From owner-freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.ORG Thu May 10 20:22:15 2007 Return-Path: X-Original-To: doc@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.ORG Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [69.147.83.52]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id EC7DF16A400 for ; Thu, 10 May 2007 20:22:15 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from bahamasfranks@gmail.com) Received: from ug-out-1314.google.com (ug-out-1314.google.com [66.249.92.168]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7C2BD13C457 for ; Thu, 10 May 2007 20:22:15 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from bahamasfranks@gmail.com) Received: by ug-out-1314.google.com with SMTP id 71so541358ugh for ; Thu, 10 May 2007 13:22:15 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=beta; h=domainkey-signature:received:received:message-id:date:from:sender:to:subject:cc:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition:references:x-google-sender-auth; b=e5N9FP/87pybBxWi0T3w7ZyLqBHWnpi1u/urwpxzi4C7pDcgonvfDCpw3SPTHwuqxM89iYWAz9T8Elky54zgukuz/IDqACmr9yfHWnkal8+ZS3GZicxNp17INflLX5TqlX1bHizNKzoZEv43+pnWsSkb6qSeKTFwwXidWxCFZDU= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=beta; h=received:message-id:date:from:sender:to:subject:cc:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition:references:x-google-sender-auth; b=LaF8TVLuYc/37secFUjUBR4DfKrHAk7Wv0WyCNmA6shebA8VNBS85VyS6CtcE7bIxWzfiXdWGLOjeepgyJs0AoHlcg7PAhRtTLdo7vn+PEpkgLRibtE6d2Dr7Zyp0F9DTn5nL+tQyHvniepiYgNXKaQHjELJaVJEc0D9BnxZdB4= Received: by 10.67.40.12 with SMTP id s12mr2070907ugj.1178827026738; Thu, 10 May 2007 12:57:06 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.66.219.10 with HTTP; Thu, 10 May 2007 12:57:06 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: <539c60b90705101257p35faaa9fm1d5f1db8561c92da@mail.gmail.com> Date: Thu, 10 May 2007 12:57:06 -0700 From: "Steve Franks" Sender: bahamasfranks@gmail.com To: "John Baldwin" In-Reply-To: <200705101421.16420.jhb@freebsd.org> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline References: <200705101146.56279.jhb@freebsd.org> <20070510170755.GB1835@zaphod.nitro.dk> <200705101421.16420.jhb@freebsd.org> X-Google-Sender-Auth: 3fc5829035a33540 Cc: doc@freebsd.org, "Simon L. Nielsen" Subject: Re: The search box on www.freebsd.org.. X-BeenThere: freebsd-doc@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Documentation project List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 10 May 2007 20:22:16 -0000 On 5/10/07, John Baldwin wrote: > On Thursday 10 May 2007 01:07:57 pm Simon L. Nielsen wrote: > > On 2007.05.10 11:46:56 -0400, John Baldwin wrote: > > > SUCKS/BLOWS CHUNKS/etc. > > > > > > Really, it's bad. I just typed in 'logo' to find the page about logo > usage, > > > and it returned 0 results, not even http://www.freebsd.org/logo.html. > That's > > > exceedingly lame. Its worse than having no search box at all because > people > > > will try to _use_ it and then get frustrated. It should either be killed, > or > > > it should be replaced with something that actually _works_ (probably it > > > should make use of Y!, Google, or Rambler.ru something to do the search). > > > > I think most people agree with that, the problem is that it takes some > > time to get right and there currently aren't that many active doc > > committers since they over time seem to gravitate towards src... > > > > doc are unfortunatly not as good as src, and even more ports, at > > getting new people. > > Then perhaps we should at least turn it off for now until we can fix it? > > -- > John Baldwin > _______________________________________________ > freebsd-doc@freebsd.org mailing list > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-doc > To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-doc-unsubscribe@freebsd.org" > Just my unneeded opinion of assent - as a newbie, I frequently get my questions answered on freebsd-questions, and the answer is often "read this handbook page", which, of course, never came up in the search I just did for topic X. Unfortunately, takes a very smart human to make a computer as smart at guessing what another human is asking as another human. I've yet to try an "advanced" google search, and confine it to the freebsd handbook pages, but I suspect that might be a good option. Another bias I have found personally to work in my advantage at most times is to always prefer a "browse" option to a "search" option. Probably I should try that with the handbook also, although I have to rely on my understanding of the topic of each chapter... Google being the rather open company they are, I'm sure we could add a link to the (top, in my opinion) of the search results page, titled, "not finding what you are looking for? try: ", with several of these ideas, namely, "http://www.google.com/search?as_q=&hl=en&num=10&btnG=Google+Search&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=&lr=&as_ft=i&as_filetype=&as_qdr=all&as_nlo=&as_nhi=&as_occt=any&as_dt=i&as_sitesearch=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.freebsd.org%2Fdoc%2Fen_US.ISO8859-1%2Fbooks%2Fhandbook%2F&as_rights=&safe=images" One could be added for the manpages online as well - amazing how many newbies have crying babies, etc. in the background and never even bother to click the "documentation" link if the search fails ;) Steve