Data versus Information

I was recently searching for foreign exchange rates on a particular date for the purpose of filing my income tax returns. I searched Google and other search engines for 'currency rate', 'exchange rate', 'currency converter','foreign exchange rate' etc and tried to use all the usual terminologies associated with it. I could not get the result I wanted. I was a dissatisfied customer of search engines. Then, I did the linear search - going through the forex sites, Reserve bank site etc one by one and bingo! I found Reserve Bank's site with exchange rates for every day for the last few years. And I noticed that it was tagged as 'Reference Rate'!

Do you get my problem, rather a search enthusiast's problem? While search is based on the keyword, the keyword itself may vary depending on the searcher's profile such as regional parlance, educational levels, professional levels etc.

While a layman would search for 'salary difference', a HR pro might search for 'salary gap analysis'. Layman- 'How to get modem working', IT pro -'IP configuration'.

So, jst like there's a difference beween what you seek and what yu want, there is a difference between Data versus Information. Data is raw while Information is contextual (apart from being analytical).

While providing information from raw data, it is a good idea to look at following thumb rules:

- User profile, what kind of user is asking for this.
- User Topology and demographic information
- Automatic learning by the information classification system. e.g. collections or business rules should be dynamically changed as the system learns more and more from the information
- The learning itself is automated by a good business intelligence and analytics tool
- User experience management - this is a big discipline. In short, monitor how promotions were effective, how good merchandise interfaces are being used, how relevant offers are based on user identity etc.
- User context is always maintained and continously evolved. One example for this could be that if a user is found to search for certain terms in the legal profession and the same user is searching for certain terms in Advanced Robotics, then the system can 'learn' that the user is a well read person. Similarly if a user is always typing with spelling errors and searching for typical teenage non-intellectual subjects, the user can be put into a collection of casual not very well informed users.
- Similarly Reports that contain information should be based according to context.

It's probably the next 'in' thing within Search and other information retrieval systems for laymen.