Comments on: Search is a Waste of Time

By: Sanjeev Verma

Sanjeev Verma — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 13:40:50 +0000

We have devloped a serach automation and download software to save time.

By: Mine seneste bookmarks (13.06.09 – 17.06.09) | Morten Gade

Mine seneste bookmarks (13.06.09 – 17.06.09) | Morten Gade — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 02:51:37 +0000

[...] Search is a Waste of Time: (ux search ) [...]

By: Anthony Bradley

Anthony Bradley — Sat, 30 May 2009 00:49:05 +0000

I usually do use search to find the point of entry in Wikipedia but then find that I surf the hyperlinks in the main content of the page (v. the menu navigation links) to explore and gain greater knowledge on the topic I seek. Wikipedia is a rich RESTful application that enables valuable surfing.

Rather than have to search to find the entry point I would much rather have the content exposed to me as I was working, say, on a document. A semantic engine “understands” what I’m doing by analyzing the text I’m writing and exposes to me related content and people. This is the premise of System One who I referenced above.

By: Whit Andrews

Whit Andrews — Fri, 29 May 2009 22:15:32 +0000

Anthony, when you use Wikipedia, how is it you find what you want? You browse down through alphabetic links, I’m thinking. No — you probably go subject by subject through the hierarchical taxonomy, right? Or is there another method you use…?

And when you use Wikipedia, chances are that whatever you’re looking for could have floated to you across the network by…how would it know you wanted it, again?

Hmmm. Just askin’.

By: Anthony Bradley

Anthony Bradley — Fri, 29 May 2009 18:47:43 +0000

Ranjit, your history lesson is indeed history. You describe web 1.0 and I agree with that. But if you look at the blogosphere as an example you can easily and very meaningfully surf hyperlinks that cross multiple blog sites. Wikipedia is also a great example of meaningful surfing both within wikipedia and out to source sites. Web 2.0 is making the www much better for deep and robust information discovery via hyperlink surfing.

I would also argue that search doesn’t save you from shallow and meaningless surfing. If I go to google and type in a search string that returns a million results then I start surfing to a result (nope not what I need), surf back to the google results page, surf to another result (nope, not what I need), go back to the google page (maybe change my search string), surf to another result (nope, not what I need), repeat loop many times. This is surfing but very superficial surfing courtesy of the search engine.

By: Ranjit Padmanabhan

Ranjit Padmanabhan — Fri, 29 May 2009 15:02:10 +0000

Here’s a bit of a history lesson… the web was conceived as a collection of documents with hyperlinks to define relationships and guide users through a fluid path of relevance and discovery. With the advent of search engines, commercial interests began to hijack this vision. Look at any popular web site today and you’ll find only two kinds of hyperlinks — paid ones and self-referential ones (that keep traffic from leaving the domain). The only relevant links come from search engines. So instead of deeply browsing the web, you search and click endlessly… friction-free information and serendipitous discovery fall by the wayside.

The web will remain captive to publishers until users exercise control over the hyperlinks that define the web’s structure.

…and here’s the propaganda… MashLogic lets you Take Back the Web! Based on your preferences and the context of the page, MashLogic adds personalized links to relevant terms. For example, if you are interested in music, we will automatically detect the names of artists and bands on a web page, and add links through which you can stream music, watch videos, or purchase merchandise.

By: Anthony Bradley

Anthony Bradley — Fri, 29 May 2009 13:45:55 +0000

Sorry, I meant that surfing is more educational that searching.

By: Anthony Bradley

Anthony Bradley — Fri, 29 May 2009 13:44:41 +0000

Whit, it would be great to know how many information needs go unmet because people are not willing to search for it but instead just power through what they are doing without it. My point is that search is almost always excessive I want the information to come to me. I find that surfing is more educational than surfing. I totally agree that search will never and should never go to zero. There is a very valuable place for it. But right now I think we are over reliant and I think the future will have us searching less but finding more.

Ana, librarians have an important role. I remember when working on the Army AKO project that the army wanted an ontology for all the Army’s data. At the time they had about 50 librarians on this task. As you can imagine it wasn’t very effective. They would have required a second Army of librarians. This was back in 2005. I talked to them about a social ontology (tag driven) that was nurtured by a team of librarians. Meaning that the librarians made ontological connections between terms (synonym, antonym, parent, child, etc.). There is a role for librarians but they can’t do it on their own.

By: Ana Hervas

Ana Hervas — Fri, 29 May 2009 11:31:56 +0000

Put a good special librarian in your life (in your job) and you’ll see..
I don’t know why ends users of information have to do the work of the librarians and suffer for it. I try every day to do these that you call “wonderfull world” in my daily work and Telefonica pay me for it.

By: Whit Andrews

Whit Andrews — Fri, 29 May 2009 03:03:10 +0000

Anthony, search is only a waste of time when it is excessive. Our research shows that people spend about 5 hours a week looking for information to do their jobs. We can’t zero that. We can, though, try to help people make the most of it.

What makes search astonishing is its ability to educate you. When you did the last search you did on the Web, didn’t you learn something about the interconnectedness of concepts and information? On your way to accomplish a task, weren’t you able to understand the task better? The journey is always part of the destination.