Search Issues

[Catriona Dagger]

Is anyone else finding that Search these days in-world is worthless?

It seems like it's too broad to really find anything useful.  And people are using keywords that don't even really pertain to what is on their land, just to game the results.

For instance, if I type in a word....lets use "jobs" for an example.....I get all sorts of weird results, none of which has anything to do with hiring or jobs available. 

It's maddening and totally frustrating when trying to find something to do!

[Pamela Galli]

I have not used it for anything in years, except if I want to find a specific location by name. 

[Perrie Juran]

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Catriona Dagger wrote:

Is anyone else finding that Search these days in-world is worthless?

It seems like it's too broad to really find anything useful.  And people are using keywords that don't even really pertain to what is on their land, just to game the results.

For instance, if I type in a word....lets use "jobs" for an example.....I get all sorts of weird results, none of which has anything to do with hiring or jobs available. 

It's maddening and totally frustrating when trying to find something to do!

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I totally dislike how it is set up.  If you are looking for something specific it does provide filters to narrow your search.

But id I want to do a general look through of what is going on I'll take the old Legacy search any day over this poor excuse they call search now.

[Pussycat Catnap]

Its not so good for shopping, but I find it handy enough for finding places to visit / play around in.

That said... if they list something like "furry neko dance gor naked 7seas AO racing sailing houses"

...

Then I just might consider showing up as a purple fox furry with neko ears and tail, running a dance HUD, wearing gorean fashions but mostly nude, with a fishing rod in hand, a house on my head, and riding a sailing boat that has a motorcycle attached.

- and if they ask WTF... I can claim I'm in theme.

Then again its a decent tell when a place just lists a series of keywords and no context or description - that the place will likely be junk...

 

Keep in mind that its a relevancy based search engine - and relevancy based search engines are only as smart as their users because they improve as a result of how they are used.

You can get better results with more savvy searches and filtering - but it takes lots of people in that same interest set using it well for it to begin adapting.

 

 

 

[Catriona Dagger]

Yeah its just really bad.  I can't find anything anymore.  Ahhh, the good old days.  I miss them!  LOL

[Catriona Dagger]

LOL Pamela.  Good thinking!

[Amethyst Jetaime]

I stopped using the web based search when Firestorm brought back legacy search, other than when I am not in world.  It drives me crazy.

[Catriona Dagger]

How do you change to Legacy search?

[Aislin Ceawlin]

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Pussycat Catnap wrote:

Its not so good for shopping, but I find it handy enough for finding places to visit / play around in.

That said... if they list something like "furry neko dance gor naked 7seas AO racing sailing houses"

...

Then I just might consider showing up as a purple fox furry with neko ears and tail, running a dance HUD, wearing gorean fashions but mostly nude, with a fishing rod in hand, a house on my head, and riding a sailing boat that has a motorcycle attached.

- and if they ask WTF... I can claim I'm in theme.

Then again its a decent tell when a place just lists a series of keywords and no context or description - that the place will likely be junk...

 

Keep in mind that its a relevancy based search engine - and relevancy based search engines are only as smart as their users because they improve as a result of how they are used.

You can get better results with more savvy searches and filtering - but it takes lots of people in that same interest set using it well for it to begin adapting.

 

 

 

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(My bolding) LMFAOOOOOOOOO!

[Phil Deakins]

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Catriona Dagger wrote:

Yeah its just really bad.  I can't find anything anymore. 

Ahhh, the good old days.  I miss them!

  LOL

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There have been 2 periods that you might be referring to as "the good old days". The first period based the search results solely on traffic and nobody could seriously think of that period as "the goold old days". The second was when LL was using the Google Search Appliance (GSA) for the search engine but the problem was that Google doesn't sell them. They only lease them and leasing them is very expensive. Not only that but they had at least 3 of them. Very costly indeed. I haven't looked at the current search in any detail so I've no idea what it's like and maybe the period of the GSA could be described as "the good old days" when compared to now.

Now they are using a free open-source engine and they are undoubtedly messing about with its programming. They have to do that for it to be suitable for SL. That was a problem with the GSA - they couldn't get near its programming so they couldn't tailor it very well to suit a system like SL.

[BluedSteel]

I wont be selling my products there. Search is worthless. I type in mens white jeans and get everything but. worthless

[Canoro Philipp]

maybe Linden Lab could use a tag system that people can provide and delete as they please, just like the tag system that we use in the forums. it will be abused by some people, but there will always be people that would correct a certain tag.

lets say for example that a place have a surfing area, people could tag the place as "surf", and depending of the amount of people that tag that place, the place will rank in first if the word "surf" is searched.

if a user dont find anything about surf in that place, it could give the tag a minus rating. lowering the possibility to appear first.

well, thats an idea, maybe it can be implemented partially or in another form. or not be implemented at all because Linden Lab have a better idea.