The Google Interface Opportunity
Patrick Lannigan - Summer  2004

Someone once called Google the “command line interface” to the web. This may be true, but it is also false. Google is a vastly superior command-line interface compared to that of typical command line interfaces like MS-DOS or Unix. The Google interface incorporates elements of  forgiveness,  knowledge of underlying data, and keyword customization into the design of its “command processor” in order to serve up user friendly results.

The question I ask, is what opportunity exists for an energetic entrepreneur to add a second-generation Google-like command-processor to  applications that are used in corporations today? Yes, mouse-driven applications were much lauded in their day, but the interface design for most of these applications is too rigid. Take a typical customer database application. When we’re looking for the address of a customer we first must type in the name of the customer to find the information we’re looking for. If we spell the name wrong we’ll more than likely get such helpful messages as “Record not Found” or “Customer does not Exist”. These simple search type problems are just a small taste of the bitter and unfriendly interface that sits in front of most business applications today. It gets worse as we go deeper into the application. For example, with most manufacturing applications if we wanted to find a particular order by a customer for blue widgets we’d first have to find that customer name, then look up the orders, then surf through each order looking for one where they ordered blue widgets. What a waste of time!

 The "problem" of the brittle interface, is also an opportunity. Some entrepreneur could potentially make millions by selling an ad-on component to Google-ize the the dominant corporate applications that exist today. Imagine if users could simply type in “Lannigan order blue widgets” to discover all the orders by Lannigan for blue widgets? Google-izing an application can go further still. While Google has very sophisticated underpinnings, at the interface level it is really just two things. It is, first and foremost, a search engine that has superior ranking capabilities according to referential data (e.g. page links), but it is also a second-generation command-line processor. By second-generation I mean that it has a strong component of forgiveness, can incorporate special keywords, and has knowledge of the underlying data itself.

 The "incorporating special keywords" feature also means that corporations could customize special keywords for their users a private dictionary of sorts. As an example, while one company may prefer to use the word “order” to look for orders by a company, another company may prefer “po”, as in purchase orders. As such, a search for orders by Lannigan in Company A may be “orders Lannigan”. This same search in Company B would be “po Lannigan”. You get the idea. 

Technically speaking, Google-izing an application is no cakewalk. Somebody has to have knowledge of the underlying data, incorporate search engine technology that doesn't interfere with the main technology, and provide a second interface to the application that also does not interfere with the normal operation of the application. This is a tall order, but doable (that is if Google hasn't snatched up every search engine expert in the world ....). The upside is tremendous. Chaotic antiquated carpal tunnel syndrome inducing applications would be transformed into something as pleasant to use as Google. 

If you know of anybody doing research in this area please contact me. I'd love to be one of their "test subjects". Conversely, if anybody wants my two cents into the "go to market" strategy, I'd gladly provide it.

© Patrick Lannigan, 2004

patrick at lannigan dot org

 

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