Chapter 5. Search and Ye Shall Find

In which we study the dark arts of search engines, algorithms, and query suggestions.

Search and Ye Shall Find

“What is this thing called search? This funny thing called search? Just who can solve its mystery? Why should it make a fool of me?”[1]

I think we all know what search is. It’s the magic box. You put in a word or two, search reads your mind and tells you what you were wondering about. Like the iPod shuffle, which seems to instinctively know what song you want to hear next, it understands you better than your mother and father, and it’s hard to believe it’s made by humans.[2]

Search was born around the same time computers were; it’s ...

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