Test Out New Search, Delivering More Relevant, Faster Results

[Medhue Simoni]

Hey!!!!! I'm in the results!!! No Effing Way!!!!

Ok, I hope LL is still tweaking the results, cause I can't say that I think they are great, but 1000 times better than what we just had for over a year. I'm just happy that i now show in the category of the stuff that I sell, after being completely out of that keyword for almost a full year.

Overall, I gotta say that I like it.

1 thing tho, Font sizes! The names or titles of the results need to be a different size font, or something. I kinda feel like I can't focus on anything because nothing in the results area sticks out. Yes it is a different color but it just looks like a pattern. Same goes for the classifieds on the side. Maybe I'm just getting old, lol.

Oh, another thing that I noticed, was that if you set the category to shopping, you have to reselect shopping again when you do another search. Seems to me that if you are a shopper and searching, the last thing you want to do is be annoyed by having to choose the category over and over again.

[Pussycat Catnap]

 

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LoveAngeL Lyre wrote:

Hello. I downloaded and installed the Seach Project Viewer. I try it now and i have 2 questions:

1) Why we haven't any mention about the traffic when we search for places? Is it possible to be added this option? I believe that is very useful maybe more than the size of a region or club for example (sq m2).

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Traffic has not been used by the V2 community for over a year. It only impacts V1 search, which soon won't exist.

 

[Pussycat Catnap]

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Ann Otoole wrote:

Relevance looks great. Some people will need to adjust their "SEO Strategies" though. The best strategy is to not try to cheat/game the system IMHO.

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Yep, at least hopefully. If you want to be the top shoe store in SL now, start making and selling actual shoes.

(replace shoe with whatever is fitting to a given place).

 

[Pussycat Catnap]

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Insky Jedburgh wrote:

Thank you Cerise. I suspected I was simply missing something since I don't use V2. Now just imagine new users trying to figure that out.

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New users haven't been trained to think of it any other way. They see a hyperlink and click it - and don't know to look for a button.

Its only old users that have all of the retraining issues.

 

[Darrius Gothly]

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Dilbert Dilweg wrote:

This Video comes to mind when I use new Search

http://front.moveon.org/eli-pariser-filter-bubble-ted-talk/



 

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A "Must Watch" .. and very much right on the mark. Thank you for sharing that Dilbert.

[Pussycat Catnap]

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Yuriko Nishi wrote:

 

the new search gives you 1976 results (182 in the old search) that mostly have nothing to do with fitness. like furniture, hair, breedable pets etc.

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If it uses a relevancy algorythm at all like google or yahoos, then it will take time to 'learn' what is relevant by analyzing what people respond positively to after entering a query.

 

[Darrius Gothly]

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Pussycat Catnap wrote:

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Ann Otoole wrote:

Relevance looks great. Some people will need to adjust their "SEO Strategies" though. The best strategy is to not try to cheat/game the system IMHO.

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Yep, at least hopefully. If you want to be the top shoe store in SL now, start making and selling actual shoes.

(replace shoe with whatever is fitting to a given place).

 

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This is a sentiment I hear all the time .. and yet has all the proof of Santa Claus. Here's the v1.x search for "shoe"

http://search.secondlife.com/client_search.php?q=shoe&mat=3&m=y&start=0

What are the top results?

Stilletos at Shoe Fly Shoes

MARTINO Women Shoes & Men Footwear,Shoes.Stilettos .

! YOSHIMO~SHOES MAINSTORE BIKER BOOTS SHOES ...

iNEDIT - Boots, Shoes & Clothes for Men & Women. Fashion ...

Do I need to go on? They are all shoe stores or stores that sell enough shoes to include the word in the name of their store. It's this "conventional wisdom" (a euphemism for oft-repeated BS) that has caused people to turn away from what is actually a useful tool, to treat it as a useless tool, and to spit vitriol at it over and over again .. without actual proof.

