John Battelle’s Searchblog | Google’s Web 2 Demo and the UI Plunge

John Battelle's Searchblog | Google's Web 2 Demo and the UI Plunge:

"This has potentially interesting implications in next-generation ranking methodologies, for one, but combined with clustering, it signals that Google is serious about taking what one might call the UI plunge.

What do I mean by that? Well, of all the major engines, only Google has strictly maintained what might be called the C prompt interface to search: put in yer command, get out yer list of results (Google Local is a departure, but it's still in beta). Yahoo, Ask, A9 and others have begun to twiddle in pretty significant ways with evolved interfaces which - by employing your search history, your personal data, clustering, and other tricks - deliver more filtered and intentional results (though it is still arguable if they are more relevant). I sense it's only a matter of time before Google takes this approach as well, and Norvig's demo certainly points that way. After all, it's not that often Google decides to give us a glimpse behind the curtain, and coupled with Google Board member John Doerr's semi-announcement the day before (he told the audience that Google would become 'the Google that knows you') I think the UI plunge might come sooner than we all expect"