Suggestion

[William H. Magill]

On May 28, 2013, at 8:08 PM, Ian Wadham <iandw.au at gmail.com> wrote:
> If I picked a fairly specific string, such as "quantum" or "jigsaw", I got quite good
> results, as long as I searched the Full Description as well as the Description (which
> apparently "port search" does not do by default).

Searching is highly overrated. Conceptually, it is useful, but in reality it fails miserably.

> a fairly specific string, such as "quantum" or "jigsaw",
are not  "strings" but rather tokens. (And it's hard to get more specific than that.)

Searching by strings is almost impossible. ... even when you quote them:  "quantum jigsaw"

The number of search engines which will ONLY return hits on your requested search are few and far between (if any)....
They are ALL committed to the idea that people will not use us again if we don't return thousands and thousands of "hits."

And we all know that the reason for that is 100% financial -- that's how those search engines get paid. And it gets even
more aggravating when you know that half of the "hits" on any given page are PAID to be there, they are not even the result
of the companies "search algorithm."  And they are NEVER highlighted. ... because the search algorithm's are being gamed.

However, "searching" is far better than being handed a "oh...mee-tooo"  list. Just because some piece of Malware has been
downloaded by hundreds or thousands of people does not mean that I want, or should, download it also.
"Johnny or Suzzie does it, why can't I..." that's the attitude of a 7 year old. 

But folks seem to fall for it day after day after day at sites like Amazon, Twitter, iTunes, Facebook, and the like.

There is a difference between searching and browsing.

I don't know how many Mac Ports users remember visiting a major Library full of books.... not looking for a specific title, 
but looking for serendipity.  Granted it was just a different generation's version of "attention grabbers" -- a particular title, 
or a specific jacket illustration. You picked a "room" -- a category -- and started wandering the shelves. Maybe you looked
at the display the Librarian put together but usually you just wandered through the stacks. (I know I'm REALLY dating myself
now.) 

Personally, I find a search engine which does not tokenize every bloody word in the search string just so that it can return me
"something" really annoying.--- Returning nothing is JUST AS VALID, it has just as much,  and maybe more, meaning than a bunch of random "hits."

Just my 2bits.


T.T.F.N.
William H. Magill
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