What are YOU searching for?

I previously discussed the impact of information or data on people, and concluded how information management is evolving to thought management and, ultimately, to thought control.

Today, more than ever, there is a concerted scientific approach to presenting information to obtain a desired result.  As the volume of information available grows, it becomes difficult to parse through it and understand what it means.  We now need help not only in getting information but also in analyzing it and coming up with a conclusion.

There is a humorous saying about statistics: “Statistics is like a bikini.  It may reveal a lot but it obscures the essential.”  We can say the same for unprocessed information.  To get to the essential, we have to filter out the unwanted chaff and get only the relevant nuggets of information.  This leads us to smart mining of data.

I read an interesting piece by search expert Steve Arnold on this matter.  Mr. Arnold talked about the concept of “context sensitive search” and how search engines were trying to implement this idea.  The example he used brought home the concept to me in a simple yet lucid manner.

Simply put, “context sensitive search” routines attempt to understand the background and history of the person or entity searching for information, and then retrieve information based on that history/background.  Mr. Arnold spoke about how a zoologist working for a government research organization and looking for information on “bats” should not have to endure the hassle of going through tons of information that a ten year old Little League baseball player would get by typing in the same “bats”, or vice versa.  I’ve had similar situations at home when my nine year old and interpret the same word or phrase completely differently.

While all this seems obvious enough once it’s laid out in front of you, divining “context” and user intent is no easy feat, and some serious math and data mining is being put to use by Google, Microsoft and others to get us there.

Exciting times lie ahead for all of us in the field of information and knowledge engineering!  We have a real opportunity to be an agent for change.

Comments

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