If your store isn't in Search, find a way to get it there. If it is in Search, then keep doing what you've been doing. But claiming that the people that show up in Search for the word "shoe" are not shoe stores is just flat out wrong.

[Aquarius Paravane]

• You can now search for mainland rentals
• The functionality to find the cheapest mainland for sale per square meter that was available in V1 land search in 2009 now present for the first time in V2. 
• Endless scrolling

[Aquarius Paravane]

Modal

The search functionality has two modes

• Mode 1 with the events / destinations / classifieds
• Mode 2 with the column on the left.

The only way from Mode 1 to Mode 2 is to actually execute a search. To get from Mode 2 to Mode 1 click "Everything" at the top of the column on the left, and sometimes click Places, and sometimes neither works until you relog.

Best practice in usability is to Avoid Modes. If Modes are necessary (which they are not in this case) then it should be possible to get from one to the other. For example, make the hide / show for the left navigation bar always available. 

Partial name search

Typing in a partial name (e.g. Aq Para instead of my full name) fails in people search. V 1.23.5 search could do partial name search.

Closing on teleport / 15 minute timeout

Let the user decide when to close or minimize windows instead of using a timeout or guessing when the user wants to close a window. 

• A timeout will time out when the user does not want it to. 
• If you try to guess what the user wants to do you will guess wrong.

Land Search

People who are looking for "real estate " do so based on price, prims and square meters. The name of the parcel is not required and not useful. It must be possible to initiate a land search without a search string. The behavior of the left hand search fields and top bar for land search is strange - inputs in one have unexpected consequences in the other. I don't have time to work through this in detail. If I try to delete the search string and search without it, it just comes back again. The sale and rent radio buttons change settings without being clicked. The right answer is probably to have one set of controls and input fields rather than two. Like the V 1 search user interface.

Terminology

This is not "Real Estate", it's virtual estate. Just call it land.

People who are looking for a 512sqm on mainland to rent or buy are going to be confused by the choice between Mainland - Full Region and Mainland - Auction. Mainland - Full Region sounds like you want to buy or rent a whole 256mx256m region.

[Pamela Galli]

Glad some see improvements in relevancy.

Here is what I see:

***************

For DINING:

* first is a 480 parcel with some food for sale but no dining sets, traffic is 11.

* Second is  Leatherback Turtle Nesting Site, Surf & Dining in Costa Rica. Nice but no dining sets for sale, just a dining place with 4 tables.  A lot of big turtles tho.

 

* Third is a 512 parcel with another tiny store owned by the same person as #1.

Question:  I can't find my store with 50 dining sets listed. Why am I paying for a 60,000 sq m dining set parcel???

 

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for PREFAB

 

* 1st is a place that sells 13 skyboxes on a homestead. (Search says full sim but it is a homestead.) traffic 333

 

* 2nd sells 13 houses on a 2832 sq m parcel and has traffic of 44.

 

Question: I am ranked FAR below these. Why am I paying for two full regions (128,000 sq m)  for my 30+  prefabs? 

 

If this is more relevant then I need to rethink paying tier on four sims of prefabs and furnishings.

 

[Ardin Darkfold]

I am really beyond caring at this point. I loyally gritted my teeth and stuck with viewer 2 for over a year enduring endless bugs, lag, crashes, indefensible design choices, and yes, a search function so poorly implemented that I quit using it for anything. Since switching to Phoenix, which I had to do because the latest version of viewer 2 would not even run on my computer, I am so much happier. If I ran the zoo, I would just adopt one of the third party viewers as the official viewer and kill viewer 2 altogether.

[Aprille Shepherd]

This Video comes to mind when I use new Search

 http://front.moveon.org/eli-pariser-filter-bubble-ted-talk/

 

Excellent Video Dilbert... We just did a few tests here with alts and different computers in search and I don't think this has been implemented in SL Search on their GSA ...yet.

