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Date: | Tue, 20 Jul 1999 15:06:36 -0700 |
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Hi all,
HP WORLD 99 is coming up fast ... I'd like to encourage people to
ask HP *WHEN* they'll have a decent search engine for HP ESC.
The current one sucks, even though it's slightly better than the
previous one.
This has been a topic at the HP Management Round Table for years...
and nothing has happened. We get the obligatory "we'll look into it",
and sometimes "we're working on something new" ... but we never get
a good answer, and we've never gotten the best answer.
The best answer:
All documents in HP ESC's Knowledge Data Base (KDB) should
be accessible via a publically-accessible web server, so that
external search engines could access/index them.
Against the expected claim of "we're exposing problems to our
competitors" we more than balance: (a) we're helping our
users (the HP Way, remember?), and (b) it's a competitive
*advantage* to be able to say "HP has nothing to hide" ...
indeed, it's a tool to be used to sell HP computers!
(Of course, I often forget: HP isn't really trying to sell
computers any more, are they?)
The good answer:
We'll buy/borrow a real search engine, one which lets you:
- say "this word *MUST* be in the hit". e.g.: +showme
- say "this word *MAY NOT* be in the hits" e.g.: -spooler
- specify OR/AND/NOT and parenthesis
- do simple pattern matching. e.g., : spool*
This isn't rocket science ... it's simple to do, and indeed *must*
be done.
Oh yes, where *has* Interex been these last few years? Providing a
platform where we can beg for needed features is nice ... but where's
the muscle? Where's the insistency, not just advocacy?
I'd ask my friends on the Interex board to help ... but ...
Hmmm, maybe they could appoint someone from Altavista.com to be
on the board? :)
--
Stan Sieler [log in to unmask]
http://www.allegro.com/sieler/
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