[Sigia-l] ROI/Value of Search Engine Design - Resources? +CRM ?

[lisa colvin]

Boniface Lau wrote: 
> http://www.uie.com/Articles/why_amazon_succeeds.htm
> criticizes Amazon's search capability on electronic
> products. But the cited example "DVD player" worked
> much better than what the report suggested.

I wrote:
> > Did it work better before or *after* the report
> came out?

Boniface Lau wrote: 
> It doesn't matter.

Actually it may. :) Good developers and product
managers monitor public reports and sites which
mention their product.  While not the primary source
of requirements, user feedback is often used as part
of developing functional requirements for the next
development cycle of a product.  Since this report was
from June of 2002, it's possible that this
functionality was added since then.

However, the more interesting point raised by Spool in
his post is whether or not generic class queries are
useful in and of themselves when the user has a more
refined description in mind that can't be expressed
through the search mechanism.

In the late 90s, many CRM companies introduced "guided
selling" applications which were, essentially, search
mechanisms with additional parameters. Some (like
soliloquy) were introduced as "natural language"
search engines, which operated through constraint
satisfaction. 

This could work to help constrain Spool's user
queries. For example, for the one who asked "a pair of
leather shoes I'd seen at urban outfitters" a
constraint parameter could be "specialty stores which
sell this brand". Similarly, for the query, ""a
low-cost, yet reliable laptop computer that will 
last 4 years for his son who is going away to school",
a constraint parameter could be "main utility (school,
work, play)".

Has anyone on this list ever implemented such a CRM
system. If so, did your users find it helpful?

- lisa

::lisa dawn colvin
:: ontologies / nl / web search



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