Chapter 11, Perfect Search Summary

The perfect search would work similar to a reference librarian, a human-like artificial entity that could find the exact answer to the question, recommend one source of information over another and have a "complete mastery of the entire corpus of human knowledge" (p. 252). This is the stated goal of almost every major player in search. A trend that will be ongoing is the incorporation of search into devices other than the PC and Web. Examples include telephones, automobiles, televisions and stereos. Eventually, all things of value may have tags that communicate where they are and what they have been doing, including children and pets, thus making individuals searchable. Will the entire breadth and depth of human knowledge become searchable? This will only happen if the world desires it, and that is doubtful. Some data repositories such as the University...