There’s an interview on John Battelle’s blog with Udi Manber (formerly at A9, now at Google) that discusses universal search and what’s coming next. Udi’s reply to a question about next steps really made an impression on me.

Q: I’m very interested in the next steps. Without telling us too much (if you would like to, why, please do), what are the interesting problems in search right now that you feel well positioned to address?

A: As search gets better, user expectations rise even higher, and we need to improve at a faster rate. Most of our work still focuses on the fundamentals — making results more relevant, more comprehensive, for more users, in more languages. Much of this work involves pure algorithms, deep understanding of search and of the web, and just plain hard work. Just the way we like it. It is not sexy to the outside world and it doesn’t make headlines, but it has the highest impact. Most of the advances in pure ranking that we’re making aren’t obvious to users — they just find what they’re looking for more often and they take it for granted. Just the way it should be.

There’s no question that you have to continue to improve the foundation on which you’re building. I think this holds true for anything you’re trying to master. You’re never done when it comes to getting better at the basics.

Another powerful idea in here is the notion that as the tool gets better and better, it disappears and users start to take it for granted and focus on the task they are trying to accomplish. It’s something we should all be striving for.