Blog of Jeff A blog about programming and random other things.

Where Search can Improve

Sure, you use google. It's the general solution to solving problems from how to fix the sink to buying a plasma tv. However, search still has plenty of room for improvement. Google's PageRank + it's collection of other algorithms is great for determining the most popular and accurate site for the keywords the user enters.

But when shopping for an item, it usually returns less than idea results. Why? It's mostly because the user doesn't actually know what he/she is precisely looking for.

If the user happens to know the exact model or the specific product to find, something like froogle (now called Google Product Search) is no doubt helpful for narrowing the purchase by price and trusted vendors.

Knowing exactly what to buy is far less likely to a consumer than what to buy. Which product(s) is the best for a tight budget, activity x, a "new to product type x", or a seasoned buyer. A simple search of cameras won't expose that information which most stereotypical users would type. The main problem is that a user won't always be aware of the additional subliminal information he/she needs to provide to the search engine.

Even if the user enters a finely tweaked set of keywords to the search engine, a general-purpose search engine will provide a list of sites results (or something like consumersearch), most likely reviews of various products, which the user then has to wade and filter through. The user has to put hours of research of a selection of products to purchase. A 5-star review may not be the kind of camera you're looking for if the review normally prefers professional, top-grade digital cameras.

I clearly recall my dad's journey to the local bookstore, Barnes & Noble, to look at interesting books. Afterwards, he would search online for the best price. The bookstore was not where he brought books, but to figure out what to buy.

This is one benefit of going to a physical store as opposed to internet shopping sites. There's no one to assist in a question like, "Which camera is best for me?" from a website. A store provides people to help recommend the ideal (or even satisfactory) product. Also, for this reason, friends' recommendations of certain goods are influence which product(s) you purchase. And if you think more choice for the consumer is better, it's not always.

For this reason, sites such as BestInClass are heading in the right direction. It allows the user to specify, based on their needs, which camera is best for himself/herself. Although best in class only supports cameras at this moment, I suspect they'll expand to other kinds of products.

Another case where generalized search fails in comparison to a custom-crafted implementation is MySpace. Myspace's search simply plugs in to Google's search capabilities for the site. However, most of the time when you type in a search box for a social networking site, you're looking for a person. This is something that Facebook has dead-on with their own search results.

So before you embed a major search engine's search box, ask yourself: "Are the results returned something a typical user would expect from your site?"