The following is a liveblog of a presentation by Peter Morville on information architecture, search design patterns and the future of search that was given at South by Southwest on March 14, 2010.

6:05:16 PM: Information Architecture; structural design of information environments, design maps for wayfinding and understanding

6:06:45 PM: Winchester Mystery House, Winchester CA house continuously built by due to psychic prediction. Metaphor for websites

6:07:49 PM: Search is among the most disruptive innovations of our time. It influences what we buy, where we go, what we learn

6:09:08 PM: Search process is iterative and interactive. Search has become among the most important ways that we learn

6:09:28 PM: We need to optimize for learning, not search engine optimization

6:10:43 PM: Understanding users, interface (results box critical), engine, content, content creators necessary for search

6:11:20 PM: Need to incentivize and educate content creators to aid in better search

6:11:47 PM: RT @Mark_F: One of the most important interfaces on a web site is the results page

6:12:59 PM: Search: Design for immediate response, predictability, direct manipulations, use context

6:14:00 PM: Need to consider how search works with other systems of research and personalization.

6:14:29 PM: For social search it is critical to let people know in real time search that there are new results

6:15:48 PM: In mobile search and kiosks need to nudge users toward browsing for queries, but browsing doesn’t scale

6:17:17 PM: Christopher Alexander – patterns for building elements, their purposes and uses

6:17:58 PM: Search patterns – Peter Morville Flickr set of results pages

6:18:52 PM: Search Behavioral patterns: Quit, Narrow, Expand, Thrashing, Pearl Growing (expert strategy, how do we support?)

6:25:59 PM: Auto complete: propose options to users, no reason to wait for the results page to help the user

6:27:04 PM: Auto Suggest: auto complete based on past user data, again help user before results page

6:27:52 PM: Best First: most important search design pattern put best results at the top

6:28:31 PM: Faceted navigation: promotes advanced Boolean search by users in an easy way

6:29:19 PM: Federated Search: search pattern used to cover over search problems and failings

6:30:24 PM: Federated search: searching within separate content sets of the overall super set of data

6:31:27 PM: Combination of multiple search design patterns results in very useful search interfaces

6:31:40 PM: RT @miemo: (And programmers) RT @Mark_F: the only people who speak Boolean are librarians

6:32:05 PM: RT @saraburton: Key take-a-way so far: search process is about defining and refining info and guiding users in the process

6:34:00 PM: Structured Results: results from multiple types of media

6:34:43 PM: Actionable Results: bringing actionable functionality into the results page

6:36:55 PM: How do we reframe search? The internet of things, answering questions, decision making (Hunch), understanding

6:37:38 PM: How do we find the unknown, unknown?

6:38:24 PM: How we search is changing, not just keyword queries, but sketching, singing, etc.

6:39:13 PM: RT @meganmally: In search we should look for opportunities to help users understand what they’ve found.

6:43:31 PM: WineM – wine rack using RFID to identify bottles by category. So Cool

6:45:39 PM: New Soft City – Dan Hill, look beyond augmented reality & put information into real world, public display of water use

Dan Hill-Keynote: New Soft City from Interaction Design Association on Vimeo.

6:46:32 PM: Search is a hybrid between, design, engineering and marketing

6:46:50 PM: Search is a project and a process, a problem that is never solved

6:47:51 PM: Designing search is part of the larger user experience framework

6:49:18 PM: User Experience Treasure Map by J Callender and P Morville http://bit.ly/blLGpP

6:50:43 PM: Look at search in 3 ways 1. microscope (detail) 2. telescope (big picture) 3. kaleidoscope (creativity)

6:57:55 PM: However bad search is on an external website, it’s 10X worse on an intranet

7:00:33 PM: Brilliant presentation by @Morville Thank you.

Search Patterns: Tangible Futures for Discovery is a post from: Trumblog

The Google Mobile app for BlackBerry rolled out a new trick earlier this week and is now searching your contacts and messages as well as the web. While this immediately seemed like a nice addition to the functionality as I’ve been using it the new functionality seems more like a logical addition, but not one that I’ll be using that often.

