Abstract: How well DO people search on Google? Although popular opinion is that “everyone is above average,” that obviously can’t be true. The truth is that self-perceptions of search expertise are often wildly over-estimated and that people, on average, actually use only a fraction of the potential of Google. They both don’t know much of what’s possible, and don’t understand where internet search capabilities are headed. Since the rate of change and improvements isn’t slowly down, in this talk I’ll examine where we are, and where we’re headed, and conclude with some heuristics for teaching research skills in the years ahead.

Bio: Daniel Russell is the Uber Tech Lead for Search Quality and User Happiness in Mountain View. He earned his PhD in computer science, specializing in Artificial Intelligence until he realized that magnifying and understanding human intelligence was his real passion. Twenty years ago he foreswore AI in favor of HI, and enjoys teaching, learning, running and music, preferably all in one day. He has worked at Xerox PARC before it was PARC.com, was in the Advanced Technology Group at Apple where he wrote the first 100 web pages for www.Apple.com using SimpleText. He has also worked at IBM and briefly at a startup that developed tablet computers before the iPad.

Running time: 36 mins

Presented at: Colorado State University Library Conference, Boulder, CO, Jan 12, 2012