What is the future of search for PLM?

There is no doubt a search changed the way we work today on the Internet. Remember how looked for  information in the pre-Internet and pre-Google age? It wasn’t so simple as today. 

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPEpGHya01c]

So, the change of the user’s behavior regarding ‘search’ has created a lot of opportunities on the Internet surface. I’ve tried to look at how PLM and search intersects and perhaps find new ways to improve PLM system behaviors today. I touched on this before in my posts about Enterprise Search and PLM. So, I’ll do a deeper discovery into this space.

 What is available today? :

 1.    Enterprise Search.

This term is used to describe the application of search technologies inside of organization. This term is opposite two other searches – web search and desktop search – it is probably the most relevant to what PLM does inside an organization. The ability to find the right information about product, documentation, changes etc. is extremely important. I think that this area will grow in the near  future.

 Microsoft Futuristic View on Enterprise Search

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xb5N5uZjpVQ]

2.    3D Space search.

This is a very specific area in search applications that allows you to specify your search criteria based on certain geometric characteristics of a product. Even if such capabilities already exist inside of many PLM applications, this search is interesting since it can connect to an enterprise search. Actually, it’s important to integrate 3D Space search into enterprise search and other applications.

 Dassault Systems 3DLive User Experience (UX)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QcAai7A6RU]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0-Y3yzNQZQ]

3.    Visual Search / 3D search

If 3D Space search mostly uses 3D as a criteria for search (WHERE), Visual search (or 3D search, as I call it) is mostly about being able to provide a search with information about WHAT to search for. This can be interesting for the decision making and design process areas – because it allows you to find all information visually. Sometimes, however, it’s misleading as it can be hidden by wrong meta-information and additional data.

 Innovative solution from 3DPartBrowser 

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjxkgyUmu8I]

The above are my top three perspectives for Search in the PLM domain. I’m going to discover search topic in context of PLM during these days on Infonortics Search Meeting in Boston. During this meeting, I had some casual talk with Steven Arnold and got some interesting perspectives on his Beyond Search Blog. I’m looking forward to speak more about this topic in the future…