Search Done Right

As I mentioned in my last blog entry, I was at the Gartner Portal Content and Collaboration conference last week and was reflecting on some of the points Gartner’s Whit Andrews mentioned during his discussion. Most of the presentation was around the need for improved federation and conversation within search. I had some arguments against federation as a be-all end-all search solution, but agree with him that conversation is a must in delivering better search within enterprises.

Andrews believes that the future of search is delivering greater personalization and transparency. Andrews’ example was his refusal to allow his 8-year-old son to start his research for a report on the black-footed ferret with Google. Instead, he packed up his son and took him to the local library. Andrews felt the library would do a better job tailoring the information to his son’s knowledge and needs. Immediately, upon asking the librarian for information the librarian knew that his son was roughly 8 and was probably doing a class report. The librarian may even have known the boy’s school and perhaps even the teacher. Based on her immediate observations, the librarian delivered to his son a set of research materials that were geared toward his reading level and needs for general reference material.

Search should work the same way, Andrews said. In an organization, it should recognize the user as a unique individual. It should know what department you are from, your tenure, office location and more. Based on that, the search engine should return results that are most relevant to you.

According to Andrews, the second part is about having a dialogue with the search engine. For example, users should be able to decide if they want to find a document that was created within a certain date range or perhaps came from a specific author. Similar to a librarian, the engine should also ask if the user would like to search on similar or associated topics.

On these points, I couldn’t agree more. This is why I am seeing a growing demand for enterprise search tools that to go beyond the one-dimensional list of results but instead provide advanced functionality for navigation, including such features as clustering, structured navigation, query expansion, conceptual search, tagging and more. During Procter & Gamble’s presentation, the company showed a screenshot of its intranet application, which enabled users to navigate through the result set and narrow their search based on their individual needs.

Overall, I agree with Andrews. If search is to remain relevant, it must continue to evolve so organizations can access their critical information. But I argue that these tools are getting better in providing greater flexibility and meeting the higher-end challenges of connectivity, security and scalability. Users are demanding better tools that are easier to use. As Andrews claims, the days of a “box and a button” are dead. However, the need for a single location to provide access to all mission critical information is not gone. Search may look different in the future, but the need for it will not go away.

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