[Sigia-l] Search is broken (was: Outside In)

[Skot Nelson]

On Oct-18-2005, at 10:13 PM, Austin Govella wrote:

> Advanced search is the biggest piece of crap created, ever. Ever. It's
> 100% implementation model, as far from human as anything can be.

That last sentence doesn't really make much sense, but I'd certainly  
argue that the AMC Gremlin has it beat.

But perhaps you could explain what that last sentence is supposed to  
men? Humans certainly use different contextual search methods, often  
even in the same location.

I hate shopping for DVDs because DVD stores always separate movies by  
Genre. Inevitably, I enter the store and search on title. Sometimes,  
I even find what I'm looking for.

Next..ooh...wait...that didn't work...oh wait...now I have to figure  
out the Genre....try drama...no..wait...Iron Giant is a Kids movie...

Sigh.

But last time I checked, I was still human (although there are some  
who might disagree.)

> Search is an application like any other, and the existence of
> separate, unequal "simple" and "advanced" interfaces shows just how
> skewed, and isolated, search development has been. For 10 years.

So we should stop trying?

> Narrowing and filtering tools -- those typically imprisoned with
> advanced search -- should be ever present, easy to use, and *inviting*
> on the search page and again on the results page.
>
> We shouldn't have simple and advanced search pages.

I don't inherently disagree. I've a fondness for showing all options  
with well selected/intelligent defaults. On the other hand, having a  
single omnipresent search box in a header/footer/nav bar is useful  
for many applications, and I certainly wouldn't want to have a 10  
different item Advanced search present on every footer.

So I think there's an argument to be made for having multiple search  
forms.

I also think there's an argument to be made for continuing to evolve  
search.