Search starts with structured data, not the search box
A polished search interface cannot compensate for inaccessible, inconsistent, or poorly structured source content.
Search looks like a user-interface problem because the visible part is a box and a list of results. The harder problem lives underneath: can the system access clean, structured information?
That was the useful lesson behind Slater Search. Keyword matching, filters, weighting, and semantic retrieval become much easier once the underlying content is available through predictable data.
The same principle applies to AI search. A chatbot is not an answer strategy. The site needs content that machines can retrieve, understand, and cite: clear pages, stable URLs, text representations, useful structure, and enough context to answer a real question.
The interface matters. But the data layer determines whether the interface has anything trustworthy to say.
Research trail: The story behind Slater Search and AnswerCloud.