Online consumer information retrieval has reached another inflection point: A shift from pure algorithmic search to social search. Searchers have become increasingly sophisticated, and basic algorithmic Web results are getting diluted out of most mainstream search experiences such as Google, Yahoo, MSN, AOL Search and Ask.com.
First, there was basic algorithmic search (AltaVista, Google, et al). Then, predictable paid search business models fueled search technology innovations. The industry is now maneuvering through its third era, social search. Humans are still better at some things than computers.
Throughout the past decade, the most critical success factors for search engines have remained pretty stable: relevance, comprehensiveness, performance, freshness and ease of use. More than ever, relevance is a subjective measure of perception, and relevance really has to do with the holistic search experience of one user at a time. And inferring user intent from the "average" 2.1 search terms per query remains at the core of the relevance challenge.
Online consumer information retrieval has reached another inflection point: A shift from pure algorithmic search to social search. Searchers have become increasingly sophisticated, and basic algorithmic Web results are getting diluted out of most mainstream search experiences such as Google, Yahoo, MSN, AOL Search and Ask.com.
First, there was basic algorithmic search (AltaVista, Google, et al). Then, predictable paid search business models fueled search technology innovations. The industry is now maneuvering through its third era, social search. Humans are still better at some things than computers.
Throughout the past decade, the most critical success factors for search engines have remained pretty stable: relevance, comprehensiveness, performance, freshness and ease of use. More than ever, relevance is a subjective measure of perception, and relevance really has to do with the holistic search experience of one user at a time. And inferring user intent from the “average” 2.1 search terms per query remains at the core of the relevance challenge.
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