Hunting the elusive search strategy
December 6th, 2006Oh, Jon Udell, you’ve done it again. On research:
“Last night an old friend who runs a small software company confessed a secret. When he and his staff answer technical questions for clients, they are often ‘only’ searching Google. At one point, he even asked a client: ‘Do you really want us to search Google for you at $100/hour?’ Yes, in fact they did. My friend thought that was crazy. I suggested that it’s not as crazy as it sounds. Effective search depends on reservoirs of tacit knowledge and unconscious skill. Some people possess much deeper reservoirs, and/or can tap into them more effectively, than others. That makes them valuable.”
As a research consultant, I love this. Every search engine is only as effective as the person in front of the keyboard. Today, I was asked how to best find specific legal forms on the open web and was able to tell the attorney the best strategy to use (think filetype advanced search).
Anywho, read his entire post. He rocks my world. (via)