Patterns in Search Design Re: [Sigia-l] re: the future of search

[Peter Merholz]

Reading this thread, I'm quite surprised that this community's (typically
misguided) fascination with patterns hasn't come up.

For one, it's clearly silly to say, "Search will be [this]" or "search will
be [that]." Because the kinds of searching and the contexts for searching
are too variable.

Scott got the closest with his comments on search as chore, fuzzy chore,
serendipity, and research, but the desire for a "single set of design and
engineering decisions" strikes me as an odd conclusion.

One thing I can pretty much guarantee -- the future of semantic searching
(the kind typically done on a place like google) has NOTHING to do with
kartoo-like visualization. Gack. I wish people would stop wasting time with
that shit. (I tend to feel the same way about the Semantic Web.)

I think the challenge we face is developing a taxonomy of search tasks and
contexts, and match those up with patterns/guidelines/whathaveyou for search
design. SO: searching in a homogenous and large set of resources? Use
facets? Exploring a single concept in a vast set of different types of
information? Something like Google. Want to know what restaurants are near
you? Use this map! Etc. etc.

Sounds like something for an academic institution. I'd advise, oh, Andrew
Dillon to force graduate students to figure this out.

--peter
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