On the search screen of the app search results from your contacts and messages are auto filled just like any other term.  For example a search for the term Carlos turns up my buddy Carlos’ contact info as well as the search suggestion of Mr Santana. If Carlos would email my work address once in a while those would show up as well.  From the auto fill you can click directly through to call or text your contacts.

In the search results the number of contact and email results appear as icons above the web results.  Clicking on those icons displays the full set of results. In the full results you can also call or text your contacts as well as forward or reply to emails. I’m not sure how emails are selected to be forwarded or replied to in the link, but it doesn’t really matter.  The emails actually open in the app and it takes a second menu selection to bump you into the native message application and editing the email.

Voice search works for this feature and it is an option, so if you get tired of it, feel like it clutters your search results or just don’t want Google nosing in your data you can easily turn off the feature from the Options screen.

The issue with this new functionality is that I’ve been trained that if I need to look up a contact I do so from the Address book or Call Log.  If I need to search for an email I do that from the Message app.  I don’t know what it will take to get me to switch.  It’s also not searching Gmail or giving you options to call or email with Google Voice, which is a curious gap.  Perhaps those additions are coming.  Time will tell if this feature becomes a benefit or just another one that I never use.

Google Mobile Searches BlackBerry Contacts And Messages is a post from: Trumblog

In my continuing recap of 2009 as documented by our activity on search engines and social media sites here are the results from YouTube.  It wasn’t Barack Obama nor Michael Jackson, but Susan Boyle’s remarkable voice in a humble package (not to mention some great stagemanship from Briton’s Got Talent) who was the top video of 2009.

Most Watched YouTube videos (Global):

1. Susan Boyle – Britain’s Got Talent (120+ million views)
2. David After Dentist (37+ million views)
3. JK Wedding Entrance Dance (33+ million views)
4. New Moon Movie Trailer (31+ million views)
5. Evian Roller Babies (27+ million views)

While not as detailed as their cousins over at Google YouTube does break out their data into some more detail.  In addition to music videos (who knew Miley Cyrus was popular enough to take 2 spots of the top 5 globally) I’d love to see television shows, movie trailers, news events, user generated videos, video podcasts, etc. as some additional categories.

Most Watched music videos on YouTube (Global):

1. Pitbull “I Know You Want Me” (82+ million views)
2. Miley Cyrus “The Climb” (64+ million views)
3. Miley Cyrus “Party in the U.S.A.” (54+ million views)
4. The Lonely Island “I’m On a Boat” (48+ million views)
5. Keri Hilson “Knock You Down” (35+ million views)

Finally I’d like to see this monthly data and global/ US split from other search and social media sites, which is a nice reminder of what captivated us over the course of 2009 and how US taste coincides and diverges from that of the global online population.

Fastest Rising YouTube search terms by month (Global):

Fastest Rising YouTube search terms by month (U.S.):

Most Watched YouTube Videos Of 2009 is a post from: Trumblog

This year has been the year of Twitter. From  topping the search engine top searches lists, being the word of they year and doing some major deals with Google and Bing to provide a source of real time search.  With Twitter’s release of their top trends for 2009 you can see why this was the case.  More than the lists of any of the search engines Twitter’s top trends lists truly represents the year that was.

Lists, plural? Yup, like Google, Twitter wasn’t content to give us just one list, but broke it out by category; News Events, People, Movies, TV Shows, Sports, Technology and Hash Tags.  Here they are…

News Events

1. #iranelection
2. Swine Flu
3. Gaza
4. Iran
5. Tehran
6. #swineflu
7. AIG
8. #uksnow
9. Earth Hour
10. #inaug09

People

1. Michael Jackson
2. Susan Boyle
3. Adam Lambert
4. Kobe (Bryant)
5. Chris Brown
6. Chuck Norris
7. Joe Wilson
8. Tiger Woods
9. Christian Bale
10. A-Rod (Alex Rodriguez)

Movies

1. Harry Potter
2. New Moon
3. District 9
4. Paranormal Activity
5. Star Trek
6. True Blood
7. Transformers 2
8. Watchmen
9. Slumdog Millionaire
10. G.I. Joe

