Searchers say, please read my mind

Greg Sterling at Search Engine Land reports on a Kelton Research poll that found considerable frustration among search engine users and a desire for a search engine that can "read their minds":

72.3 percent of Americans experience "search engine fatigue" when researching a topic on the Internet ... More than three out of four (75.1 percent) of those who experience search engine fatigue report getting up and physically leaving their computer without the information they were seeking.

Kelton asked survey respondents whether they wished that search engines like Google could, in effect, read their minds, delivering the results they were actually looking for. . . That capability is something that 78 percent of all survey-takers "wished" for.

As Greg Sterling says, this sounds like a common hunger for personalized search.

See also a March 2005 post where, in response to Udi Manber statement that "we are not in the mind reading business," I said, "If you need to read minds ... well then you better read minds. [Searchers will] think it's your fault, not theirs, if you don't give them what they need."