Google?

When discussing information architecture, taxonomies and finding things on websites with clients, inevitably the question comes up: “Why can’t we just have Google?”.  It seems like a fair question. After all, I use Google several times or more a day to find stuff.

So Gerry McGovern’s article,“Do you really need search on your website?” seems a little radical but this comment rang true:

"Having a search engine can also be used as an excuse not to organize content professionally. It can be seen as a magic wand that gets people to where they want to go no matter how badly organized the content is. Of course, that's not the case.”

A project to create a taxonomy or navigation structure for a website can be fraught with misunderstandings, politics or plain lack of interest. But Google isn’t going to do it for us.