| Abstract: | The current state of the art of text retrieval, and indications of radical developments to come, should be of concern to all involved in text processing in the information chain from author to end‐user. This brief overview, slanted towards the interests of publishers, looks at the recent history of retrieval techniques, and present attempts to deal with information overload and the relative inability of many to conduct effective searches. As networks proliferate, the problem of ‘mapping’ between databases increases in complexity, and mention is made of attempts by the UK government to establish a system to support interdepartmental search and ‘open government’. The Semantic Web is seen as the next big development, but will require enormous effort. It is concluded that text retrieval is less often a separate facility as it is increasingly embedded, as a required tool, in larger systems. |
