There are at least three Boolean operators: and, not, or. They’re well documented, users can easily see how to use them, and they apply to groups of search terms or individual search terms as the user wants.
Lack of a Boolean operator should be interpreted as “and”.
Case is simply not taken into account.
Extremely limited approximate string matching, that can be turned off for individual terms or for the whole. And if you turn it off, the search engine should respect it.
No semantic bullshit, stop assuming what the user “means” dammit. At most if the scope of the search is extremely limited, have a list of synonyms, but let the user turn it off.
No profiling/personalisation. At most let the user filter results by language. (inb4: don’t assume user language, ask them.)
Make it predictable. Make it procedural. Make it so users can actually find what they requested, instead of your assumptions / bullshit over what they want.
I really want a search that works like this.
and,not,or. They’re well documented, users can easily see how to use them, and they apply to groups of search terms or individual search terms as the user wants.Make it predictable. Make it procedural. Make it so users can actually find what they requested, instead of your assumptions / bullshit over what they want.