TV Shows

1. American Idol
2. Glee
3. Teen Choice Awards
4. SNL (Saturday Night Live)
5. Dollhouse
6. Grey’s Anatomy
7. VMAS (Video Music Awards)
8. #bsg (Battlestar Galatica)
9. BET Awards
10. Lost

Sports (Teams, Events, Leagues)

1. Super Bowl
2. Lakers
3. Wimbledon
4. Cavs (Cleveland Cavaliers)
5. Superbowl
6. Chelsea
7. NFL
8. UFC 100
9. Yankees
10. Liverpool

Technology

1. Google Wave
2. Snow Leopard
3. Tweetdeck
4. Windows 7
5. CES
6. Palm Pre
7. Google Latitude
8. #E3
9. #amazonfail
10. Macworld

Hash Tags

1. #musicmonday
2. #iranelection
3. #sxsw
4. #swineflu
5. #nevertrust
6. #mm
7. #rememberwhen
8. #3drunkwords
9. #unacceptable
10. #iwish

A word about timing. All of the search engine’s ended 2009 a month early and posted their yearly top search terms at the beginning of the month.  I understand the need to avoid the news cycle black hole at the end of the year, but it just feels too soon.  I’m glad that Twitter held out for a couple more weeks and waited till midway through the month to release their top trends for the year.  Maybe that’s why their list seems to best capture 2009′s zeitgeist.

Twitter Top Trends For 2009 is a post from: Trumblog

The gifts from Google keep coming this holiday season.  First there is the free airport wifi and now free holiday postcards.  Pick one of the following cards, fill out a message and address  and Google will send it to a recipient of your choice for free.  Just one card per person so send it to someone really special.

Free Holiday Postcards From Google is a post from: Trumblog

The big three search engines posted their top search terms for 2009 earlier this week and results are below.

Top Search Topics 2009

When reviewing the results keep in mind that the top search terms are not computed in the same way by each search engine so this is not a wholly accurate comparison.  The results say as much about how each search engine is used as they do about how the search engines think about themselves. Bing seems like a soccer mom concerned about current events (Swine Flu, Stock Market, Cash For Clunkers) and using celebrities (especially dead ones) to ease that fear (Farah Fawcett, Patrick Swayze, Billy Mays).  Google’s the techie hipster with it’s love of social networks (Twitter, Facebook, Hi5) and some TV (Hulu, Glee).  Yahoo’s the middle American with their love of  WWE, American Idol, NASCAR and Britney Spears.

It’s fascinating that only 1 term appears in all 3 search engine lists, Michael Jackson and only 2 others, Twitter and Farah Fawcett, appear in 2 search engine lists.  That’s a total of 26 terms across the three search engines.  Interestingly Bing and Google have the most similar results, while Yahoo! has 9 completely original search terms in their results.

What does this say about us in 2009?  Only one search engine has the key current events of the year reaching the top 10 search results and none include the inauguration of Barack Obama which is arguably the most important historical event of the year (maybe we were just so over it in January after the political furor of 2008) not to mention 2 wars, the great recession and the health care debate.  Are we turning to entertainment as a diversion from our stress like they did during the depression or are we just a celebrity obsessed society?  What to make of the impact of dead celebrities?  Was this really the year of social media or are the appearance of social network names in the result of everyone over the age of 35 finding their high school friends?  And then there’s Britney Spears.  Will we ever drop her from the list of top searches?

Finally, what would a 2009 trending topics from Twitter tell us and will that be released.  I sure hope so.

