3.4 Search engine dependency conclusion

Intensive use of commercial search engines is the starting point of a vicious cycle in the way we search for information.

Commercial search engines as his name said include commercial websites which are no more than pure advertisement (no knowledge information) and represent then a risk for its users. It is moreover increasing the number of contents potentially displayable to any kind of request.

No matter how pertinent is the request the results provided by commercial search engines are giving a feeling of satisfaction to Internet users. It makes him think that he knows how to make research on the Internet and do not make him think about reconsidering his search process.

When users switch to enterprise search engines where the training and the implementation are not done properly the search engine user may think that the search tool is not working.

Studies are comforting search engine users in this feeling (Cf. The Association for Enterprise and Content Management. (2008). Findability: The Art and Science of Making Content Easy to Find.) « While people trained in library sciences may bemoan the fact that most users are not Boolean search experts (or « sophisticated » with search in general), the reality is that business people should not have to be search experts in order to find the information they need to do their jobs ».

So Internet users do not know how search engines work but think they do, they have no desire to learn and as a result expect more from enterprise search technology.

In this configuration search engine dependency do exist and has some strong consequences on businesses. It seems that the market is designed for simple and easy to use search applications.