- Why do people use search?
- They hope to find something that they have a pointer to
- The pointer can be very specific or a loose/abstract notion of what they are looking for
- The pointer can also include special metadata/properties about it that can help resolve the search (ex: date, picture, source, etc.)
- What do people get out of search now?
- crapshoot of results, sometimes it is perfect and sometimes you know what you’re looking for at the tip of your tongue (lethologica) but can’t find it with the search results given.
- What are the issues with current search?
- have to become good at ”gaming the system” to search properly (i.e. knowing how to google)
- knowing how to search is a skill within itself but it should be intuitive and you shouldn’t have to know how to use search in order to use it
- wide range of results where only some are valuable
- duplicate answers, have to parse a lot of the same but if it’s not the answer you’re looking for it just becomes more noise
- score should be higher if it is "different" or unique from other answers
- in a normal open search engine, the incentives are warped for utility of end user
- people try to game the search engine algorithm, whole industry dedicated to it with SEO
- it’s not about utility to the end user anymore, it’s about utility viewed in the eyes of the search engine
- This isn’t a problem with a closed-loop search engine that is personalized to you and you only
- where you have the controls on what you want to see
- What do people wish they could get out of search?
- find exactly what they’re looking for