Search Fail: wherein I vent Bile I did not know I had

I fear I unloaded on a fellow member of ISC over something that he has no control over. It was inappropriate of me.

However, it changes nothing about my opinion.


In the last week, I have had no less than five (well, six now) conversations regarding Second Life's search function. In each case, the other person reads it as being a "Viewer 1x vs Viewer 2x" or "Primary Viewer vs Third Party Viewer" debate.

No.
No. No. No.

This is a debate over usability.

Fifteen years ago
In 1994
Anno Domine One Thousand Ninehundred and Ninety-Four,
I could visit Webcrawler or AltaVista and do a websearch, using quotation marks for an exact match, or logical operands such as + and - or AND and NOT to limit or broaden my search.

Fifteen Years have passed.

I can use Google to find a specific Chris Johnson in the city of Chicago using quotation marks for an exact match, or logical operands such as + and - or AND and NOT to limit or broaden my search.


Even in the nascent days of the web, search engines and webcrawlers included this functionality. SL search, in the years I have been here does not.

Please: This is not about one viewer being better than another.  This is about search being deployed in such a way that it fails to incorporate the most basic boolean functionality. Anyone who Evangelizes that search works just fine for them is just begging to play out the Dead Parrot Sketch and I am not John Cleese.

I am sick of this bloody discussion.

Search.  Does.  Not.  Work.
Don't try to tell me it does but that I am using it wrong- there is only one way to use it.
Don't tell me it is because of my viewer. I can log into the SL website and get the same results and I can try under numerous different viewers and reach the same end.


When search query is for a place, dumping to full list of every possible refence to that place, plus spellings close to the term, but not the actual place, is not a meaningful result.
When it is for a person, especially one with a somewhat common name, dumping 50 results full of references and variants on the name, rather than the exact match you could have shown me,  is not a meaningful result.


Now, I do not believe i pointing out a problem with out suggesting a solution, so here is my suggestion:

Linden Lab, please offer an advanced search option.

Include using quotation marks for an exact match, or logical operands such as + and - or AND and NOT to limit or broaden search results.
For Bonus points: Weight results to Name field first, then Descriptions (objects or places) and Screen Names (avatars).



And to the Evangelists: Don't tell people they are doing it wrong without listening to what the actual complaint is. It makes you look moronic and does nothing to win anyone over. There is no "winning" or scoring points on someone when your argument consists solely of  knee-jerk gainsaying.

There is the reason Open Source left a bad taste in the mouths of so many prior to Ubuntu:  you.

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I swear, I am surrounded by zealots and sycophants.