The Perfect Search

In John Battelle’s 2005 book The Search, he offers some interesting thinking in the chapter titled “The Perfect Search”:

“Imagine the ability to ask any question and get not just an accurate answer, but your perfect answer – an answer that suits the context and intent of your question, an answer that with eerie precision is informed by who you are and why you’re asking.” John Battelle, The Search, Pg. 252

As I continue to explore themes around user practice, I’m convinced that our approach to search is all wrong. The perfect search demands the perfect query.  Regardless of the search technology, it’s how we approach that little input box that makes all the difference. As an analogy, I’d like to share how I was taught to consult the I Ching.

John Barlow was a professor of mine in graduate school that introduced me to the I Ching.  He taught that the time one spent crafting a detailed question to consult the oracle would greatly impact the ability to read the message in the images of the hexagrams that the I Ching responded with.  He taught us to draft our questions and to rewrite them toward specificity.  He taught that as much effort should be put into crafting the question as deciphering the answer. As I worked his method I learned to develop a question to the point where I was absolutely clear about what I was asking.  This approach yields fascinating results because the parameters of the question provided a container to explore the images the I Ching responds with.

As I beat the drum for developing better user practices, crafting quality search queries will be one point of attack.