On Tue, 22 May 2001 17:12:26 -0400 Bernie Corrigan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:
> Mike -
> Most search engines are so anemic that they are laughable. They
> can't even look for a phrase. The user either finds nothing or is
> overwhelmed by vast quantities of information. As for searching for
> information one html page at a time, you can't be serious. Computerized
> indexes that are just as good as book indexes do exist. Also a good index
> gives one the ability to browse organized subject headings within a topic
> QUICKLY and THOROUGHLY. I have yet to see the search engine that will do
> that one. Such indexes are usually built by people who know the subject
> matter and who sometimes put in extra stuff to take care of changed
> terminology or in the case of software, changed usage and the readers will
> often be led to things they didn't know about but want to know about. Fat
> chance of that happening with the average search engine.
i remember working with text retrieval software that had
a thesaurus option. some of the things it could do included
narrower terms
broader terms
related terms
historical terms
there were several others.
this meant that retrieval was very good, and highly relevant.
took more time at the data entry phase though. the thesaurus was
made by a subject specialist.
i look forward to this being done on the web. so much stuff
is a waste of time.
>
> BTW, I have lots of time to go out and locate NoteTab, whatever that
> is, learn how to load it with the RBase documentation, load it with the
> RBase documentation, then learn how to find things in it. Oh yes, and each
> time the RBase documentation changes I suppose that the information in
> NoteTab must be deleted and reloaded, or something like that, to get the
> updates in. I already know how to use an index.
>
> With tongue firmly in cheek,
> Bernie
>
> P.S. Books are not gone.
> =======================================
> At 10:34 AM 5/22/2001 -0700, you wrote:
> >Hi Paul,
> >
> >True, books are nice but they are gone. You can use powerful search tools to
> >find instances of a word or phrase. You can search in a HTML document
> >with almost anything. If you want a real comprehensive search then load all
> >the HTML documents in a program such as NoteTab Pro and do a search on
> >all documents.
>
> [snip]
>
--
Ian
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