VIA Interaction

Thursday, June 07, 2007

Why Google?

When we are working on a large site for a client, search is a critical aspect of the user experience. I have seen many occasions where the Content Management technology provider wants to sell its search engine as part of an integrated package, and it sounds like it makes sense.

People seem especially enamored with the idea of searching a database rather than a Web page.

I don't know why.

We always tell people to make sure Google is in the mix. And there's a simple reason for that.

With all the bells and whistles that a search engine can offer, there is one that gets overlooked: How are the search results? We emphasize again and again that the No. 1 criterion -- by far -- for the search engine selection is which search engine returns the best results.

We'll figure out how to filter results or enable advanced queries later. If we have to. Google is hard to beat, and this is why:

Users, of course, don’t see the science and the artistry that makes Google’s black boxes hum, but the search-quality team makes about a half-dozen major and minor changes a week to the vast nest of mathematical formulas that power the search engine.

These formulas have grown better at reading the minds of users to interpret a very short query. Are the users looking for a job, a purchase or a fact? The formulas can tell that people who type “apples” are likely to be thinking about fruit, while those who type “Apple” are mulling computers or iPods. They can even compensate for vaguely worded queries or outright mistakes.

“Search over the last few years has moved from ‘Give me what I typed’ to ‘Give me what I want,’ ” says Mr. Singhal, a 39-year-old native of India who joined Google in 2000 and is now a Google Fellow, the designation the company reserves for its elite engineers.

From Google Keeps Tweaking Its Search Engine - New York Times

posted by Tim Beidel at 6/07/2007 03:53:00 PM

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