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Conference gyro::internet_toolss

Title:	Internet Tools
Notice:	Report ALL NETSCAPE Problems directly to kdlucas@netscape.com.rnet? Read note 448.L for beginner information.
Moderator:	teco.mro.dec.com::tecotoo.mro.dec.com::mayer

Created:	Fri Jun 25 1993
Last Modified:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Last Successful Update:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:	4714
Total number of notes:	40609

4605.0. "Problems with digital site search ?" by CHEFS::SHADBOLT_S (Guilty Bystander) Fri Apr 11 1997 12:08

    My apologies if this topic has already been discussed here, but a few
    quick searches did not find it.
    
    If I go to the Digital external home page and select "search" I end up
    at the URL http://www.digital.com/forms/search.html
    
    If I enter a search string "vaxlibr" the I get the response :
    
    	Ignored: vaxlibr:0
    	Documents 1-10 of about 20000 matching the query, best matches first
    
    and then hot-links to seemingly irrelevent sites. Changing the search
    string to "vaxlib" (i.e. just knocking off the 'r', the response is
    different :
    
    	Word count: vaxlib: 38
    	No documents match the query
    
    I do not belive this is correct, so, on Monday (when I first noticed
    this), I hit the feedback button on the homepage. The problem is still
    there and I have received nothing from my feedback.
    
    Questions :
    
    1) Why does the search string "vaxlibr" get ignored ?
    
    2) Why, on the second search when there are 38 hits, am I not given
       links to any of them ?
    
    3) Did my feedback get through to anybody ?
    
    4) If so, why haven't I had a response ?
    
    I have performed these searches both from netscape 2 on a Windows 3.11
    platform, and from IE 2.0 for NT. The behaviour is the same. All other
    search options were left at their default values. I did not include the
    douple quotes in the search text.
    
    Any help/feedback is welcome.
    
    Thanks,
    
    Steve Shadbolt 830-3215 (Reading, UK)

T.R	Title	User	Personal Name	Date	Lines
4605.1	Search results explained	CHEFS::avc01.ebo.dec.com::WorkBenchUser		`Fri Apr 11 1997 12:27`	27
	Hi The answer is very simple. Make the query "vaxlibr" and the look at the query line on the results page: vaxlibr host:.digital. -host:.digital.net -host:.digital-cafe.com -host:.us-digital.com -host:.digital-emerald.com The "clever"!!?? person who wrote the search form points the query at the main index at Palo Alto . http://altavista.digital.com, specifying all external digital servers (host:.digital.com) and then excluding certain servers (-host:.digital.net). Your query actually failed (Word count:0) but you've picked up every other page on the allowable external sites. If you're searching for DEC Info you are probably far better off searching the DEC Intranet engine at http://altavista.pa.dec.com where your query will match a mighty total of 1 (one) documents. Yours Andrew Pywell NSIS, Bern
4605.2	Search results explained	CHEFS::avc01.ebo.dec.com::WorkBenchUser		`Fri Apr 11 1997 12:33`	16
	Sorry I didn't answer all of you points! With regard to: and then hot-links to seemingly irrelevent sites. Changing the search string to "vaxlib" (i.e. just knocking off the 'r', the response is different : Word count: vaxlib: 38 No documents match the query The word count of 38 is for the whole index at Palo Alto but because the "hit(s)" must be from a digital site there were no results returned. Andrew Pywell
4605.3	Pointer to VAXLIBR Information...	xdelta.zko.dec.com::HOFFMAN	Steve, OpenVMS Engineering	`Mon Apr 14 1997 14:11`	7
	: If I enter a search string "vaxlibr" the I get the response : See VAXAXP::VMSNOTES 238.* for more than you ever wanted to know about VAXLIBR. As for your AltaVista question(s)...
4605.4	But who can fix it ?	CHEFS::SHADBOLT_S	Guilty Bystander	`Tue Apr 15 1997 08:41`	9
	I think previous replies have missed the point. Interesting though it is to understand the observed behaviour, I actually want to know who can fix this high profile customer facing facility that obviously doesn't work. I also want to know why the feedback channels appear to be deaf. Can anybody give me a contact name to whom I could escalate this ? Steve.
4605.5		QUARK::LIONEL	Free advice is worth every cent	`Tue Apr 15 1997 11:22`	3
	Mick (SALES::) Schonhut manages www.digital.com. Steve
4605.6		CHEFS::SHADBOLT_S	Guilty Bystander	`Thu Apr 17 1997 07:22`	1
	Thanks, I will take this offline.