When Search Knows Best, Do You Get What You Want?

September 15, 2011

Bing’s term is adaptive search. The idea is that Bing, like the Google, “knows” what I want when I run a query. You can read “Adapting Search to You” to get the details with some spin, of course. How well do these adaptive systems work? If one is a member of a herd looking for sports scores or Lady Gaga news, adaptive search makes life easier. However, if you run some real world queries, adaptive search is maddening.

I was trying to locate flight information from San Francisco to Paris with a return to Washington, DC. One of the adaptive search services concluded that I was in Spain. I was in Austria. Then when the information displayed the language was German with a link that said, “To visit our main site, click here.” Guess where the “adaptive system” sent me. Give up. I was shown a page in Italian. Sure, I am an outlier, but the “smart” systems get confused with real world situations.
When one jumps to a mission critical search, adaptive systems and smart software can return information that may not be what is required. I can work around most problems, resorting to for fee services the retriev5ed information is off point. Other online searchers may suck up what’s offered and make a decision on incorrect or distorted information.

Do you know what you want when you search? Do you know if the information is not on the mark?

Stephen E Arnold, September 15, 2011

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Stephen E. Arnold monitors search, content processing, text mining and related topics from his high-tech nerve center in rural Kentucky. He tries to winnow the goose feathers from the giblets. He works with colleagues worldwide to make this Web log useful to those who want to go "beyond search". Contact him at sa [at] arnoldit.com. His Web site with additional information about search is arnoldit.com.