Search Engine Watch, What’s it Going to Take to Beat Google?:

The subjective nature of users’ intent when formulating queries is complex. Understanding the context is challenging, but two important factors, location and time, are under-exploited by the engines today. A user typing the query [pizza] from Chicago or Milan, at 11:00am or 9:00pm local time, doesn’t expect the same results.

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Search engines should learn from our behaviors. Users often search on the same topic, typing recurring queries. Users don’t always click on the first result and often navigate back and forth selecting links from a results page. Search engines should be more proactive, learn for the benefit of individual users and become smarter over time.

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Search engines should better follow through and make results more productive for users, notifying them of new relevant results for specific queries. Users often go to the same sites looking for new content. Search engines could monitor these changes for us. What a great opportunity for direct marketing businesses to establish that one-to-one marketing relationship, directly addressing users’ needs, and serve a relevant Google AdWord or Overture paid link in the notification email.