“Google is a switchboard,” Cathy Gordon of Google said, “connecting content consumers to content owners.” She feels search is still at a primitive stage—“we’ve only just begun.” She said that users will increasingly demand control (thus calling for a user-centric approach to future development), and the search engines needed to give users the tools to organize and customize their own information. Search will become more sophisticated and personal but must remain simple. The depth, breadth, and types of searchable content will continue to expand, and geographic and language boundaries will decrease. Our desktop tethers will be eliminated and search will be ubiquitous.
Paula J. Hane News Bureau Chief, Information Today, Inc.
I see that librarians participate in the evolution of search engines. Do teachers also participate?