Then the storm passes, and the hunt for the perfect search engine is on again. The complaints may be many, but they all focus on the quality of the search. Englewood, Colo.-based U.S. West technical staff member Steve Collins wants only the right amount of information from a search of his company's intranet using its Verity search engine instead of always having to deal with either an avalanche or a drought. In either case, you don't get what you want. The Hyperbolic Tree from InXight Software is best suited for browsing and interacting with large hierarchies.
Users can navigate among hundreds of thousands of Web pages at a time.
Smooth, animated transitions help users maintain a sense of orientation. Even systems integrators like Montreal-based Yamatech Connectivity Solutions acknowledge that the products they work with leave room for improvement. They just go and bring back whatever they find, and many times you get redundant results with, for example, the same document listed more than once. But a break in this gloomy weather pattern is coming, and soon. Today's first-generation search engines are rapidly evolving, and much improved technology is just over the horizon.