You may wonder why I am writing a blog post about search engine history on the CubeSpace blog. Believe it or not, there is actually a connection there.
Today I am working at home until the WNG meeting at CubeSpace this evening. I am doing this so that I can get some projects done that require more attention than I can give them at CubeSpace, where my day is usually a constant stream of distractions. At some point late in the morning I got hungry and reheated some leftovers. I decided a meal was as good an excuse as any to take a break, so I picked up the issue of New Scientist that I am currently in the midst of reading. That is where I found an article about the Mundaneum, an index card proto-internet with librarians functioning as search engines.
My first thought was that I very much wanted to be one of those librarians. Imagine getting to spend all day looking up completely random stuff. That sounds fabulous! My second thought was about what methodology they used for searching. I know that the Mundaneum’s retrieval system was a modification of the Dewey Decimal system, with expandable strings of numbers and letters. But how did users or librarians initiate a search. Did they start with keywords? Or did they start with the Dewey Decimal classifications and then drill down. I wonder this because of the way that I use the library and the way that I search for things in the internet.
When I go to the library for a book, I often go to the highest useful level of the Dewey Decimal system because I have historically found great resources that way. My approach takes longer than going directly for the subsection I want, but when I am at the library I am generally looking to learn more about a topic and the Dewey Decimal system is not well suited to for helping me discern a particular author’s approach to a subject.
However, an internet search is most effective when most specific. For example, another thing I spent my morning doing was replacing my smartphone. This has been a real hassle because I want to stay with my current provider and I had some every specific criteria for my phone, and those weren’t necessarily the criteria that my provider chose to detail in the “features” section of their site. So, I kept using a variety of keywords until I found my new phone and placed my order.
This is where we come back to CubeSpace and WNG. Tonight’s topic for our WNG meeting is networking. So I have spent my day contemplating what to say about networking (ideally something that hasn’t been said a million times already). It
was my little break that provided me with the answer. There are a lot of ways to approach networking and what I have learned is that the right approach depends on the situation. So, if one were to take the Dewey Decimal approach that would suggest targeting categorized groups (e.g. restaurant owners or commercial realtors or dog behaviorists) and focusing on the highest useful level (e.g. focusing on restaurant owners rather than just the owners of Thai restaurants in Southeast Portland). This approach might work best if you offer a product or service that may meet the need of a significant percentage of one of these larger groups.
The alternative is a keyword-based approach. This could include looking for people who have a B.A. in Frisbee Dynamics, love northern breed dogs and like hyacinths. This latter approach might work best if you were able to be much more specific because you had determined the demographics of your ideal customer.
Obviously these are extreme examples, but what approach have you found works best for you and your business? Please share your thoughts by either joining us tonight, Tuesday, April 8th from 6-8 pm at our WNG meeting, or add your answer below.
