[Sigia-l] Findability

[Karl Fast]

> Yup! Google is relying on the patterns emerged from massive
> information. It is much more economical and efficient than any
> hand-crafted categorization could ever hope to achieve.
> 
> IMO, hand-crafted categorization is just too expensive and is
> heading towards extinction!

I'm not so sure.

I agree that at the big end, automation is preferred over
hand-crafted categorization.

Information environments are getting (a) larger and (b) more
inter-connected. It is in *precisely* these conditions that modern
retrieval algorithms thrive (a'la Google).

However, at the small end of the scale (and in much of the middle) I
think the equation changes:

1. The algorithms don't work as well. Once you drop into the tens or
   hundreds of thousands of documents, the retrieval algorithms
   become much less effective. This is especially true when you
   don't have any extra document structure in there like titles,
   descriptions, keywords, and so on.

2. Manual work becomes more viable. It is still costly, but when
   weighed against the benefits it can be worth the effort.


   
--karl