Waiting for the day that search becomes four-dimensional

17 January 2008

Everyone agrees that search is only going to continue as the dominant force in information retrieval. However, I think most would also agree that, right now, it's not quite good enough.

So what's going to happen to make it better? Based on some of my frustrating experiences on a recent car journey, I would say that the most important next step is to move from two-dimensional searching to a four-dimensional model: the 4D Search.

Historically, search engines have known only two things about you: what keyword(s) you're searching for and what time you searched for them. But they should soon be able to add two more dimensions to the mix.

The first is the user's preferences. Google already tracks the web histories of registered users (through Gmail, Blogger and so on), while MSN and Yahoo! have access to similar data from their webmail services.

Add the fact that the engines are buying sites like Flickr and YouTube, where people actively tag and rate information they find useful or entertaining, and they quickly build up a wealth of new data that also highlights individual likes and dislikes. They can then tie this in with the same data on friends and peers of their users, in what Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook refers to as the 'social graph'.

Second, search engines are making more use of geographical and geo-positioning data. Both engines and mobile networks are keen to tie in search with GPS data. This should mean that when someone makes a search from their phone they can be provided with geographically relevant data.

So how does this all tie in with my car journey? Well, I was driving along when I decided that I wanted a coffee. Not being familiar with the area I was in, I needed to find out where the nearest Starbucks was. As it happens, I have a car with voice recognition, I have GPS on my sat nav and I have web access through my BlackBerry.

So with all of this it seemed obvious to me that I should simply be able to 'ask' my car where I could get a coffee. The voice recognition would input this into the search engine on my mobile's browser, which would already know exactly where I was. Thanks to my web history and social graph, it would also know that I prefer Starbucks to other brands. The results would then be fed into my sat nav for directions and I'd be on my way to a half-fat soya-free Frappawackachino.

While this may all sound far-fetched, consider the fact that BMW Assist and Google Maps Deutschland announced a tie-up in July, or the recent announcement of the integration of Google Maps into petrol pumps in the US. In fact, it's really just a matter of tying all of these factors together.

But for now we get to fume at the fact that something that seems so obvious and is, in theory, perfectly possible doesn't yet exist.

However, the day is coming when SEO will be about a lot more than keywords. The universal search concept, where content of all types is made available from a single search command, will be even more relevant as 4D searches become increasingly widespread. I look forward to tracking down my nearest coffee on that day.

Dave King is CEO of Altogether Digital, part of Engine