vanderaj wrote:Do you have some examples of how search might be improved?
1. If I search for "examples search" or "search examples", neither returns a result, though both words are in close proximity in the quoted sentence. I think an option, possibly even the default option, would be to return pages ranked in order of the number of hits each individual word gets in a post, with, say, double points for hits within the subject line. That way "ignition advance" will return page matches from posts containing phrases such as "ignition timing advance" or "ignition" and "distributor advance".
2. The possibility to tag certain posts (blog style) with meta tags would potentially decrease the entropy of the information on this site.
3. It would also be interesting for moderators to be able to mark certain posts as canonical threads so that when someone wants to find out if they can use unleaded petrol in their ACVW these canonical threads would be highlighted.
4. You could even take a leaf out of Google's book and give precedence in search ranking to posts/threads that are referenced in other posts. Certainly returning an ordered ranking rather than just a chronological ordering.
5. Plural/singular handling. Suffix removal. Porter stemming. Specialised spelling assistance ("Where you looking for
jalousie window?"; "Where you looking for
zwitter?")
6. [Quick] Search accessible without leaving current page, possible even as a floating widget.
7. Advanced search (regular expressions) for the few diehards, though I'm aware that the actual use of such facilities where provided is usually very low, so may not justify the effort.
hth