[Paladin Pinion]

I just tried 3 names that would not show up in the old search, and they all showed up in this one. Based on this extensive scientific sampling, I'd say the new search is a vast improvement. Until the new search is integrated, I will be using the web test interface instead of the existing function in the current viewer. It's very nice to actually find what you're looking for.

The layout is much, much better too.

[JubJub Forder]

Crashed on second search tring being entered.

FAILS to find relevant classifieds even with direct matching search strings.

Try a search for Garden World and my classified at 2k a week doesn't even show. Nor do several other searches for some of my other classifieds.

0/10

FAIL and someone needs their ass kicked over classifieds atm. They don't show in our profiles either

[Aprille Shepherd]

 

"All of our development efforts are focused on making SL Viewer with Basic and Advanced modes exceptional for all Residents--new and seasoned."

 

Blondin, does this mean the Basic viewer will have search?  15,000 ish registrations each day...and they can't use search! They can't see anything but the "Destinations Guide".  http://community.secondlife.com/t5/Featured-News/Q1-2011-Linden-Dollar-Economy-Metrics-Up-Users-and-Usage/ba-p/856693

 

 

[Aprille Shepherd]

Our Search results - as they apply to Adult Organic and Classified have been decimated. 

Example 1: Organic with all 3 boxes ticked - The word "Doll".  In viewer 2, we are # 1 - in this new system we are about # 40. 

Example 2 : Organic Long Tail - the word "Capture Collar" we were # 1 now we are #158 (of 161 results).

 

Example 3: Adult Classified - word "Sex" dropped from # 6 to # 11

 

In this new system, there is no way to only select "Adult" as it picks up on your viewer settings.

 

[Iva Rhapsody]

I certainly hope the 3rd party viewers adopt it, provided the bugs get worked out, as like most "seasoned users" i'm no fan of the sl viewer.

[Insky Jedburgh]

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Pussycat Catnap wrote:

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Insky Jedburgh wrote:

Thank you Cerise. I suspected I was simply missing something since I don't use V2. Now just imagine new users trying to figure that out.

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New users haven't been trained to think of it any other way. They see a hyperlink and click it - and don't know to look for a button.

Its only old users that have all of the retraining issues.

 

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But that's the interesting thing.   In the search window, the parcel of interest is highlighted in LL teal (or whatever). Click on it and the side menu pops out giving you less than a paragraph of info on the parcel, no part of which is a clickable hyperlink to just guide me to what I need to know.

Now after Cerise has given me the clue I needed, I look down to the bottom of that pop out menu, past all the empty space, to find an innocuous button that says "teleport".  So you are right new users will not know to look for a button, but if they want to teleport to see that parcel they had better learn, just like I had to.

So if you are used to hyperlinks instead of the old school buttons Pussycat, you may be the one having retraining issues.

[Cerise Sorbet]

LL did not say that any of the following would work, so don't depend on them to keep working. It can be fun to experiment anyway.

• Skip this one if editing the viewer's default setting files is outside your comfort zone.  At least for the moment, any 2.x viewer can use the new search. The SearchURL debug setting is too long to change from inside the viewer, but it works (for now) to change search.secondlife.com to search-beta.secondlife.com in app_settings/settings.xml, leaving all the following parameters intact.
• Double quotes on search will not give you an exact phrase match, but they do enable an interesting wildcard feature. If you pick People from the drop down menu and then search for phi* lin* without the quotes, niothing is found. If you add quotes and search for "phi* lin*" with the quotes, you will see LL's founder and some other near matches right at the top. In this mode, approximate matches will be used to fil out the results but the good stuff shows up top. Again, double quotes do not give a phrase search, but they do enable the wildcards -- for example, "lin* phi*" gives the same results. I don't know if this is a hidden feature because it's hard to explain, or a bug, but it is nice to have!
• If your avatar profile is missing from search but should be there, open Preferences, go to the privacy tab, turn "Show me in search results" off, and press the OK button. Then, open preferences, turn "Show me in search results" back on, and press OK again. Next, wait several minutes, maybe make some tea to help the time pass. Some profiles were apparently missed on the early search population passes, and this little dance appears to be enough to get its attention.

