POTB -- What if you could read Planet of the Blogs and get pointed to other Irishblogs that provided related information to the topic you just read? That is the kind of thing Microsoft is exploring.
Susan Dumais, senior Microsoft researcher and a leader in the field of human-computer interaction, predicts that in 10 years people will easily be able to locate the information they need and use the results in context without even realizing that they're searching. In pursuit of her goal Dumais is working on personalizing search capabilities, using knowledge about a person's previous interactions with information to tailor results that are more relevant. Another project focuses on contextualizing search functionality. "The idea is to understand when people search, why people search and whether we can make it easier for them to get results," says Dumais. "It's recognizing the fact that search is not the end goal. We want to show people results in context and help them integrate those results into whatever they're doing."
Microsoft Research News -- "In Search of Not Searching"
