all about ensuring your search results are honed to fit your location, preferences and previous search experiences. For example an astronomy enthusiast who searches for the term "Saturn" would get results about a planet, rather than a car or a computer model.

Already the major search engines are jostling to offer simple forms of customisation. Thus far, however, whilst the much-promised era of powerful personalisation remains immense, computers remain questionable judges at interpreting human intent. The irritation of having to back out when these new systems do get your intentions wrong, probably means this technology is still a year or two from acceptance by the Internet community.

Paving Memory Lane

While search engines like AllTheWeb.com and Google are very good at providing a current snapshot of information and views on specific topics available on the Web right now, they are not very good at discerning how those snapshots change over a period of time. IBM’s research into this problem has led them to the development of WebFountain project, which is work on a new area known as trend searching. IBM state that WebFountain is a way to keep you up to date, show you trends, and help you understand the world around you.

IBM is copying or “archiving” large chunks of the Internet on a regular basis. They are then trying to develop a search engine capable of answering more sophisticated queries by taking into account information from previous times. For example, instead of using Google to find information on the new Toyota Prius, (a petrol electric hybrid car), a potential buyer could instead ask: "How have consumer opinions of the new Toyota Prius shifted over the past six months?" IBM suggest the results to such a question would most likely take the form of a graph or some other type visual interpretation of data that has been gathered by analysing everything it has found on the Internet. This information may have been found in articles and reviews, company web sites, Web logs and online forums etc.

While IBM say they are already selling this technology to their corporate customers, don’t expect it released to the general public any time soon.

Here, There, Everywhere

Finding information doesn’t always mean it’s on the Internet, sometimes it may be located on your own hard drive in an email, word processing document or a presentation file – this is especially the case for businesses. Getting access to these kinds of data isn't all that easy right now. However, search specialist companies are already exploring ways to mine information from these sources with a single search tool.

Microsoft is currently working on a project known as “Stuff I've Seen”. Whilst it is not currently available to the general public, Microsoft currently has 1,500 of its own employees using and testing the system internally. The system creates a searchable index of everything that appears on your PC screen, everything from work files to appointment schedules to Web pages. Unfortunately, as of yet, no release date has been set.

What about the Holy Grail - Getting Better Results?

It is said that the average search query contains two and a half words, which leaves plenty of room for interpretation. Consequently, the average search can usually turn up thousands, if not tens of thousands of links, and as we all know, most of them can be frustratingly irrelevant.

Some companies like Vivisimo to iXmatch, are developing technology known as “clustering”. The objective here is to organise hundreds of search results into subject-specific folders. As an example, a search on "Ian Thorpe", might return folders such as "Photos" and "Olympics" and “Official Web Sites” plus more. The technology is reaching a level of maturity that is attracting search users.

So whats the last word on search?

New technologies will continue to emerge in the search arena and offer “search users” facilities and services that would not have been dreamed of a few short years ago. As they evolve, search engines will probably become even more indispensable to our lives and bring a whole new meaning to words like “Googling”. However, will the namesake Google continue to grow or will giant killers emerge and replace it with even better technologies – only time will tell, but it is sure is going to be one superheated battle for supremacy, of which search users should reap the ultimate benefits.

Arthur Hissey
Computer Research & Technology
www.crt.net.au