Flaptor

A few months ago Steve Newcomb from Powerset asked a question on LinkedIn: if you could build the perfect search engine for you, what would it do?

I was reading all the answers again and started wondering about what a “perfect” search engine would do in the true sense of the word. To me, a perfect search engine would not be a web-based application into which I have to type a question in order to get an answer. Rather, it would be more of an extension of my brain.

The reason I’m using a search engine in the first place is because there is some information that I currently don’t know or can’t remember. Many times it happens that I’m trying to remember some address, how to do something, etc. and my brain just isn’t finding the information. I don’t even know if I ever knew it! A perfect search engine would be like a second brain: it would be a telepathic mechanism to which I can resort in these cases. I wouldn’t have to even phrase a question in my mind, it would work by association just like my brain does.

I wouldn’t want this mechanism to kick in automatically though. I very much want to keep a clear distinction between my own memories (or personal information cache, if you prefer) and the collective knowledge of the global network. Perhaps an interesting way would be to have an audible voice tell me something like: “it seems like you don’t have what you are looking for, let me get it for you”. On second thought, that sounds too much like Microsoft’s Clippy. Maybe it would be better if I could consciously activate the mechanism by thinking something like “Searcher, I’m at a loss here. Please find me some relevant information”.

In a perfect world, this information would be one hundred percent worthy of trust. I would have no reason to doubt what the search engine tells me any more than I distrust myself when I walk back to where I think I parked my car this morning. Furthermore, since we are going for perfection, sometimes the search engine would be able to create content to suit my needs. For example, if I want a picture of a monkey in a scuba diving suit talking on a cellphone while skateboarding on the moon then the search engine would synthesize it for me.

Maybe what I described is not the perfect search engine. Maybe it will never happen, for better or worse. The point I’m trying to make is that the paradigm of search engines is still very primitive compared to what our imagination allows. The above question makes me imagine a discussion about perfect transportation taking place in the sixteenth century. A group of European craftsmen would be exchanging ideas about giant carriages pulled by hundreds of horses on excellent cobblestone paths, or extremely efficient ships with all the amenities of a palace, impervious to the fiercest storms and powered by enormous sails made out of the finest silk (or something along those lines). Some adventurous minds such as Leonardo could think of flying machines but they would be ahead of their time.

Posted in Editorial — July 29th, 2007