[Luc Starsider]

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Cerise Sorbet wrote:

LL did not say that any of the following would work, so don't depend on them to keep working. It can be fun to experiment anyway.

• Skip this one if editing the viewer's default setting files is outside your comfort zone.
   At least for the moment, any 2.x viewer can use the new search. The SearchURL debug setting is too long to change from inside the viewer, but it works (for now) to change search.secondlife.com to search-beta.secondlife.com in app_settings.settings,xml, leaving all the following parameters intact.

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You can use the search URL in an external browser, too. Not sure how well it works, but a quick search to test it seems to work fine.

[EDIT] Some links on the search page and in results that are in the form of secondlife:///path/to/result. These will not work in an external browser.

[EDIT2] Under Events in the filter menu in an external browser (don't know if it is the same in the viewer) there is one check box for 'Happening now' and one for 'Ongoing'. Perhaps only one of these are needed?

- Luc -

[Actingill Igaly]

Crashes on startup.  Seeing Torleys video, I'm a little concerned about the lack of space 'classifieds' occupies.  This is the one area of search that cannot be gamed.  If your products are good, you sell more, and you can afford more classified fees.  The amount of real estate the new search gives to classifieds is simply not worth the money - where (for example) is the description and picture for the classifieds?

Please add a classifieds tab to the SIDE of the search with the other tabs, then people can decide whether they want to use that tab (as the most reliable indicator of quality) to search for products.

[Darren Oates]

If this lends itself to the Long awaited plan (blogged 2-3 years ago.about bots) working on search with a result to excluded Landbots from Swooping in on users mistakes in transfering land from groups for 1LS and hammering search by the millisecond then you have the thumbs up to tear down the 1.23 search land function if a software program cannot be modded to use the search code and be programed to BUY land at a set price.  I know people use bots to list their Land and cut but its the BUY Lanbot that needs to be rendered obsolite.

If this is the case them maybe humans will once again make SL the great place it is instead of using the platform for a software money grabbing exercise. 

[Ciaran Laval]

 

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Pamela Galli wrote:

Glad some see improvements in relevancy.

Here is what I see:

***************

For DINING:

* first is a 480 parcel with some food for sale but no dining sets, traffic is 11.

* Second is  Leatherback Turtle Nesting Site, Surf & Dining in Costa Rica. Nice but no dining sets for sale, just a dining place with 4 tables.  A lot of big turtles tho.

 

* Third is a 512 parcel with another tiny store owned by the same person as #1.

Question:  I can't find my store with 50 dining sets listed. Why am I paying for a 60,000 sq m dining set parcel???

 

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I see you around seventh for dining, for dining tables second, for dining chairs third.for dining sets first.

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Pamela Galli wrote:

for PREFAB

 

* 1st is a place that sells 13 skyboxes on a homestead. (Search says full sim but it is a homestead.) traffic 333

 

* 2nd sells 13 houses on a 2832 sq m parcel and has traffic of 44.

 

Question: I am ranked FAR below these. Why am I paying for two full regions (128,000 sq m)  for my 30+  prefabs? 

 

If this is more relevant then I need to rethink paying tier on four sims of prefabs and furnishings.

 

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Well at least the places above you sell prefabs! I have no idea how this or the old relevancy system works, but the results are for prefabs and you're still in the top twenty so not doing that badly.

[Vincent Nacon]

Much better.

Thanks to Google for setting a search layout and function standards these days.

[Phoebe Avro]

I hope LL will not be rolling this out just before Halloween or Christmas, Last year LL changed the search aprox 2 weeks before Christmas and my very busy full region Christmas decoration shop vanished from the search

If i had not paid all the rent until January up front I would have closed it and saved myself over 40,000L$

BTW LL can send me a refund if they like^^

 

Phoebe Avro