AKpilotEMT
10/18/05 02:49 PM
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Greetings,
I'm new and I gotta question - i just did a search typing in SAN DIEGO and it came up with 273 results... why?
Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge for a search with San Diego? (Those are both in San Francisco.)
There are also results for San Jose and The Alamo and I'll bet a few bucks that Texas State University isn't in San Diego.
Is there any way to make sure the main search box will only show what you ask for?
In my opinion, your already cool and great site would be even better with a better search function!
(And maybe can the Search Results come up 10 or 20 per page instead of all 273 on a single page? I have a feeling that for this commoner with a simple dial-up internet connection, this page of 273 might be finished loading in 15 - 20 minutes!)
Adios,
Chris
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kjfitz
10/18/05 03:30 PM
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The search function does an "OR" on the arguements of the search not an "AND". I wouldn't mind seeing it changed to an "AND" function.
The workaround is to search for the single most unique word in your search term. In your case searching for "Diego" returns 66 results of which 65 are actually in San Diego.
If you are searching for a specific city in the US you can also click "state" on the left side of the home page and then the specific state in which the city is. Atthe top of each state pag is a list of every city in that state that has at least one map.
kjfitz
Virtual Globetrotting Moderator
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AKpilotEMT
10/18/05 03:43 PM
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Here's another thingy-ma-jig that I found having to do with the Search Function:
Rutgers University is located in New Brunswick, New Jersey...
but if you do a Search using any of the following --
New Jersey
Jersey
NJ
N.J.
... Rutgers doesn't show up. To me it makes sense that it would but that's just me.
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kjfitz
10/18/05 04:08 PM
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It doesn't search the state field. Try searching for California... you'll only get results with California in the title.
Nic is aware of the shortcomings of the search functions and has that on the to-do list of things he plans to improve.
kjfitz
Virtual Globetrotting Moderator
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nic
10/18/05 04:52 PM
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So I thought I had fixed this 
I've changed it so all search queries can use boolean expressions. Read this, for example:
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/fulltext-boolean.html
Key points:
+ before a term makes it required
- means it cannot appear
So you would want to search for "+san +diego", and it properly shows the 65 entries.
Hope that helps!
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nic
10/19/05 03:27 PM
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Also, I've changed the City list so that it is in a drop-down box, not just a huge list of cities.
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AlbinoFlea
10/19/05 03:57 PM
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A few thoughts about search:
- Maybe re-name the [More] link under the search box on the index page Advanced Search or Search Tips to help lead people to that page, and add the boolean search instructions there.
- The ability to limit the search results by category, state, or country would be useful, and could also be added to this page.
- The ability to search within a description would come in handy.
And this relates to a previous post also, but perhaps adding an Alternate Spelling field would help for city names and/or map titles. This might provide a different way to deal with the issue of diacritics, and also help with some of the English spelling of Russian or Chinese city names, which can be (no pun intended) all over the map.
AlbinoFlea
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nic
10/19/05 04:14 PM
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Thanks for the input, I do have these on my to-do list and it shouldn't be to hard to implement. Depends on my free time
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nic
10/20/05 01:36 AM
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I've taken most of AlbinoFlea's suggestions: the search engine is now much more powerful. Please check it out.
I don't know about Alternate Spelling... maybe later
And let me know of any bugs!
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AlbinoFlea
10/20/05 11:22 AM
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Wow. Now that's what I call service! Not even 12 hours from suggestion to implementation.
Thanks for the big increase in functionality Nic.
AlbinoFlea
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kjfitz
10/20/05 12:54 PM
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A lot of search engines do a replace of all related special characters with their english equivalent. For example all 'e' characters with any accent marks above them become a plain 'e' and so forth. It is easier than searching for equivalents.
kjfitz
Virtual Globetrotting Moderator
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