[ic] swish search - quotes

[Dan Bergan]

Quoting Kevin Walsh <kevin at cursor.biz>:

> Dan Bergan <dan at berganconsulting.com> wrote:
>> I don't think that's the case with a "phrase search".  I can search
>> with swish-e from the command line:
>> swish-e -w word1 word2 -f /path/to/index
>>
>> It will do as you say above - (I do use stemming) - if "word1" and
>> "word2" appear anywhere in the file, that page will show up in the
>> search results.  (And, by the same token, if the page contained
>> "word1ing" or "word2s" it will still show up.
>>
>> However, if the command is:
>> swish-e -w \"word1 word2\" -f /path/to/index
>>
>> Then, the only pages that will show up in the results, have the exact
>> phrase "word1 word2".  A page that contains "word1 word3 word2" will
>> NOT appear in the results.  (I have not yet tested how stemming
>> affects this case).
>>
>> So, if phrase searching was working correctly, the only page that
>> should appear in the results for the search above ("area tag
>> produces") is the Area tag page.
>>
> My setup is tuned specific to my needs, of course.  For instance,
> the following searches:
>
>     area and href
>
> or:
>
>     area href
>
> will return results that are different from:
>
>     area or href
>
> "and" is the default in my searches, and the [area] tag comes out on
> top in both cases.
>
> I didn't really consider "phrase searching" to be all that useful on
> the RTFM website, as I find that most searches are looking for keywords
> anyway.  I might change that in RTFMv2 (project starting soon), or I
> might not. :-)
>
> I find that, as long as sufficient keywords are provided, the search
> results are ordered and highlighted such that the desired page is clearly
> visible at the top of, or close to the top of, the resultset.
>

I tend to agree with you about phrase searching... I use it often on  
Google, but at my sites the number of pages is small enough that the  
regular searching gets the job done.  However, when a client put  
quotes around a phrase and didn't get the results he expected at his  
web site, it became a high-priority project!  :-)

Thanks again,
Dan