Beef up that search engine!

[Larry Serflaten]

Hey Guys

I know I've said this before, but you gotta do something with
that Devx search engine, it is nearly useless (it seems).

I log all the message I send, so I know I have several messages
on your servers. But when I wanted to supply a link to one of
my earlier messages, I could not get to it.

If you log your messages, try this experiment a few times,

Pick a message from a while back, that you know you posted to
one of these 'editor' groups. Select a few (4-5) specific words from that
message to narrow your search, and then try to find it using your
devx search engine.

Not only did I not find what I was looking for, but when I used less
words to widen the search, I got about 40-50 responses, that took
several pages of calling back to the server for more results. No clue
as to how large the list was....

This is the second time I have tried to use that search page in about
as many months, and both times I have been dissapointed. If I remember
correctly, the reason I don't use it more often is because of the bad
experience I have had with it, over the past few years....

Maybe you get better results, so I am going to give you the specifics
of what I did, and perhaps you can tell me what I am doing wrong, if
anything...

I was looking for my message posted to talk.editors.vbpj, posted on
4/20/2001 - Subject: Has the May issue been published.

I went to http://www.devx.com/free/search/search.asp and typed in
"may issue published" I got 37 results, none of them the one I wanted.
(Also I have no idea how many are returned until I view the entire list!
How about adding that figure to the the first page so I can tell if I need to
refine my search or not?)

So then I thought I would try a few words from the body of the message,
I have the message in front of me, so I know exactly which words to use.
I tried "mailbox AND wondering AND missed AND issue" all subject
and libraries boxes are checked. 2 results showed up both from the same
group that I wanted (editors.vbpj, so it is archived), neither of them what I
wanted. I tried other combinations, some with my own last name, and was
not able to locate the message I wanted.

I know it was posted, there were even replies to it, as I recall, but it was nowhere
to be found from your search engine. I really think you should have the number
of results returned available, so that I know if the search was too broad where
I might have 100+ messages to look through @ 10 per page (no thanks!).

What do you think caused me to miss finding a message I know was posted?

LFS

[Phil Weber]

> I know I've said this before, but you gotta do something
> with that DevX search engine, it is nearly useless (it seems).

Larry: It's my fault. I developed the search engine while I worked for DevX,
but when I left the company at the end of April, I neglected to leave
instructions for how to maintain the search indexes, so they haven't been
updated since then. I'll write up the instructions and send them this
evening; you should see an improvement in search results within the next few
days. I apologize for the inconvenience!
---
Phil Weber

[Larry Serflaten]

"Phil Weber" <pweber@devx.com> wrote

> Larry: It's my fault. I developed the search engine while I worked for DevX,
> but when I left the company at the end of April, I neglected to leave
> instructions for how to maintain the search indexes, so they haven't been
> updated since then.

Thanks for replying Phil, but it is already the middle of July. You'd think if they
were interested in keeping up the maintenance and needed assistance, they
would have contacted you by now....

he he he

LFS

[Phil Weber]

> You'd think if they were interested in keeping up the
> maintenance and needed assistance, they would have
> contacted you by now...

Larry: They have contacted me, repeatedly. But I've been busy at my new job,
and haven't gotten around to sending them the docs. As I said, it's entirely
my fault.
---
Phil Weber