Goodbye Search

There are people who are good at Googling and those who are not.

In reality, people with high search abilities who can efficiently and quickly access the information they need have a competitive edge in today's work environment. As a writer who directs technical projects, I also do programming myself from time to time.

In the case of programmers, unless they are highly advanced, when they face an implementation they've never done before or encounter an error they can't resolve, they often search for examples of how others who faced the same issue in the past overcame it. In such situations, "search ability" becomes equivalent to "capability."

The existence of people who are good at Googling implies that, relatively speaking, there are those who are not so good at it.

Upon reflection, "searching" is some kind of special skill, and because it is a special skill, it creates disparities in proficiency. I've seen articles with blunt titles like "Gain an Edge Over Your Rivals with Search Ability!" several times before.

So, what is the essence of "search ability"? Ultimately, it seems to be the ability to select search keywords while considering the constraints of computers and databases.

Computers, in general, are not very good at handling ambiguous concepts or matters that are not clearly defined. Of course, search engines are gradually evolving, so it's not entirely accurate to say that, but the databases operating behind the scenes of searches accumulate words found in the target web pages and so on. By selecting search keywords that take into account the structure of these databases, it's easier to obtain more accurate and efficient search results.

Imagine someone who doesn't know the name of the animal "elephant" wants to search for it based on its characteristics.

Someone experienced with searching will quickly break down the description of the elephant's appearance into individual words and turn them into search keywords. They then use multiple keywords to narrow down the search.

It would look something like "long nose big ears huge animal Africa." By searching this way, "African elephant" would appear in the search results.

People who are good at searching can go through this process of narrowing down by layering multiple words and conditions while accommodating the computer's mechanisms to some extent. They can provide the search query in a form that is easy for the computer and search engine to understand.

In other words, searching itself can be considered a concept and method that is "indulgent" towards computers, created due to the constraints of computers.

The number of people who remember the time before the internet is gradually decreasing, which makes one think that we have entered an incredible era. In fact, their numbers are indeed dwindling.

Anyway, for those who remember the pre-internet era, was "search" a common term back then? If asked, they might answer, "It seems like we used it in libraries, but it didn't feel like a very common word."

The concept of "search" likely became widespread as a convenient and relatively new idea during the explosive spread of computers and the internet. The reason it was considered "convenient" was that computers were not yet smart enough to understand abstract concepts and provide answers. As a result, the concept of "search" emerged as a desperate measure to help humans and computers get along better, with computers saying, "We're not that smart, so we'd appreciate it if you could use this 'search' method to find what you're looking for. Thanks!"

Until recently, it was unimaginable how much the concept of search had become a part of our lives. However, it might have been just a fleeting concept of its time if there were other ways to get along with computers without searching.

Now, there's even a possibility that stories like "Back in the day, there was something called LaserDisc" will be replaced with "Back in the day, there was something called search." We might even hear stories like, "When Grandpa was young, he was called a master of searching."

Of course, this is because, in the past year, information-seeking alternatives to traditional search, such as ChatGPT, have become fully practical.

Even with ChatGPT, it's still a computer-based system, and there are techniques that exist for considering its behavior in order to arrive at a more efficient and desirable answer.

In fact, there are many people who say things like, "Outpace your rivals with ChatGPT's prompt power!"

However, while there may be a "gap" created at the moment, it's not as significant as the difference in "search skills" that existed before, and technology is evolving in a direction where more people can access information without discrimination – a "gapless" direction.

At the same time, I think there's a lesson in the idea that something structurally skillful, like search, that creates a "gap" could become an innovation by developing alternative methods.

When you see phrases like, "Outpace your rivals with your ○○ power!" it might be the first step to becoming an innovator to think about "What can be created to make a world where no one can outpace their rivals through that method?"

In any case, search is not completely dead yet, but there is an atmosphere that it will soon become unnecessary. As a record of this transitional period, I'd like to leave this article behind.