THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE SEARCH ENGINE EMPIRE.

The paper argues that searching and search engines are very important aspects of the World Wide Web. It asserts that commercial search engines have not progressed in capability since 1998 and the introduction of Google and its PageRank algorithm. PageRank is identified as a problem that prevents users from obtaining the search engine results that would be of most use to them. The basic problems of search engine retrieval are considered alongside two areas of research which if successful could address them. The question, "Will search engines ever get any better?" is posed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]