"Users are giving us three words at a time and we're able to give back a lot of info.."

vegasbaby
Originally uploaded by benbarren

Damn it's cold in Melbourne today. Coldest July day since 1998 the radio says. Google's Peter Norvig in MIT's Technology Review on search : "We're in a situation in the main Web search where there's a real imbalance. Users are giving us three words at a time and we're able to give back a lot of info: 10 links with titles, snippet of text, and other information about the page. So we're able to present a lot at once. If the user has a big screen, they can consume what we're giving them quickly. So it's a fast interaction but a very imbalanced one. One of the things we're looking at is finding ways to get the user more involved, to have them tell us more of what they want. People type the query "map," and then they get upset if it's not the map they were thinking of. So, people may be willing to talk more than type. Or maybe they're willing to take a suggestion if we offer something that they didn't type a query for, but is related."