Ever since people began recording information, we have needed to find that information. More than 4,000 years ago, in ancient Sumer, bureaucrats were creating catalogs to help organize and locate information. In ancient Greece 2,250 years ago, the scholar Callimachus created the Pinakes—a table of authors and works in the Library of Alexandria.1 Numerous concordances and indices surround ancient texts to help readers find relevant portions.
The story of search and search engines is intimately tied to language. This report is thus largely about language: the means by which people capture information and the tool they use to find information. When you search, whether you’re talking to a librarian or typing words into a search box, you’re asking a question with words to get something you need. Language is the central element of searching.
Until recently, computers could not simulate human-level comprehension, so finding information was a tedious and error-prone process. The search engine, much like when you use a library card catalog, matches the words you type with words in its catalog of information (its index). This is called lexicalor keyword search. This process of locating information is iterative, manual, and often frustrating (Figure 1-1).
Figure 1-1. The traditional method of iterative searching puts all the work on the searcher ...
Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month, and much more.
O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.
Julian F.
Head of Cybersecurity
I wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.
Addison B.
Field Engineer
I’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.
Amir M.
Data Platform Tech Lead
I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.
O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.
