While Population Explosion was one of the evils in the last couple of decades, Information Explosion is the emerging (or perhaps emerged) evil during this decade and the coming decades. There is ocean of data available on the web and finding the right information given a search query is an enormous and a herculean task. To solve the enigma of search companies like Google, Yahoo, Microsoft have search engines which are continuously tuned with new information coming in round the clock. It is a known fact that the size of the world wide web is increasing rapidly and Google is the father of all search engines that gets you the right information you are looking for !
Remember Osmosis process, where the molecules pass through a semi permeable membrane from a lower concentration to higher concentration. It is this process that I underwent over a decade ago by moving from a Tier 2 city to to the silicon valley of India i.e Bangalore. Definitely, to pass through the semi permeable membrane was the hardest thing. After landing in India's Silicon valley, I learnt that, Google was an answering machine. Any doubt or Any question in mind? Rather than asking any one, Just ask Google ! I wondered at times that Google should have been named as Guru. Google has taken the place as walking encyclopedia and it has found its place in Oxford dictionary as well.
After using the Guru aka Google for over a decade, it has now become a Genie - One who fulfills your wish. I have observed for quite some time that whenever I type the first word or second word in Google, there comes the auto suggested words that are more or less the ones that I was looking to search. And, this has happened many a times. Another incidence, that has happened, I looked for Mahindra Scorpio the soon to be launched face lift version. After some time, I saw an ad that suggested about winning a Scorpio by enrolling in to a contest. I had a wishful thinking to buy a Scorpio, here the web suggested me an option to get it. Google might have started reading your mind or rather subconscious mind ;)
A decade of habit of searching for information on Google has led to a strong belief that Google has the answer for everything. Searching has moved away from giving relevant information to predicting what information you are looking for. And, that's what Google is getting better and better day by day.
Information is available in various forms, the same information might also be scattered on different platforms. We are now in an era of Information Explosion. A midst the plethora of information, searching or predicting what information you need is like searching needle or rather tiny needle in a haystack. And, it is this tiny needle that may get lost during search and even Google may miss it.
With the strong belief that Google can answer my requirement - Noise Cancellation Headphones with mainly the mic that does not transmit the noise to other end and also within a budget of ₹. 1000 . I searched on Google, I did not find the intended result. I changed my query and tried again (Google) , I did try to find on Amazon, Snapdeal but I did not get what I intended in the top results. I gave up my online search and inquired my friends and also posted on Facebook. None of them gave me a answer that I was looking for, though there were some options posted with the likes of Bose, Senheiser, JBL etc, but not within the budget.
A casual walk to the landmark book store during a weekend, got me what I wanted - Panasonic-RP-HM111PP-W. This product did not turn up online without the word 'Panasonic' which I realized later. Also, the price that I paid was Rs. 599 and later I learnt the online price was Rs. 479, clearly a discount of over 20% was missed in this deal! Another such instance happened when I was about to buy a Vegetable Cutter and the online price was around ₹1100 and a chance encounter at a Big Bazaar was ₹ 995. Finally, it was a zero sum game between the two deals, however the bargaining opportunity was clearly missed by the father of searching engines or any other shopping sites in both the cases.( I do not know if SEO would have helped Panasonic to get me what I wanted). It is evident that the search engines face a gargantuan challenge to get the right product out of millions of product available using a query of few words.
Internet has evolved - world wide web, search engines, online forums, social networks, shopping sites etc. To get the right information you need to know the right search query and the right platform to search for. Search might be thought to be a solved problem but the huge addition of information everyday makes it unsolved for every query that is searched for. Perhaps, Pranav Mistry's Sixth Sense Project would have helped to take the search to the next level. And, People would have banned cell phones while entering the shopping zones;). But, Mistry has moved away from the Sixth Sense Project .
For every query there is definitely Google, but sometimes a walk down to your nearby store makes you realize Google is not the only thing !
After using the Guru aka Google for over a decade, it has now become a Genie - One who fulfills your wish. I have observed for quite some time that whenever I type the first word or second word in Google, there comes the auto suggested words that are more or less the ones that I was looking to search. And, this has happened many a times. Another incidence, that has happened, I looked for Mahindra Scorpio the soon to be launched face lift version. After some time, I saw an ad that suggested about winning a Scorpio by enrolling in to a contest. I had a wishful thinking to buy a Scorpio, here the web suggested me an option to get it. Google might have started reading your mind or rather subconscious mind ;)
A decade of habit of searching for information on Google has led to a strong belief that Google has the answer for everything. Searching has moved away from giving relevant information to predicting what information you are looking for. And, that's what Google is getting better and better day by day.
Information is available in various forms, the same information might also be scattered on different platforms. We are now in an era of Information Explosion. A midst the plethora of information, searching or predicting what information you need is like searching needle or rather tiny needle in a haystack. And, it is this tiny needle that may get lost during search and even Google may miss it.
With the strong belief that Google can answer my requirement - Noise Cancellation Headphones with mainly the mic that does not transmit the noise to other end and also within a budget of ₹. 1000 . I searched on Google, I did not find the intended result. I changed my query and tried again (Google) , I did try to find on Amazon, Snapdeal but I did not get what I intended in the top results. I gave up my online search and inquired my friends and also posted on Facebook. None of them gave me a answer that I was looking for, though there were some options posted with the likes of Bose, Senheiser, JBL etc, but not within the budget.
A casual walk to the landmark book store during a weekend, got me what I wanted - Panasonic-RP-HM111PP-W. This product did not turn up online without the word 'Panasonic' which I realized later. Also, the price that I paid was Rs. 599 and later I learnt the online price was Rs. 479, clearly a discount of over 20% was missed in this deal! Another such instance happened when I was about to buy a Vegetable Cutter and the online price was around ₹1100 and a chance encounter at a Big Bazaar was ₹ 995. Finally, it was a zero sum game between the two deals, however the bargaining opportunity was clearly missed by the father of searching engines or any other shopping sites in both the cases.( I do not know if SEO would have helped Panasonic to get me what I wanted). It is evident that the search engines face a gargantuan challenge to get the right product out of millions of product available using a query of few words.
Internet has evolved - world wide web, search engines, online forums, social networks, shopping sites etc. To get the right information you need to know the right search query and the right platform to search for. Search might be thought to be a solved problem but the huge addition of information everyday makes it unsolved for every query that is searched for. Perhaps, Pranav Mistry's Sixth Sense Project would have helped to take the search to the next level. And, People would have banned cell phones while entering the shopping zones;). But, Mistry has moved away from the Sixth Sense Project .
For every query there is definitely Google, but sometimes a walk down to your nearby store makes you realize Google is not the only thing !
