Today Dan Keldsen and I will hold a webinar, based on our latest market research, the topic – Findability. This is a wonderful topic that is timeless. The first presentation I ever gave to an audience (back when my hair was still brown) was on search technology. Hear we are 20+ years later and I am still talking about search. As I have said many times, we will probably be talking about search forever, for many reasons. Search/Findability (I will explain the difference in just a minute) is critical to content management. It is the gateway, the key. There is no content if there is no Findability. I won’t belabor this point – I and many others have talked about this issue many times.
It’s not the issue of the relevancy of Findability that I want to discuss, but the quest for “the perfect search.” This is the facet of Findability that will keep the subject forever young or at least, forever relevant - like me ;).
According to our research, users believe that Findability has improved in the last 2 years. (52% of the 528 survey responses said finding the information they need to do their job has gotten easier over the last 2 years.) BUT – 49% also felt that getting to that information was still difficult and time consuming. Findability technology has certainly improved and provides a better search experience. But the perfect search has still not been achieved.
The perfect search – hmmmm – well, the perfect search, in my opinion is the ability to keep your mind fresh and open, eyes vigilant and capable of processing all content. No technology, just you and the content and unending energy and time. (I can dream can’t I?) This is of course not possible, and so we turn to technology for help. We strive to develop technology that mimics the perfect search as best as possible, each instance tailored to the mindset of each individual. The quest for such a technology platform has provided a flurry of techniques, tools and interfaces over the last 2-3 decades. Each has made an improvement but there is more we can do, more we need to do in the quest for the perfect search.
That brings me to explaining why we labeled our Market IQ Findability – as opposed to Enterprise Search. The solution platform today is not exclusively about search – and that is a major milestone in the quest for the perfect search. Search (as a technology and functional component of the platform) is still relevant. But Findability is much larger than search (and may also one day fade into something bigger). Findability is the state-of-the-art in finding content today, and that is much more than search itself.
We define Findabilty as
the art and science of making content findable.
In my humble opinion - this definition is powerfully succinct and accurate.
The science is library science. Tools such as taxonomies, ontology and classification schemes are all still very relevant and demand attention.
The art is the art of language (language arts – including visual/image-based language, audio and video) and being able to decipher and understand the rich meaning of language.
It is also the art of the user interface, and displaying content and functionality in dynamic personalized engaging ways – definitely an art, with a bit of science (psychology) thrown in.
But the real difference expressed in this definition between Findability and search is in the shifting of the focus to the content itself – “making content findable." Under our definition of Findability the burden is placed on the content not the user. The content makes itself findable. It interacts with the user and does everything possible to surface and get recognized, as appropriate. This is a subtle shift perhaps, but a powerful one nonetheless. In the past, under the definition of “search”, the burden was very much on the user. Users are expected to find content by aggressive and or clever search: iterative search, Boolean logic, more search terms, searching on terms instead of words, using meta-tag values …
We are at a critical point in the evolution of search/Findability where the focus and burden of success is shifting to the content itself. Under Findability content acts as a well trained and astute sales person and librarian rolled into one. Findability is not a panacea, and has not been fully achieved. We are in a stage of flux. Search is morphing into a semi-transparent component of Findability. Search will always be necessary, but its position is changing. Findability is our new challenge.
Participants in our Findability research also claimed that findability/search on the commercial web is easier and more effective than on their corporate intranets. That is because the impetus of making a sale or influencing user behavior on a commercial web site has placed emphasis on Findability and not search for these sites (whether deliberately or subliminally). The “see alsos”, pushing of certain product information to the top of a list, brokering of similar searches/customer experiences, are not happening by accident. These features are happening due to careful and deliberate design of a Findability experience. They mostly start today with a simple search, but users are quickly transformed into an early stage of Findability.
Clearly some sites are more successful at Findability today than others. The art and science behind it poses many challenges. That is the state of search/Findability today. And so we march on in our quest for the perfect search.
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