On This Site

• Why Media Wiki Site Search Stinks SearchTools.com: October 2007 by Avi Rappoport
  Wikipedia, and particularly the related sites running the software released as MediaWiki, have some of the worst site search I have ever seen. The default installation's query processing is absurdly limited, the retrieval is crippled by bad settings, the relevance is unclear, and the results page is not just ugly but contradictory and confusing.
  1. Does Not Index Short Words
  2. Stopword Hell
  3. Extremely Limited Search Syntax and Functionality
  4. Misleading Results Information
  5. Markup Symbols in Search Results
  6. Misleading Highlights in Results


• Review and Analysis of Webinator SearchTools.com: April 2007 by Avi Rappoport
  Extensive review of all aspects of the Webinator search engine, including locating documents, indexing content, query processing and expansion, retrieval, relevance ranking, results page layout, search reports and administration.
• A Comparison of Free Search Engine Software, originally written in around 2004 and revised in April 2006 by Yiling Chen
  This is an extensive comparison of features of the search engines Alkaline, Fluid Dynamic, ht://Dig, Juggernautsearch, mnoGoSearch, Perlfect, SWISH-E, Webinator, and Webglimpse. All are free to users, but only some are open source software. This comparison is oriented towards technical indexing, query processing, retrieval and relevance features.
• Things you might not know about how real people search June 28, 2002, by Marc Resnick and Rebeca Lergier
  Results of studies of search user experience at the Florida International University Usability Research Lab show that search tasks can be divided into straightforward questions (how many homeruns did Barry Bonds hit last year?) and more complex research (is the economy going to improve?), and that users approach these tasks differently, and may need to customize their interfaces, or use alternative interfaces such as tables with rows for each result.
• Google Search Appliance September 30, 2002 by Avi Rappoport
  Detailed review of the features of the search engine covering robot crawling, indexing features, search features, results customizing and reports.
  
• SearchTools Review of Remote Search Services September 27, 1999 (updated October 2, 2000) by Avi Rappoport
  Thorough discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of using remote search services, how well their indexing robots handle standards and links, search and relevance ranking features, search features, results customization, maintenance and reporting.
  

SearchTools Reviews

• Search Engines: The Hunt Is On Network Computing Magazine: October 16, 2000 by Avi Rappoport
  In-depth discussion of search engines for e-commerce and other web sites covers features and future trends, software vs. services, database vs. text searching, natural-language searching, and open-source search engines covering ht://Dig and mnoGoSearch (formerly UdmSearch). The testing included indexing over 150,000 pages, and covered administration tools, customization, search features, relevance ranking and search logs. Products were Ultraseek (then Inktomi Search) (which won Editor's Choice), AltaVista Search, and Excalibur RetrievalWare, services were Atomz Enterprise Search and Searchbutton Corporate, which has since addressed some of the shortcomings reported. Also included an email poll of Network Computing readers.
• Adding Search to Your Site webmonkey, March 1, 2000 by Avi Rappoport
  Describes remote search hosting services, how they work, how to set up your site and customize the look and feel.
• Add search to your site CNET Builder.com, November 17, 1998 by Avi Rappoport
  A comprehensive set of instructions including background information, choosing the right site search engine for your site, testing and installing the software, designing the interface, and setting up a maintenance program. Includes many links to sites and products, summaries of some of the most attractive programs and an example of the installation process using the DNA Files web site.

See also:

• Search Tools Comparative Reviews Bibliography

Page Updated 2008-10-21