The display depicted in Figure 14.9 lists three natural-language questions from
three different applications. Notice that interaction with each seems very easy. For
instance, the first sentence seems straightforward: “List all of the salespeople who
met their quotas this month.”
The subtleties and irregularities residing in the ambiguities of English produce
an extremely exacting and complex programming problem. Attempts at naturallanguage
interfacing for particular applications in which any other type of interface
is infeasible (say, in the case of a user who is disabled) are meeting with
some success; however, these interfaces are typically expensive. Implementation
problems and extraordinary demand on computing resources have so far kept
natural-language interfaces to a minimum. The demand exists, though, and many
programmers and researchers are working diligently on such interfaces. It is a
growth area, and it therefore merits continued monitoring. Some Web sites, such
as Ask.com, use a natural interface for users to enter their search query. When the
query is entered, Ask.com responds with a list of responses that match the question
entered by the user.