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I would focus on anticipating the user's search needs even before he/she formulates them and types out a search query. I would use as much context that a user

I would focus on anticipating the user's search needs even before he/she formulates them and types out a search query. I would use as much context that a user is willing to provide me - location, recent email messages, voice call transcripts, unread messages, web browsing history, etc - to try to anticipate what the user is likely to query for. For example, a sales engineer who receives a technical query in his email inbox is likely to be searching for product information once behind his/her laptop. Also, a student that lands in NY JFK airport one a morning, will likely be searching for restaurants in the vicinity by evening. I would focus on anticipating such queries (among a range of others) in advance. And would let the user choose which ones he/she wants answers for. I'm sure this is easier said than done, but is a direction I think is worth exploring.

anamax 17y ago
If you can anticipate a user's search needs, why not take the next step and provide the answers before the user gets around to searching?
- sundeep 17y ago
  One step at a time :) What you suggest would benefit from the performance/feedback from what the OP suggests. This is basically what I am interested on working on currently , using "clues" gleaned from what the user is doing (a la RescueTime) to reorganize/reformulate a user's search query.
  - anamax 17y ago
    Let's talk - my e-mail address is in my profile.
  - shorbaji 17y ago
    I would be happy to chat about this. Please drop me a note. My email is in my profile.
    - anamax 17y ago
      Your e-mail address doesn't seem to be visible in your profile.
      - shorbaji 17y ago
        You're right. Fixed.
- shorbaji 17y ago
  First reason is to minimize error rather compound it. Second reason is to avoid overloading the user with information. I do expect that the set of queries prepared for a user will be large and possibly imperfectly ranked, at least initially. To use this set in its raw form to pre-fetch answers will dilute accuracy and be a large amount of information. Rather, I take the approach that search is a commodity that is already fast enough and good enough. I let the user choose (and thereby rate/vote up) a query and then fetch only relevant results.

anamax 17y ago

If you can anticipate a user's search needs, why not take the next step and provide the answers before the user gets around to searching?

sundeep 17y ago
One step at a time :) What you suggest would benefit from the performance/feedback from what the OP suggests. This is basically what I am interested on working on currently , using "clues" gleaned from what the user is doing (a la RescueTime) to reorganize/reformulate a user's search query.
- anamax 17y ago
  Let's talk - my e-mail address is in my profile.
- shorbaji 17y ago
  I would be happy to chat about this. Please drop me a note. My email is in my profile.
  - anamax 17y ago
    Your e-mail address doesn't seem to be visible in your profile.
    - shorbaji 17y ago
      You're right. Fixed.
shorbaji 17y ago
First reason is to minimize error rather compound it. Second reason is to avoid overloading the user with information. I do expect that the set of queries prepared for a user will be large and possibly imperfectly ranked, at least initially. To use this set in its raw form to pre-fetch answers will dilute accuracy and be a large amount of information. Rather, I take the approach that search is a commodity that is already fast enough and good enough. I let the user choose (and thereby rate/vote up) a query and then fetch only relevant results.