I was washing dishes with the TV on last night and heard through a dramatic crescendo of commercial music Microsoft touting Bing as a Decision Engine. Left the dishes in the sink and took a look at Bing, which, it turns out, is just a new name for Live Search. Microsoft is trying to differentiate Bing from other search engines by positioning it not as a search engine, but a Decision Engine. Microsoft says the difference is that Bing will help people make decisions because Bing organizes information better than Google.
Once again, the sole focus of making better decisions is on information, with no regard for the logic that powers those decisions. If a financial institution gave its loan officers perfect information about loan applicants, but no guidelines on what the decision-making rules are, what would the quality and consistency of those loans be? If your physician had your healthcare records, consolidated from all the providers you’ve seen in the last 10 years, but didn’t have the latest diagnostic guidelines on an emerging illness, would she be effective in providing treatment? If asked for a dress for my birthday, would having a well-organized catalog of dresses help my husband if he didn’t know my criteria for a “good” dress?
Information is required to make decisions, but it’s rules that actually drive decisions.