This is a repost of my article written August 2005 and last updated in January 2006.  Enjoy.

Ryan was looking for a new career. He wrote me a half–page letter asking for advice. When I searched the text of his letter, two of the four top results were links to art magazines. Ryan liked the content of the art magazines very much. But he said that what surprised him was that, before he had written to me, he had actually been in the process of starting his own online art magazine.

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INTRODUCTION Most unsuccessful searches are either so specific that the searcher thinks he can’t find the information he needs, or so broad that the searcher thinks she doesn’t know enough to narrow her search down properly. Such searches are often the most important to the searcher. In this article, I will use Google as an example to explain a learning process of how to search and find whatever is most important to you.

In his June 12, 2005 New York Times article, “Enough Keyword Searches. Just Answer My Question,” James Fallows detailed how he “wasted what seemed like hours over the weekend with normal search tools” trying to “track the changes in California’s spending on its schools. An ideal Q.A. system would let [us] ask, ‘How has California’s standing among states in per–student school funds changed since the 1960’s?’ – and it would draw from all relevant sources to find the right answer.”¹ Mr. Fallows could have found his answer in less than 30 minutes.²

(to be continued)

—–FOOTNOTES:¹ {Search} is: a process through which insight or meaning is obtained, by purposeful examination of words or components within a system. {System} is: a defined set of interrelations.²A section of this article (on “Google Myths”) was removed on January 23, 2006 because, since this article was written, Google has improved their search, making the impact of the myths less significant.

• Similar pages across the internet
• How to Search and Find Whatever is Most Important to You - 2 of 3
• How to Search and Find Whatever is Most Important to You - 3 of 3
• Introduction
• Blog update

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 30th, 2007 at 9:47 pm and is filed under Interviews, Observation, Coaching, Teams, Personal favorites. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.