Spying on Search Strategies

摘要

Only the most dedicated super-searchers are motivated to learn and control command systems, like Dialog-Classic, that rely on the user to input complex search strategies. Infrequent searchers and most end users choose interfaces that do some of the work for them and make the search process appear easy. However, the easier a good interface seems to be, the more complex the system underlying it must be. Google is popular not only because of its simple dialog-box interface but because users are typically satisfied with their results. Google takes simple input and then adds variant word form endings and spell-checks, then ranks sites with a mix of word frequency, word occurrence patterns, and a kind of popularity measure (by factoring in the amount of linking received by retrieved sites). Still, the exact strategy within a Google search remains hidden. It relies on automatic ways to enhance searches. Sometimes human input, behind the scenes, is the best way to build good searches.