A Rich Array of Possibilities

Thanks to Bob Carpenter for calling my attention to this nugget in an interview with Nach Waxman in the New York Times Diner’s Journal:

Google is a blessing, and we all use it to locate individual specific pieces of information — including one or another recipe. However, it does not seem, in any practical way to serve as an organized repository of information that can be browsed as a book is browsed. It supplies particular facts, not a rich array of possibilities.

While I wouldn’t consider a physical book as the ideal of browsability, I agree with the sentiment that there’s more to information seeking than known-item search. Interfaces that support exploratory search open up a rich and appetizing array of possiblities.