The other day Kate said: The Internet is Amazing.

It is amazing – bloody amazing.  Its very hard to remember what life was like before the Internet.  The amount of information and the things you can do on the Internet is mind-blowing.  Search engines are amazing too – simply by virtue of the fact that they can scan all of that information in a very very short amount of time.

Search engines are a big part of the Internet.

I think that search engines have achieved an incredible feat.  They are both incredibly incredible and yet more or less completely useless.  The problem is that the search begins when you get a search engine involved, they are what the say they are – a powerful engine for searching i.e. not find engines.

Social search is supposed to be the answer to this problem.  This is where you consult your networks for answers and recommendations.  Rather than chucking keywords into Google or Bing, you put out a tweet, or go to a forum or post a question on your Facebook.  Nice idea in theory but one that falls down unless your network of friends and their brains are equally distributed across the required range of topics and experiences (which is unlikely).

The other challenge is that its not very easy – unless you’re someone like Mike Arrington, Lady Gaga or Russell Crowe – to actually get people to respond.  In my experience the people that respond in social networks are tight connections (thanks guys).  It’s rare that a distant connection responds with an answer or piece of advice via a social network – even though you know they have answers and opinions.  Its good when they do.

It’s different in the real world. People will generally give you an answer if you ask them a direct question.  Its rare that you get a mute blank stare as a response to a question or request for advice although it has happened to me once or twice in France (I drove off).

This is probably why 80% of word of mouth still takes place offline.

What is the solution to this problem – I can’t foresee a future where I ask a question on Twitter and I receive 300,000 results in 0.24 seconds and neither would I want this.

I could probably do something with (a very) Advanced Search in Google but I am not convinced it would work that well.  Natural language processing isn’t the answer either as the real problem is the amount of dud, repetitive information on the Internet.

I’d like a search engine that trawled a limited number of trusted quality sources.  I would have to chose them, though I would be open to recommendations and lists (it would be dangerous to leave the selection process to any third party).  I should have complete control over my sources and should be able to add any that I please.  Could someone create this? Have they already?

Also, has any noticed that Google News is broken?

Tags: bing, Google, Search, social, suck, WOM, Yahoo!