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.