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Subject:RE: Designing a Very Specific Web Interface From:jgarison -at- ide -dot- com To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Wed, 6 Dec 2000 17:04:15 -0500
Arlen writes, in part:
<<... though I'm dying to understand why a good boolean full-text
relevance-ranked search is worse than a keyword search >>
The best example I can think of has to do with people who use different
terms for the same thing. Several years back I had to document a product
that would allow people to use email, and we had a quandary as to how to
index the "write email" topic. If people came from a CompuServe background,
they would look for the CompuServe term "Compose". Other people might use
write, edit, type, create, draft ... We were able to include all these
synonyms in the index. That way, people could use the terminology that was
familiar to them to find the topic, and then learn our terminology.
My guess is, though, that you can use meta tags or something similar to
direct a search to a topic, but it will still require some sort of
keywording.
My 2¢,
John
John Garison
Documentation Manager
IDe
150 Baker Avenue Extension
Concord, MA 01742
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