Concept Searching: An Alternative To Manual Metadata Classification?

Writing on the ECM Stuff blog, Jed Cawthorne discusses the role of Conceptual Search and how soon it may be possible to utilise Content Intelligence to automatically identify conceptual metadata to avoid the need for manual classification of assets:

“Now I used to be one of the cynics who thought that just slapping (a good) search engine on top of your content was a recipe for disaster. I was (and mostly still am) of the opinion that metadata and information architecture are massively important, BUT could we finally be getting to a place where search engine performance meets the vendor rhetoric ?” [Read More]

My view is probably not, however, as Content Intelligence develops and becomes more sophisticated it is more likely that the suggestions made by these automated tools could become more powerful grow beyond the “I’m feeling lucky button” effect that many exhibit currently.

Also, not discussed is the role of classification assistance where the same tools are used to help users identify what to tag assets with using an existing classification & metadata schema.  Using both these approaches could provide Search vendors with the missing link connecting what cataloguers specify and what searchers want.

Are you using Concept Search technologies in your ECM/DAM implementation?  If so, what are your experiences?

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