This is that time of the year again when I start thinking and planning my course on Next Generation Search. SInce half of this course is based on emerging techniques in search, I have to carefully plan this part every time I teach the course — otherwise it would not be next generation search.
So what are the real emerging search techniques and what will the near future bring? It seems that the last year or two have been truly revolutionary in this sense. Location based search, Social Networks, and Real Time are really here and are hottest things now. Visual search may finally be taking off as systems like Google Goggle start taking shape. Do we finally see search really going beyond text and rapidly advancing in that direction? This does have very serious implications for not only search but also for everything related to knowledge eco system.
Maybe, I should weave this theme trough my course.