 |
Is it time to abandon Google search for docs?
Over the last year during the major rework of both the REBOL website and documentation (hundreds of pages) we selected Google as the search engine for the site. However, Google's been doing a poor job for some unknown reason. Let me give you an example: Today, while working on R3 Docs, I searched for the construct function page. Google displayed four results. None of them were the Construct Function page (which has been there for more than a year, so Google's had plenty of time to index it.) Similarly, when I search for "compose" I don't see the compose function listed. This is a problem. Many of us depend on the web site's search feature to find the pages we need. Note, I'm not trying to bad-mouth Google here, I just need it to work really well for our web pages. Those of you with admin access to the R3 Docs know that you can use a REBOL-based search function from the admin page. It uses the same basic search code as this blog, which is by no means fancy, but it tends to give good results. Searching for "construct", I get: The top result is what I was seeking. So, we've got ourselves a bit of a conundrum. To figure out what's wrong with Google (or perhaps the way we're presenting the pages to it), or drop it as the primary search engine and find an alternative (how's RIX doing these days?)... or use our own code. Suggestions? PS: Adding this blog with the above link may cause construct to become better indexed in Google, but you can still find various R3 functions that are mysteriously missing from Google search. UpdateTried a few other engines to search for construct, here's a summary of results (in alpha order):
Because this website is easy to modify, we'll test out the Bing search engine for a while. Let's see if it does better.
|
 |
Updated 12-Nov-2024 - Copyright Carl Sassenrath - WWW.REBOL.COM - Edit - Blogger Source Code |
