When I saw the Google ad during the Superbowl last night, I had two thoughts at almost exactly the same time. The first was, "Wow, this is a great commercial. This is a really great way to tell a story." The second thought was, "It seems like he's typing a lot more than he should be." It just seemed really inconvenient for the user to find the information he wanted and then retype it in the search box as the basis for his next search.
When he searched for a location, he got a map. Then he wanted find something on that map. He had to completely start his search over again. Instead, it seems like there should have been some way to begin his next search within the context of the map.
This eventually led me to think about computer mice. For years, i've been using the Logitch G7 gaming mouse. Just because it says gaming doesn't mean that's all its good for. The on-the-fly sensitivity adjustment is great for image editing and document layout and the tilt-wheel is great for navigating complex documents and web pages; it's also good for large drawings. Where the G7 differs from other Logitch mice is in number of buttons. It only has the sensitivity adjustments and a back button. Many similar mice from Logitech, Microsoft, and others have back and forward, a short cut button, a zoom button, and possibly others. Now personally, the zoom and shortcut buttons don't seem that useful to me, and I can never come up with a good alternate action. Until now. I search for stuff on line enough that I should have button on my mouse that, when clicked, launches a browser containing the search results of my favorite search engine for whatever I just search-clicked on.
I'm not sure if what I'm asking for is a change to the way search engines work, a change to the way my operating system works, or a change to the way my mouse works, but it seems to me that modifying all three could make information retrieval better, easier, and faster.