We Need a Better Search
Tell someone that Google Search is failing them and you‘ll probably get a chuckle. After all, we find what we’re looking for all the time — what’s there to complain about?
But then again, no one complains about a problem they aren’t aware of.
The simple fact is that, whatever you’re looking for, Search is returning results based on a set of criteria that rarely has anything to do with what will work best to answer your specific question. It’s easy to get simple answers, but you won’t get results that truly describe your search. Top Search results are given to companies with the biggest SEO budget, or to the most recognizable brands and organizations. When we search for something health-related for instance, we get the usual suspects — WebMd, Huffpost, etc. — often with information that contains no reference or links to their sources. That leaves us to trust their name and Google’s hunch that their answer belongs at the top. To be certain you’ve got the best answer requires a lot more digging.
There are of course power users fluent in the techniques and approaches of doing a thorough Search. They’re hip to Google’s undocumented operators. They‘ll jam away for a good 30 minutes — or maybe a week or a month depending on the density or complexity of the information being sought. Ultimately they’ll be able to find a reliable answer from several quality sources. Often, such Google gurus are bloggers and subject experts.
Wouldn’t it be great if we could tap their google searching talents to benefit the rest of us noobs?
It’s sad but true, doing a general search results often fails to provide the best, most useful answers the Internet has to offer. Most people without the time or patience to dig deep are comfortable assuming that whatever pops up at the top of their Search results is the best answer to their question. What’s needed is an ecosystem that actually favors the best, most useful results. For that, we need to reintroduce the human element.
How are search results broken?
- SEO is dominated by those with the most money, not necessarily those with the best product or answer for the question.
- Results are, with surprising frequency, dated or obsolete.
- Some of the best information is posted on blogs by knowledge experts, PhD’s and professionals that are tough to find without a lot of digging.
Useful, pertinent information doesn’t scale according to the same rules that govern search results. That means it’s up to you to find and parse the most timely, relevant search results for yourself.
Take any search related to personal health, for example. WebMd, Huffpost, the usual suspects consistently come up regardless of the quality or relevance of their content. But does anybody think they’re actually the best place to find out about personal health or nutrition?
It’s hard for the average searcher to discern whether information is being published by a respected source with something genuinely useful to say, or by some underpaid intern throwing a post together to generate clicks and ad revenue. Imagine making the following search ahead of a big trip:
“Should I be worried about Zika virus in Mexico?”
The first result you’ll get is a rather spooky ‘Level 2 travel warning’ from the Centers for Disease Control. That‘s enough to put a lot of people off the trail immediately. But dig even a bit more and you’ll soon find that the species of mosquito carrying Zika are only active in certain parts of the country. Now searching specifically for ‘Zika in Tulum’ leads to a Tripadvisor forum where, several pages in, it’s mentioned that those mosquitos aren’t present in the region. Yet another search reveals the species to be A. aegypti or A. albopictus, and still another links to a map of where the mosquitoes are located. (Click here for a look at the fruits of this multi-level search).
The CDC is, for a good reason, given priority in the results for a disease-related search. But that doesn’t mean they’re going to provide an answer that’s relevant to the actual question being asked.
Until a human-level AI or some other technology comes along that can understand the full content and context of a query, the only way to connect the true purpose and meaning of a search to its best answer remains up to us to take up. The most logical and direct way to do this would be to build a platform and ecosystem that makes it easy to curate the best information on the web in response to specific questions.
We want to bring the voices of both searchers and subject experts voices into direct engagement with the best results.
Stack Overflow does this for queries related to coding, but it can be done for Search in general. Think a Pinterest for general or specific knowledge, with a Stack Overflow interface. That would be an ambitious and difficult project, but someone’s gotta do it. So some friends and I have built the beta of what we think is the platform that can empower people to share the best info.
We’ve dubbed it popsnip.
This article is the first in a five-part series, in which we’ll experiment how search results can be improved by involving users in a community where specific queries are connected to the best information — instead of just the best funded or most recognized sources.
We also invite you, the Medium community, to join in on the fun.
In the next post, we’ll search for the healthiest smoothie ingredients. Sounds simple, right? You’ll find there’s more involved in getting the best answer than you probably expect.
