search: the next generation

The more we come to rely on search engines, the more we find their shortcomings. With public searchers like Google lurching toward more commercial business models, should organizations consider building their own search engines? By Chris Edwards. "Everyone thinks search is typing keywords into a box," says Mike Lynch, the head of search specialist Autonomy. "But that is going to change." The science of Web searching has reached a crucial stage in its development: for proof just Google 'Web search future'. Lynch reckons that, as the mechanics of search head into the deepest recesses of the IT system, it will steadily reduce our dependence on Google as a primary Web inquisitor, and make that box fade from our memories.