Totally lost... The new search results?

Ok what is up with the new search? What are they basing this on? I am seeing places that were previously almost non existent and traffic as low as 30 at the top of the list in my search field, where as I pay 26,000L a week for a classified ad, never used bots, used to sell regularly and had previous traffic of 8,000.

I just don't get it. Anyone out there have any input on this?

Read the sticky at the top of RA to understand how search works. Traffic is a minimal factor, and ads have nothing to do with results.

Search is not based on the "Relevancy" of the search term(s) you or the user inputs. It is also based on how many Active avatars have your location in their picks and traffic. So having a higher traffic will not count as much if your ad has low relevancy to the search terms used. I don't claim to know exactly how it works, but it is designed to help put what residents are REALLY looking for closer at their fingertips not just those with the highest traffic that is less relevant to what a resident is looking for.

Personally I think it's a good move, I don't want to have to wade through all the irrelivant classifieds just because they have the highest traffic to find what I am really looking for in some small shop on the 7th page. I want that shop on the first page somewhere even if its obscure and has 0 Traffic.

The criteria used for the new search must be seriously wrong or very, very well designed by Linden, i get stupid results on search, when i search for "hacienda" and i see on PAGE 1 a search result "pakhuis hangplek" ( i searched the whole group and parcel for Hacienda but couldend find nothing that even looks like it) is for me the evidence that the new search is useless or there must be some secret Linden tag you can BUY and use to put you on the first page.
I build and sell houses, but when i search for related topics it strikes me that always the same groups are on the first page, even when the used words are not in there Description and Group name.
And i checked them out but couldend find nothing that should give them the super results they always get.

It's a huge and frustrating pile of cack. Phrases don't work for a start.

I never liked the google search appliance.

Though the old search still works just fine. And the new search is good if you are not getting what you want in the old one due to people gaming the system.

Thats the only good thing, it takes power away from the parcel owner. Things like Picks and others take precidence. I want to know what people think of a place, not what the owner wants me to think.

However it doesn't. It has ruined parcel names and picks are easily manipulated.

I think it's the Lindens' way of preventing people from "gaming" the system.

By "gaming," I mean "using." So that there is really no legitimate way of using it.

That way, customers can't actually find what they are looking for, and sincere businesses providing what they actually offer can't actually be found.

This helps prevent anyone from succeeding at what they are doing.

And the whole point of Search is to prevent people from succeeding. Because if one person succeeds, that must mean that another did not, and we can't have that. No success, please. It's un-socialistic or something. Random gobbledygook prefered.

(Except of course, when the Lindens pick you. For Showcase, for blatant example. In that case, you can legitimately succeed, because they have chosen you to succeed.)

Sounds cynical, I know. But I really do think that. It's like the total opposite of the Yellow Pages, as if the Yellow pages, being capitalistic, were the worst thing ever.

I think it's supposed to be "wisdom of the crowds" or something. Heh.

I have started just not LOOKING at Search All (if I could, which I can't anyway, except for the first 9 entries, because it won't SCROLL anymore, and apparently that is just something I'm supposed to live with, as a percentage of people who can't use it is apparently perfectly acceptable). And I have stopped worrying about it entirely.

In short, I have decided Search All is irrelevant. I know that is not very good business-wise, but basically I have given up on it as a lost cause, both for worrying about my own standing in it, and for finding anything I'm looking for in it.

I would LIKE to care about it, really I would - but I can't even see the dang thing anymore. And I know that they want it to be basically random and totally inscrutable anyway. So . . . they win.

coco

One would think that the most important aspect of Search would be to help the searcher find that for which the searcher is looking.

However, Linden Lab approaches Search as if the most important aspect of Search is that no one understands how it works.

And most input on Search comes from merchants who see the most important aspect of Search is listing the particular merchant's parcel/advertisement first.

That is why Search was, is, and will continue to be useless to anyone who actually wants to find anything in a Search. The philosophical approach to developing the Search engine prioritizes everything but the ability for the searcher to make use of the Search results.

The word 'hacienda' isn't on their html page, so it definitely in one or more links that point to the page - people's Picks.

I was wondering ...

If the "Picks" section of the Profile suddenly had a great relevance to Search, wouldn't the obvious way to game it be loading up as many alts on free accounts as possible, and loading up their Picks?

I disagree.

One problem is that searchers don't know how to use all the operators to help people find precise things. e.g., a search for "low prim furniture" -sex would show all low prim furniture places that do not include the word sex in the parcel or objects. Or, a search for clubs -apartments -mall would show you clubs that don't have apartments or malls supporting them.

