Re: Documents that supersede others

10.11.2014, 15:02, "Dave Caroline" <dave.thearchivist@gmail.com>:
> I think you think the searcher want the last, 

No, that is not at all what I said. There is no "the searcher". But it is pretty common (not universal) when people are looking for certain things that they want the "latest version".

I haven't checked our index, but I would bet that people who look for product reviews want reviews of the current product more frequently than reviews of some earlier version that was different.

There are of course many exceptions - people who are looking for OS support of some software are generally interested in whether it supports "what they have" rather than "the latest version of what they have".

> libraries also by
> discarding , only provide last, this completely loses the lost chapter
> from a series like Kempe's Engineers Year Book.
>
> Please dont assume what the searcher wants, you dont always know.

I agree that we don't always know. In general, we provide multiple results.

On the other hand, search engines do quite a lot of research on what the user wants, as that is one of the primary bases for competition.

> A good example is the researcher into old practices.

Sure. Or a researcher into old specifications trying to figure out where something was changed, so they can more effectively search for the context that explains why.

I actually think we're much more closely aligned in our thinking than it might seem.

In particular, I am trying to address a situation where people *remove* older versions of things, in order to enhance the likelihood that the newer version gets found.

Which I believe we both consider a problem.

cheers

Chaals

--
Charles McCathie Nevile - web standards - CTO Office, Yandex
chaals@yandex-team.ru - - - Find more at http://yandex.com

Received on Monday, 10 November 2014 18:54:36 UTC