An interesting-sounding new book suggests new ways of enabling better search-engine experiences, by presenting search-results differently according to the ambiguity of the search (i.e., show the results differently depending on what type of dummy the user seems to be). Search Query Ambiguity (June 2009) looks at how…

“Web search-engines currently do not guide users to construct less ambiguous (i.e., better) search queries, and do not sort results [ usefully ]. […] This book provides new methods of presenting and sorting search results based on search query ambiguity, without resorting to slow-loading and white-spaced-filled graphical methods […] three methods of information visualization and of sorting results are analysed in the environments of both single-term and multi-term search queries”

Although, as I wrote recently on this blog, this may be thinking about things the wrong way round — and may also not be practical due to the strain on back-end computational resources at the Google server farms.

We might instead use browser-embedded individual ‘search-profiles’ to silently shape the search terms and modifiers on-the-fly, in the browser, before they even hit the engine.