Back Search to share
Vipin V Nair
| Search engines are innovating to score in the game. The trend is towards making Internet search a more collaborative experience. |
FOR many Internet users, the first Web site to log in during the day is Google. Without the help of this popular search engine, and others of its ilk, the World Wide Web will be a difficult labyrinth to get the information one wants. No wonder, Internet search is such a hot topic these days. If anybody has a doubt about this, all they need to do is run a search on Google's current stock price and its market cap!
True to the ever-evolving nature of the Internet, the rules of the search engines are also changing - and how fast. Google had edged out many leading search engines of yore, such as Ask Jeeves and Alta Vista to become the most popular Internet search engine. Though Google continues to be on the top, a number of new search engines, such as Previewseek and JetEye, have come up, giving users new and different experiences in their quest for relevant information.
According to a recent report from the US-based Radicati Group, the new search engines are taking the approach that providing mere search facility to the users is too basic; they are introducing a `wide range of innovating search functionality.' This has made leading search engines experiment with their new offerings, the report says. The report warns that leading search engines `must avoid complacency and continue innovating, or else they will surely lose market share to hungry start-ups with impressive new technologies.'
The innovations introduced by new search engines are attempts to enhance the simple activity called Internet search - you go to a search engine, type some keywords, click `search', and get the information. "New search engines, however, allow users to save searches, share results with others, make comments, and much more. This collaborative aspect of search is the most significant trend taking place in the search engine market today," the Radicati group points out.
Another interesting feature provided by the new search engines is that, while displaying search results, they embed a `previews' of the pages they have come up with. This enables users to immediately recognise whether the site is relevant to their search. Also, many of these search engines help users carry out contextual searches. Also, these search engines often come up with more comprehensive results than others, because they leverage on Google, Yahoo! and MSN and other search engines to throw up results, the report says.
The Radicati Group report says that the `big picture' behind these search engine innovations is the emergence of a more collaborative Internet. So far, one Web site would cater to its users; now it is a platform for one to communicate with many others. "This shift, coined "Web 2.0," is evident in blogging, photo sharing communities, wikis, forums, and other "community" sites," the report says.
"Until now, search engines have been judged on the size of the index, how relevant the results are, and how fast results are returned.
Moving forward, search engines will be judged on these attributes, along with the quality of their communities, level of functionality, and ability to integrate with other applications," the Radicati Group predicts. In the near future, search engines will have `search accounts' in the same way as e-mails. But the challenge will be to make all these things happen while keeping the Internet search as simple as it is today.
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