Saurabh Garg on The New New Thing

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The Google Blog has this post called The future of search by Marissa Mayer (I would love to meet her someday and bug her with my questions on Google). Very interesting I must say. This is my interpretation of the same and things that are possible and yet Marissa hasnt talked about.

Apart from everything that is mentioned on the blog, I would like to see these things in any discussion on future of search.

1. Device. A search device that I can carry along. A device that does not rely on an Internet connection. Hints: Kindle. Why cant I have a hand-held device that lets me use a search engine and emails and feeds? This could become my net access device and with cloud computing and software as service on browser, I can corner a large chunk of a market. TechCrunch’s web tablet could have been an ideal device but for size. Can iPhone become such a device with an always-on, high-speed net access? Can someone think of new devices?
2. Human Search. As the post on Google blog says, that universal search probably is the future, I would love to see it extended a wee bit. Instead of just uploading pictures or sounds, I should be able to capture inputs the way human do - by seeing (point my device at things and with a combination of great web camera technology, image recognition and bit of luck, the search engine should give me results - with QR codes, we are already seeing glimpses of the future), hearing (voice recognition and searching the sound pattern) etc. If we get close to any of these, that for me would truly be human search and evolution of search as a concept.
3. Recommendations and Personalization. When do we want to use search? When we are looking for more information about certain things. Search should be able to give me recommendations that will truly work for me. If Amazon Suggests can be extended to search, it will make my life so much simpler. As Google Blog mentions, its about personalization and the device/algorithm knowing you well enough to predict that you want to search for. Once that happens, I would be harnessing the power of search engines. Users look for answers when they search. With things being done at Mahalo, Google Knol and Wikipedia we are moving towards giving answers to users rather than a list of webpages that has those keywords or are relevant. Will the search engine that gives answers please stand up?

Search is something that I am really passionate about. Although I cant really speak from a technology perspective, I sure have end-user and product ideas. Here are my previous posts on search.

• Search Cost
• Hal Varian on Search