39% of Tech Blog Readers Say Web Search Needs to ''Understand a Question the Way a Human Does''

May 10, 2007; 03:47 AM
A poll of 553 Web searchers who are readers of top-technology Web blogs reveal that Web search needs to improve. Sixty-three percent of the respondents revealed that search engines either do not understand questions the way a human does, nor get highly relevant results with semantic precision. The poll was conducted from April 1^st to May 9^th by hakia.com www.hakia.com , a new meaning-based search engine. Poll results can be accessed at http://searchforbettersearch.hakia.com/ and are as follows:

What do you think a search engine should do?

• 39% understand my question the way a human does. (213 votes)
• 24% bring highly relevant results with semantic precision. (134 votes)
• 9% give me more control of search options. (51 votes)
• 7% have user interface that is simple and powerful. (38 votes)
• 6% learn my search behavior in a trusted environment. (34 votes)
• 5% allow me to participate to rank search results. (27 votes)
• 4% chat with me to help with my search. (23 votes)
• 3% provide personalization tools and agents. (18 votes)
• 3% none of the above! (15 votes)

Total Votes: 553

Poll conducted by hakia www.hakia.com April 1-May 9, 2007

According to Dr. Riza C. Berkan, CEO of hakia, “The human brain is still the most powerful search engine, much better than a computer, and we have a long way to come close to it. Several attempts to bring semantic treatment in Web search have failed in the past that included a variety of short-cut approaches ranging from statistical sampling, brute human effort, tracking user behavior, and many more. A long list of trials has been attempted, all avoiding to change the middle layer technology to enable a full-scale, uncompromised, semantic natural language processing (NLP). NLP and Web search do not go hand-in-hand unless the middleware is invented. Once this obstacle is out of the way, then the possibilities become endless.”

About The Poll:

The poll is part of a program created and envisioned by hakia entitled: “The Search For Better Search™.” The poll and commentary was linked to the following sites: www.battellemedia.com; www.resourceshelf.com; www.gigaom.com; www.techcrunch.com; www.venturebeat.com; www.readwriteweb.com; and www.arstechnica.com.

About hakia

hakia has developed the Web’s new meaning-based search engine, utilizing a radically new infrastructure designed to deliver the most relevant search results. Founded in 2004, the company is privately held and based in New York City. Go to http://www.hakia.com.