[WikiEN-l] full-text searching since the Vector switch in en.wikipedia

[Amir E. Aharoni]

On Wed, May 19, 2010 at 17:40, Steve Summit <scs at eskimo.com> wrote:
>
> Carcharoth wrote:
> > I suppose the idea is that most people using that search box want
> > "go" functionality,
>
> Many tech-savvy editors, perhaps, but certainly not most readers.
>
> > not "search" functionality, but seeing as Google's default is
> > "search" not "go", I suspect more people are used to getting a list
> > of search results and clicking the top one than might be realised.
>
> Indeed.  If there's to be one box, clearly it should be "Search",
> not "Go".  (And the search results page already has a "Wikipedia has
> an article on %s" link right at the top, if there's an exact match.
> So, retconned, "Go" is/was kinda like the Google "I'm feeling lucky"
> button.)

... Yes, it makes a lot of sense that there would be such a button in
Wikipedia, because quite a lot of the people who type "obama" probably
just want the article about the president (but someone should research
how many exactly). Forcing them to see a list of results and have them
click on the first one wastes some time.

But it also makes sense to be able to run a full-text search as easily
as possible.

--
אָמִיר אֱלִישָׁע אַהֲרוֹנִי
Amir Elisha Aharoni

http://aharoni.wordpress.com

"We're living in pieces,
I want to live in peace." - T. Moore