Google's Eric Schmidt says learning how to rank "is the great challenge of the age." http://bit.ly/2cpgD2 -- That's right. That's indexing!

Quality analysis is the name of the game. Humans can do it. Robots can't do it. Artificial intelligence (AI) can't do it. Search engines can't do it.

Human brains do it.

Step 1. Who's the subject? What's the subject? When's it happening?  Where's it happening? How's it happening? Why are you reading about it?

Who, what, when, where, how, and why.
AKA, Facet analysis.

 Step 2.
a) If the results are for a search engine, rank it based on relevance to the initial search
b) If the results are for an index, write it elegantly and succinctly with appropriate headings so that the searcher will find it quickly.

Easier said than done, huh? Right! That's the beauty of the human brain. 

When was the last time you appreciated a well-written index or a search result that worked the way you wanted it to? Betcha a human who knew what they were doing was involved!

Pilar Wyman
Wyman Indexing