James Robertson's latest CM Briefing includes Search should work like magic.
Thanks to Google, intranet users expect to be able to type in a word (or two) and find the page they are looking for, preferably in the first few results. ...
Staff should not have to learn complex search options, or spend time carefully considering the most effective search terms and options. Regardless of what the user is searching on, the right results should be returned.
His focus is on internal search tools, but I like that the suggestions he provides in terms of where IT should focus their energies. Make search "work like magic" by doing things like monitoring those searches that fail to find better ways to connect people with the content they need. (Hint: he doesn't suggest educating the users.)