Language Really Does Matter For Search
Matthew Hurst writes:
While most pundits regard the deep, formal semantics promised by the likes of Powerset as not important to search I feel that I am personally finding search dead-ends in my long tail queries that clearly indicate the need for this type of feature. I will commit the sin of using a single example to support my point.
I don’t know if I qualify as a “pundit” but I certainly disagree that “deep, formal semantics” are not important for searching.
Well, assuming you want to find useful results.
I suspect that is part of the problem is that we have become accustomed to very low quality answers and shifting page after page of duplicated and/or irrelevant material.
As more data comes online, the worse the return on searches is going to become.
And the greater the opportunity for topic maps.
Ten years ago when the first topic map standard was approved, there was web searching but the quality and quantity of data wasn’t nearly what it is today.
I don’t know of any hard statistics on it but I would venture to guess that among staff allowed to use the WWW at work, at least an hour a day, every day, is spend not finding information on the WWW.
Think about that. At least 250 hours per person per year.
And the real figure is probably much higher.
So if you have a staff of 1,000 people, 250,000 hours are being lost every year, not finding information on the WWW.
The only bright side is that the lost 250,000 hours aren’t a line item in the budget.
Topic maps can’t save all of that time for you but they can help create a find once, re-use many situation for your staff.