And again, the system expects that the descriptions of the parcel and the things on it are true. This leads to the other part of the problem, which is that people don't think conscientiously about what it is they have and what they want to be found for. You have to put yourself in the shoes of the searcher when crafting your parcel. If someone was looking for your place, what would they use to find it?

All the objects in your stores are just bits of information, and they don't necessarily come in a form that is easily searchable. If you sell vibrators, how are you supposed to be found by someone looking for sex toys unless you tell the system that it is a sex toy?

Search works very well for those who take the time to think like someone searching for something. It's keywords, and search won't produce what isn't there.

Please read the sticky about search. Not all alts show up in search all.

I've never had a problem with Google web searches, professional database searches, and library searches.

The Second Life All Search continues to baffle me.

Maybe it's just me.

Having now read the sticky post, I'm still interested to know which avatar accounts are relevent. There is the suggestion that not all avatars are counted for the "Picks" relevancy, and that a general bot wouldn't count. If there were any information on what avatars count, I would be interested to read it.

This is the problem with people being able to change the pick's title and description.

Do a search for an avatar, if they have a profile page that has a list of their picks, and a link to read their full profile, then their picks will count.

If they only have the standard profile listed, then their picks won't count.

That's a huge issue though, absolutely massive issue really. The default should be for speech marks to be used when you're searching, that way someone searching for "low prim furniture", should find "low prim furniture". Otherwise, as well as finding low prim furniture they'll also return results such as:

Low rise jeans, prim skirts, antique furniture, because low, prim and furniture all exist in that result.



It would be useful, from this angle, if we could see what search words brought someone to our parcels. If someone is coming to my parcels for items that don't exist there, it's a waste of their time.

Well, acting upon the assumption that my poor luck with using Second Life's All Search is due to my inability to input adequate search terms, I decided to look for some sort of information regarding how I could improve my skills with the Second Life All Search function.

Though I can find quite a few articles designed to tell business owners how to improve their search rankings, I find no articles instructing a searcher how to use the Search function.

Of course, it may be that I don't know how to search for help on searching.

so the pick bot farms just include copy and paste text in the profiles...

No, not at all. They have to qualify for a certain type of search result, not all avatars qualify. Search for yourself and see how many profiles you have.

There is not enough info out there to help people figure out SL's search engine, from an end user point of view. Torley has two videos about search, but they only touch briefly on the topic. for example, the operator intitle: will show you parcels with the selected words/phrases in the actual parcel title, which helps for finding parcels by name. I only knew that because I saw someone mention it in these forums. There could stand to be a comprehensive list of operators and a description as to how they apply to SL. But I think that the "search team" has dissolved by now and are on to the next ooh shiny.

Maybe we should hit up Jeremy Linden to give us a good knowledgebase page on all the applicable operators.

This is why my initial complaint about Search is that it was developed not to help Searchers, but to be secretive (to prevent gaming) and appease merchants.

Everything that Linden Lab has done to document Search has been geared toward merchants improving rankings. None of it toward helping searchers find meaningful Search results.

There is a "New Search FAQ" in the Knowledge Base. It is under the category of "Business Owners." Of course, most of the information is about how to improve search rankings. (There is brief mention that the search engine recognizes bolean operators and quotation marks.)

There is a blog post (http://blog.secondlife.com/2007/11/13/new-search-with-todays-release-candidate/#more-1376)- written when the new Search was still only in the Release Candidate- which has a section on "Using the New Search." It states:

"The new search is easy to use - simply type into the search box and click the “Search” button. The results will quickly be displayed, along with any related classified ads along the right-hand side. You are able to limit your search by category (Classifieds, Events, Groups, People, Places and Wiki) or search all of the categories at the same time."

There just was not a lot of thought put into the question of how does a searcher find what the searcher wants, it seems.

If there were tips on how the searcher could use the search, and I could find the tips and read them and have success with them, then I would change my mind and be happy with the new Search.

i'm curious..What is a standard profile that qualifies??Is it that they have a basic and premium account for it to count towards the places we choose to put in our picks??

Why come they can't mirror google's seach. Looks at what you are typing not just the first word. I personally like to narrow down my search of something so I won't be spending time going to irrelevant places trying to find one thing. I find myself using sl exchange more. And it would be nice to be able to transfer lindens from your sl account to sl exchange without being inworld. I see a product I want then I have to wait till I get home, go inworld find a sl exchange terminal to make the deposit. Then I have to sign back on sl exchange to make my purchase. Good Lord, that is alot to do.