The most popular and comprehensive Open Source ECM platform
Let us know more
Search: Desktop Search can't stop Information Overload
Nucleus Research reports that Desktop Search is not the Answer. 95% of the users surveyed use some sort of desktop search, and two-thirds say that they are overwhelmed by information overload.
The problem is that many companies continue to silo information across multiple repositories, email stores, shared network folders and records management systems. 50% of users are searching across more than five different storage repositories when looking for information.
The Nucleus Research Report suggests that the best approach to reducing the overload of information is to consolidate the number of data access points.
- Consolidate data repositories, creating a more centralized and one-stop structure. This can save time and potentially reduce IT support costs.
- Adopt technologies like SOA to integrate and federate multiple repositories.
- Consider search tools like FAST, Autonomy, and Oracle that can crawl across multiple repostiories and present a common search interface.
Information Overload is not an easy problem. Last week at Demo 2007, the final session of live demonstrations was dedicated to startups trying to address the problem of Information Overload. Two types of approaches towards addressing Information Overload were shown: collaborative tools that try to leverage knowledge from groups, and tools backed by sophisticated algorithms that try to simplify information discovery and understanding.
Some of the new ‘smart search algorithms’ presented at Demo 2007 included:
Digger.com demonstrated their TextDigger product. TextDigger improves searches by being able to learn from the user about the meaning and nuances of words that the user intended.
Trailfire introduced a bookmarking concept more sophisticated than del.icio.us that uses trails and marks that allow users to share a sequence of related web pages.
But the bottom line is that the problem of ‘Information Overload’ is continuing to grow and that the technology to address the problem is still evolving.
