IITian - 7:04 am on Jan 25, 2004 (gmt 0)

My view is that The Search has just begun. Up to now, in absence of spams, like in informational categories, it has mainly meant serving records from a huge database in order determined by some very simple calculations. I know Google uses more than 100 variables, but using just one or two variables - for example, number of times the keyword occurs in the incoming links' anchor texts - I believe, will make the serps quite similar to ones showing up on Google. In commercial categories, spam has created a lot of problems and most of the work of current SEs goes towards combating that.

I am excited that in about 20 years' time, search engines might become so good that they would be able to "search" for the perfect partner for a surfer by tracking his surfing habit, interpreting his image posted on web to determine his attractiveness, guessing his income from his spending habits on the net, and so on. ;)