The Future of Search Engines

Conventional search engines are so frequently used that their spectacular development has not been a surprise. Search Engine Optimization is now a vital part of the life of every web site, with the results of that optimization serving as vital information for supporting the web site.

 

It won’t be the small firms that change the way of search. Search engine powerhouses Google, Yahoo and Microsoft already lead the way and are poised to take search engine technology to the next level.

 

We are all living a miracle; a simple and affordable device allows s to pick a topic and type a few words into a blank space which then scan millions of Web pages and, in seconds, bring back product announcements, names of experts, research papers, and more, much more… all results which would be very difficult or impossible to find otherwise. We’ve come a long way from the days of ‘going to the library.’

 

The immediate future is even more spectacular. Technology has already advanced to the stage where it can personalize search engines. For example, a keyword search for the word ‘mouse’ will differentiate between searches for a small, furry rodent and a PC device, based on your preferences. This Concept is called QueryTracker.

 

The next generation of search engines has arrived, the theme engines. Search engines must now fight a losing battle to provide relevant results while combating spamming and duplicate pages. The goal is the same, but the engines need a way to store more pages, combat spam, and still provide pertinent results.

 

 1st, 2nd, and 3rd generation search engines

First generation search engines based their results on what was on the Web page. Important factors were keywords density and title, keywords in the domain name, keywords in the URL and meta tags. Search engines were beginning to look like yellow pages.

 

Second generation search engines based page ranking on related links. Newer, better ways of searching now means the days of huge link exchange programs are over.

 

But the third generation of search engines is already underway, building personal profiles based on past searching habits and the page vector (the keyword density per page).

Other additions include word stemming and a thesaurus on top of the term vector database to assist in keeping a search in context.

 

It is crystal clear that search engines must change, and change rapidly, to accommodate the needs of the people who use them. Search engines truly are amazing, but people still make the Internet go ‘round.

New Solutions (Query Tracker, Focused Crawler)

The QueryTracker is a the search engine that submits the user’s query daily, returning the answers in the form of web pages that have changed since the previous search or the new ones. QueryTracker’s magic comes from its automatic generation of an additional daily query, based on what it learns about the user’s interests and priorities over time.

QueryTracker’s ability to generate its own searches can compensate for the poorly formed queries that many users write. The most common mistake is that the queries are too short.

 

Another new direction is the “focus crawler”, making index-only pages related to the specified topics and then tailoring the rankings to the interests of the user. The intelligence behind the crawler dictates that the search engine would get progressively better at building its nightly index by observing the behavior of the searches against it.

Overcoming the lack of relevant search results

It is obvious that the search engines are attempting to accommodate this need for better search engine technology by enhancing their results to better anticipate the user’s intentions. Google has the advertisers with its Adwords service, and the technology to determine which results to show within the email interface.

 

Yahoo is re-vamping Overture (Yahoo Business Services) and Inktomi; Microsoft is already jumping into the search area with Live search. It looks like these search engine powerhouses will enhance the search engine experience and take search engine technology to the next level.

 

The future of search engines is based on the fact that users want information to be accessible; they want it relevant and fast. Search engines will be personal assistants, butlers, guides and gurus, able to provide potential answers to the most difficult questions. Search engines of the future will permeate greater aspects of our lives, becoming more localized, persuasive and personalized.

 

The “Google inside” mobile is no longer a future project. Such mobile access could have voice controlled search functionality that searches for results that are pertinent to the current location on a GPS map. Mobile communications device manufacturers bundle voice controlled Web searching features into their phones and PDAs.

 

Just imagine the impact of all of this capability on our daily lives. For example, how about our kitchen appliances? We could search for recipes, for specific airplane seats, or  search for places to go after arriving at our destination, or do a local search to find a repair service. 

 

The trend is the personalization, the use of all data that the search engines are capturing about their users. Craig Silverstein of Google has a vision that in 300 years, search engines will be more like yeast-based search pets that understand human inferences, feelings and emotions.

 

Gerry Campbell, general manager of AOL Search and Navigation gave another example: AOL’s current search learns from their users’ habits and location and uses that information to provide more relevant search results.

 

At this point, an important question to consider is how much information a search engine should be allowed to collect about user before the user’s privacy is violated. My feeling on this issue is that I want the search engines to surprise me with spectacular results. If the search engines of the future will know more about a user, they will present more focused search results, as good as the user’s query.

 Theme engines

Michaela Campbell, author of popular books, defines a theme engine as “what you say about your Web page, how the structure of other people’s Web pages compares on the same topic, and what other people say your site is about, to be in harmony with each other, be as one.”

 

A theme engine looks at all the information on a seed set, or a group of sites and pages that it has already spidered and has in its index. It assigns each page in the index a number or page vector. This becomes the core of the search engine.

 

Then the search engine adds and calculates words and incoming links to the page, making sure they match up to the term vector. What the search engine has determined that the page is about must match what the rest of the Internet says your page is about in their links to you. The next step is to establish the stats and cache data. If the site is one of a search engine’s top exit pages, it must be good, because people don’t come back and search more once they have found your site.  If the site gets searched and clicked on so often that it is in the engine’s cache for speedy data retrieval, the site must be very good indeed.

 

The idea is the theme based search engine is looking for unanimous approval that the site is about a particular topic; the more narrow the focus on that topic, the better the site will do. In Campbell’s opinion, all search engines are moving towards being theme-based.

To search where no-one has searched before

Search engines providers are waiting for billions of dollars so they can have some of the smartest people in the world working to develop the next great version that will enhance more relevant results.

 

These days, satellite and aerial imagery are the main attraction (Google Maps, Google Earth, MSN Virtual Earth, TerraFly, and World Wind from NASA)- the stepping-stone to real-time and interactive imagery from space.  Real time, high-resolution images delivered over the Internet, showing details such as backyards or streets, are the present and the future for the main search engines.

 

The search engines are getting smarter and more powerful. Such complex and powerful searches will be practical in three to five years when computers are also more powerful.