Web self-service and search technologies combine

It's a paradox that self-service applications and search technologies are so widely used given how poorly they work at times. Advances continue apace, however, and the two actually are being combined for a better user experience.

The search technologies market has three main segments: portal search (think Google or Ask Jeeves); enterprise search (provided by vendors including Autonomy and Verity); and self-service search. According to Azita Martin, a VP with self-service search technology vendor InQuira, a typical self-service apps user will give up if the needed information isn't found after five clicks. Use of search technologies can increase success to about 90 percent.

According to Gartner, Web self-service search has consolidated to about a dozen significant vendors. Technologywise, there are two components: understanding the query, and use of search tools to build an answer. InQuira's strength, says Gartner, is in its use of linguistics tools—e.g., natural-language processing, and syntax and grammar tools—to understand the query.