Reno - 9:14 pm on Sep 12, 2009 (gmt 0)

I agree with signor_john and pretty much everyone else -- there is much room for improvement in the way people search AND in the way the results come back.

In my experience with non-geek types, I must train them to do what I need (for example, how to name their digital photos to go onto their webpages), and I think the same holds true for all the search engines -- there is much to be gained by subtly teaching people as they simultaneously provide the results.

So right now if you go to Google and type in "widdgets", they'll come back with "Do you mean 'widgets'?". Very good -- they're trying to teach people proper spelling.

But beyond that, they need more refinement, with perhaps an unintrusive extra column on the far left or far right of the screen: "Do you mean widget manufacturers?" ; "Do you mean wholesale widget distributors?" ; "Do you mean the history of the widget?" etc etc -- a series of specific questions based on what they think the person likely means.

So in other words, they'd be teaching people how to compose a search query and at the same time they'd be refining it for them with each subsequent attempt. Over weeks/months/years, people can learn to do it more correctly, so instead of an average of 6 attempts, it could drop to 2.

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