Do Search Engines Have a Future?
August 31, 2011
In a recent guest post at OStatic.com, Grant Ingersoll, founder of Lucid Imagination, (provider of open-source Apache-based search tools) discusses the increasing sophistication of search engines. Ingersoll attributes this spike in sophistication to the increased amount of data available, as well as the increase in resources available to interpret that data. In addition to this, there is more of a focus on the ways in which the data is used, rather than just the sheer amount of data available. He asserts:
Previously, search engines only seemed to care about the text ingested. Now, we care not only about the content, but also how the users interacted with the results both personally and in the aggregate and across time. This social metadata helps bring the focus of search back on the user and their information need instead of solely on the raw data and the parsing of the language.
The ability to process large amounts of data has also become more available over the years, allowing search engine innovation to focus on analyzing data rather than merely processing it. Libraries like Apache Lucene, which allow for much quicker, easier, and more successful searching, are the next step in the evolution of Internet search engines. The combination of results-focused searches and collaborative communities mark the next phase in its development.
And the question, “Do search engines have a future?” We recognize that social content is important. We also know that when clicks and preferences replace curation, the notions of precision and recall require a new context. What happens if the “soft” side of information—the preferences of a possibly ill informed group of users—defines the high value content? We think that there are some significant issues related to provenance, accuracy, and bias that are now assumed to be no big deal. We think precision, recall, accuracy, objectivity, and provenance are important. Search engines are now either part of the problem or part of the solution. These issues are not whether a system is free, low cost or high cost. The issue with which we are concerned is the sort of thing that gave Alexis de Tocqueville pause:
In the United States, the majority undertakes to supply a multitude of ready-made opinions for the use of individuals, who are thus relieved from the necessity of forming opinions of their own.
Now search?
Jody Barnes, August 31, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
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