Peter Cochrane, former CTO and Head of Research at British Telecom, writes: " It looks as though the clock could be ticking for corporate IT and security departments in the same way typing pools bit the dust over 20 years ago. The tyranny of the typing pool ended with the computer terminal and the PC. The tyranny of IT departments looks to be coming to an end through a combination of smarter users, better software and outsourcing. No longer will your company's IT staff dictate which laptop and PDA you can purchase, which applications you can use, and which networks you can access. You, the end user, will get to call the shots, to choose the tools that best allow you to do your job most efficiently." 

His vision sounds a bit difficult to sell up the corporate ladder at this juncture. Getting an IT department or service bureau to buy and support laptops or PDAs from multiple vendors of your choosing doesn't happen today. Perhaps when all this gear works together seamlessly, but I am skeptical that day will come anytime soon.

The Nielsen Norman Group published its Web Usability 2004 survey results today and the most glaring problem is Web usage is search. A search engine is the first action taken in 88 percent of the Web sessions, with users visiting an average of 3.2 sites per session (other than search engines). About 50 percent of those surveyed (in live usability tests) clicked on a search result, but less than 5 percent of users employ quotes or other query syntax to refine searches. In addition, the survey showed than unless you are one of the first links at the top of a search result page (the top link got 51 percent and the second, 16 percent), you will be mostly ignored. Not a bit surprise.

In terms of search success, all users (both the casual and more experienced users survey) were happy only 42 percent of the time. More experienced users are more proficient at search activities, but even they found success only 50 percent of the time. And, the worst search experiences came from internal Web site searches, not the mega search engines. Usability guru Jakob Nielsen characterized internal search implementations as "beneath contempt."

Search engines have to get smarter and more contextual. Users aren't going to mess with advanced search techniques to overcome the current limitations. At a minimum most Web sites need to overhaul their search, invest in taxonomies and metadata and employ a decent search engine that has a team constantly tuning and improving the engine. Perhaps Google will be willing to open its search APIs and other technology to Web sites and enterprises that need a search infrastructure for structured and unstructured data.