2009 Top Search Comparison is a post from: Trumblog

The largest of the search engines also released their top searches for 2009 yesterday and Google being Google delivered lots of data parsed in lots of different ways. Instead of top search terms Google provides the somewhat comparable fastest rising terms which are:

1. twitter
2. michael jackson
3. facebook
4. hulu
5. hi5
6. glee
7. paranormal activity
8. natasha richardson
9. farrah fawcett
10. lady gaga

While it would be nice to get a straightforward list of top search terms, the breadth of Google’s data is fun to dig through as always for it’s insight on the year and ourselves.  For example the fastest falling term, “John McCain”.  The fastest rising Google Image Search terms show our interest in celebrity imagery with a names from “Lady Gaga” to “Jackob Black”.  “Mt. Everest” tops the list of Google Maps searches, but the inclusion of “In-n-Out” and “Voodoo Doughnuts” say more about our interests.  Similarly while the Google News top search term is “swine flu,” but the next 5 terms are “Susan Boyle,” “Jon and Kate.” “Adam Lambert,” “Rihanna (Chris Brown),” and “New Moon” then “Inauguration” is number 7.  The Mobile Search terms are an interesting look at our on-the-go needs from social media like “Twitter” and “Facebook” to our needs to answer trivia and sports scores “IMDB,” “NBA Scores,” and “ESPN.com” and then “CTA Bus Tracker.”  What entertained us this year? Most searched lyrics “Poker Face”, TV show “Glee,” movie trailer “New Moon,” video game “Ghostbusters,” concert “Taylor Swift.”

I also can’t help but look at how my home town fares n search terms.  For sports teams the “Red Sox” is the number 2 baseball search term behind the “Yankees.” The “Celtics” and number 2 behind the “Lakers.” The “Bruins” are only number 4 for hockey teams, and the “Patriots” and “Revolution” don’t even crack the top 10 Football team and Soccer team searches respectively.  Searches in Boston are interesting for what is there and what is not.  “BU Student Link” is number 1 and Harvard isn’t event mentioned.  “Glocester Daily Times” is number 3, but the Boston Globe, the regions largest daily is not.  But I’m glad to see public transportation and movie theaters represented with “MBTA Commuter Rail” ad “Coolidge Corner Theater.”

Finally, I’m fascinated by what we wanted to learn how to do this year. “How to kiss” was number 1. “Draw,” “knit” and “crochet” were 2, 3, and 4.  Number 5 is “flirt” followed by “meditate’ in the 6 spot. 7 is “hack.” “Sing” and “dance” are 8 and 9 and last, but not least “how to fight.”

Google: Top Searches for 2009 is a post from: Trumblog

Hot on the heels of Bing’s list of top search terms of 2009 Yahoo! has their list.

1. Michael Jackson
2. Twilight
3. WWE
4. Megan Fox
5. Britney Spears
6. Naruto
7. American Idol
8. Kim Kardashian
9. NASCAR
10. Runescape

My only contribution to the results of this list was on one summer afternoon where my surprised searches for more news about the King of Pop underscored the value of Twitter over search engines for breaking news.  However, I am certain that one of my daughters is solely responsible for Twilight’s position on the list.  Based on the focus group of one in my house, the fickleness of youth will lead to Twilight’s demotion in 2010.  Then again I have to wonder if Yahoo! will be around next year to even produce a list.

Yahoo!: Top Searches for 2009 is a post from: Trumblog

The turkey’s only just been turned into stock and there are 31 days left in the 2009, but Bing’s posted their list of the top 10 topics searched for in 2009.  They are:

1. Michael Jackson
2. Twitter
3. Swine Flu
4. Stock Market
5. Farrah Fawcett
6. Patrick Swayze
7. Cash for Clunkers
8. Jon and Kate Gosselin
9. Billy Mays
10. Jaycee Dugard

Clearly Bing searchers used the mourning of past their prime celebrities as a distraction from the economy and pandemic.  I’m proud to say that I skipped a lot of those terms this year, but to prove that I am human and live in the USA two of the terms I did search for are Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett. I imagine that our first black president’s absence from the list is due to his being inaugurated before Bing’s launch and perhaps that skew will be even more noticeable as the Google, Twitter, and possibly even Yahoo lists come out in the next few weeks.  When they do I’ll compare and contrast for fun.

Bing: Top Searches for 2009 is a post from: Trumblog

A couple weeks ago Google announced that they would be crawling RSS feeds in order to discover the latest pages on websites as soon as possible.  However they don’t provide a whole lot of detail on how to set that up and ensure that it is being done.  Here’s how:

How To Add Your RSS Feed For Indexing by Google is a post from: Trumblog