What can search engines could do better?
* Perhaps be better at responding to articulated queries, i.e. understand the semantics of a plain English query.
Comments: Natural language, one of search’s holy grails. Rather than building out natural language systems, most major search engines rely on users to learn a new syntax: the language of keywords.
Generations from now people will speak a different language because of this. Instead of whole sentences people will use phrases. Instead of saying to a friend, “What is the largest city in Brazil?”, people will say “Brazil largest city.” Or instead of saying at a cocktail party, “What are the ingredients in a Sazerac?” people will say, “Sazerac ingredients list?”
