On 12/09/05, Dan Grey dangrey@gmail.com wrote:
I just tried this as an experiment: completely at random, I decided to search for "sheep shearing", and was redirected (I pressed "Go" not "Search") to [[Sheep shearer]].
Now, this is where it gets interesting: a large part of that article describes something called "Blade shears". But if you put "Blade shears" into the search box and click Go, you're taken to a search page which doesn't list [[Sheep shearer]] anywhere on the first page. The top two results - [[Shearing]] and [[Shears]] - both lead to a disambiguation page that doesn't mention blade shears at all, either.
On 12/09/05, MacGyverMagic/Mgm macgyvermagic@gmail.com wrote:
I've seen lots of people unfamiliar with Wikipedia complain because the search engine doesn't list any close matches and the go button confuses them too.
Regardless of whether mergism is good or not, I think the search engine could use some upgrading.
Indeed. Personally, I only use Google site search on Wikipedia (which, incidently, had [[Sheep shearer]] as the first result for "Blade shears").
I've noticed that Wikicities has a google search box below the built-in search. I wonder if we could have the same?
Dan