OK, what do I mean?

One of the most depressing things about so many new threads on DVinfo is the phrase/ sentence contained therein that goes "I did a search and found nothing" or similar.

Hadn't given it deep thought till the other day when, after a fruitless hour of using the DVinfo search, I finally posted my own "I did a search" bit.

Only subsequently (I'm a very slow learner) did I Google exactly the same search criteria, only to get buried in the response (a good many of them pointing straight back to DVinfo!).

This morning I found myself reading a post which didn't contain the dreaded phrase, but to which I responded "Do a thorough search etc etc". The sad thing was, that in the back of my mind was the thought "And I hope you have better luck than most, Chum!".

Been pondering this ever since and concluded that this should not be the way it works. This site has such a wealth of info buried within, it's galling to have to "step outside" to get at it via Google (along with 3,862,134 other links to nothing related).

So, the motion before the committee is this:

What is to stop DVinfo linking with Google and having it's own Google search? Instead of the current one, clicking on "Search" brings up the option to "Search DVinfo and Related sites**" or "Search the Web".

My reasoning?

Using a dedicated DVinfo Google search should allow far better filtering and data matching, with the advantage that the search algorithms can be biased completely towards all things video, related audio etc etc.

OK, I'm a complete "Search Engine" dweeb so I don't have a clue what other great things it would allow, but the ability to use Googles algrithms to search every word, phrase, sentence, paragraph and page of DVinfo would be a God send, without it tearing off across the planet bringing up links to Russian cookie factories & South American Lama farms.

** "Related Sites"?

OK, well, DVinfo isn't the only site in this line of work, probably the best, but not alone. I'm sure "those in charge" know of a shed load of other sites of which it could be said "Well, why not try there then". Then, of course, there are the suppliers and manufacturers to the industry and a host of other related sites that could be piled in.


You would have, in effect, the best search engine setup in the industry, and DVinfo wouldn't just be "the people to ask", but "the place to search".


Guess there's a host of political, financial and admin reasons it may not be a goer, but I do seriously think it has some merit for discussion.


I'd certainly like to see an end to the "I did a search" posts (mine included).


What does the team think? More to the point, what do you think, CH?





CS

in google, enter your search terms followed by site:dvinfo.net and you'll get only results from here....

There you go, yet something else I learnt today! Thanks.


CS

PS. Doesn't really answer most of the points in my post, but a handy hint, should be a sticky!

(Can't resist this: "I did a search but.............").

I've deleted a couple posts here.... just a friendly reminder: political commentary - no matter how deep your personal convictions might be - will not be tolerated at DVinfo.

in google, enter your search terms followed by site:dvinfo.net and you'll get only results from here....That's what I do. It's a very effective way to search our site; much better than the forum software's own search function.

our story ends, with yet another idea performing an almost perfect (10:10:9.8) "Titanic" manouver (with Pike), and sliding silently beneath the DVinfo waves, never to be seen again.


To quote Sir Lew* Grade, executive producer of "Raise the Titanic" (the movie):

"Raise the Titanic? It would have been cheaper to lower the Atlantic"


CS

*I think it was Lew, could have been his brother.

actually google search constrained to a specific site wont' work as well as it does on the internet as a whole with respect to relevancy. the page rank algorithm really likes to have a huge graph of links pointing to each other, like it does on the internet as a whole, and like it doesn't on a site like this. you'll have to dig a little more to get what you want.

As long as you are searching a publicly available site (like this one) Google can still factor in links from other sites when ranking results for relevancy. Useful threads on dvinfo.net get linked to from all over the rest of the web and Google can use that as a means of determining which threads are most relevant for a particular search term - that's probably why it's better than the forum's own search, which can only use the content of the posts themselves to determine relevance.