Enterprise Search, 2nd Edition

Chapter 1. Searching, Finding, Deciding

No one searches for information just for the fun of it. Behind the process of searching is a requirement to find the information needed to make a decision. How often have you had to make a decision without feeling totally confident that you had found all the relevant information you needed?

On June 10, 2000, the London Millennium Footbridge across the River Thames was opened. Shortly thereafter, it was obvious there was a problem. It became known as the “Wobbly Bridge” because it started to sway as pedestrians began using it. Within a couple of days, it was closed down, reopening in 2002 with a new damping system. In the course of investigating the issue, it was found that this was a known problem. The paper describing it had been published in the journal Earthquake Engineering and Structural Dynamics in 1993, but the designers of the bridge were not aware of it.

What might be the outcome for your organization in a similar situation?

Reading this book and taking appropriate action will help everyone in your organization make better decisions. Some of these decisions will be about implementing and managing search applications. Other decisions will have a direct impact on the organization. Enterprise search is a decision support application. It is a business-critical application that needs to be planned, resourced, and managed at a level commensurate with the decisions that it is supporting. That is why the strapline for this book is “Enhancing ...