links for 2009-07-28
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One of the key aspects to presenting accurate and relevant search results is recognizing the user’s intent. A search for “IRA” on a financial services website may result in personal individual retirement account details as well as information about how to open an IRA or roll money over from a 401(k). A search for “cell” on Google may be a query related to cellular phones or it may be biology related.
These ideas have been getting a lot of buzz around the industry over the past year. Gartner analysts have labeled the need to improve refinement as “conversational search” – even predicting that by the end of 2010 more than half of new search projects will employ it. But the big question throughout the buzz is what does it really mean for the end user?