Sort Order for Searches
The following applies to both the Deals and AtW sides.
When you search, the order in which the results are sorted is quite mysterious. I've spent about the last 5-10 minutes looking at some sample searches and it seems clear that Popular threads come first and RIPd deals* come last with everything else in the middle. But how each section is sorted can't easily be discerned. It isn't chronological (by either post or made-popular date), it isn't by votes & it isn't by comments.
I'll include a sample in the next post.
* this obviously doesn't apply to the AtW side
by
anotherhiggins
asked a year ago
Let's look at an example:
If I go to the Deals section and search for, oh, I don't know, BACON, Here's a summary of all 20 results (there are only 20 results?!?) in the format Votes - Comments - Time Frame:
42 - 13 - made popular 18 days ago
18 - 04 - made popular 20 hours ago
20 - 08 - made popular a day ago
28 - 15 - made popular 8 days ago
17 - 06 - made popular 11 days ago
24 - 08 - made popular 11 days ago
19 - 18 - made popular 4 days ago
13 - 02 - made popular 20 hours ago
01 - 02 - added 2 days ago
07 - 00 - added 3 days ago
05 - 00 - added 13 days ago
07 - 01 - added 18 days ago
08 - 01 - added a day ago
03 - 03 - added a day ago
02 - 00 - added 2 hours ago
04 - 01 - added 23 hours ago
05 - 01 - added 4 days ago
06 - 03 - added 18 days ago
03 - 00 - added 21 days ago
06 - 00 - added 15 days ago
I understand that some hits are better matches than others. But where the search word has an EXACT match in either the title or tags, I think a straight recent-to-oldest sort would be best and most meaningful.
You know you can hit Recent to get the most recent stuff right, although I wish that was just the default.
@hobbit: Yes, I know.
But my thinking is that the current default sort order is meaningless.
Let's consider the ideal, diligent little newbie who wants to post a deal. S/he would do a search first. It is a perfectly reasonable expectation that if there isn't a match near the top of the results, then it's OK to go ahead and post it.
The way things work now, an identical deal might have been posted 20 minutes ago yet not even make the first few pages of search results.
That's just poor design.
(No offense to the woot-gods)
@anotherhiggins: Oh I totally concur. Default should be newest. Just as similar deals and de ja vu should be most recent too.
@hobbit: Agreed.
I guess I should have put the suggestion in the OP instead of the second reply. I'm in a hurry - lots of work to squeeze into the next 20 minutes.
A hidden feature that might help you advanced users out is the ability to add +fresh to the search query. This will filter out the popular deals.
[Edit] Don't be surprised if this changes in the future [/Edit]
@josefresno: Good to know. Thanks for the tip. (+1)
But that doesn't help our poor, defenseless little n00b.
@josefresno: shouldn't it be a less hidden feature? I mean for us users that is great but for the new users they need more help than us. Especially to help decrease the possibility of duplicate postings
@hobbit: There are some things in the works that will make this less hidden.
@josefresno: Thank goodness.
@josefresno: Thanks! (please don't vote this up y'all)
I'm hoping that one of the answers is that the search (and sorting) functions will be more google-esque, and less a simple pattern match on words in the title, or various tags (such as #bacon or #sponsored).
I also get curious when I do a search on a tag, and it sorts as "best match" which I always need to resort to "most recent." Just how does it decide which of one and a half zillion #sponsored deals is the best match for #sponsored anyway? Most recent is better, I'd think, for tagged searches.
@shrdlu: To use the vernacular: word, yo.
What do you mean that was the vernacular 10 years ago? Are you saying I'm not "hip"?
Wow - I think it's time for bed.
@anotherhiggins: Good Morning!
@shrdlu: Searching for something by #tag will sort by most relevant, then last indexed on as default... so you can think of that as most recent activity.
I agree that the logic kinda falls apart for #sponsored, but that is why we made the link on the top of the page to sort by most recent when you click it.
@josefresno: I am just saying that what the search suggests as the most relevant is almost never correct. I'd rather have it default to most recent, on almost anything. I used #sponsored as the most egregious example, but I don't think I've agreed with it on even the obvious stuff, like #bacon. Seriously, how is one moronic deal for bacon any more relevant than another?
http://deals.woot.com/deals/tagged/bacon
Funny. I voted for about 20% of those (yes, everyone can now blame me for all the bacon deals that make it to Popular).
I'd also like to do this:
http://deals.woot.com/deals/tagged/netbook+lenovo
As we know, that will just get me a 404 right now, but it would be really COOL if I could combine tags. Am I just doing it wrong?
@shrdlu: Since you are a math fan:
http://jayant7k.blogspot.com/2006/07/document-scoringcalculating-relevance_08.html
on the tags, you can add a "/" between terms to do multiples
@josefresno: Whoa. Thanks, interesting read. I need to go read it a few times more. Hopefully the other crazy math geeks here on Deals will see this too.
Thank you for the link, and especially for the information on how to combine tags. I've been wanting that one for weeks, and I'm glad I finally thought to ask.
@shrdlu: also fyi... you can use "-" in the querystring
http://deals.woot.com/deals/tagged/netbook/-lenova/
Will show all netbooks that are not tagged with lenova
@josefresno: That makes sense. Let me see if this is right: "+" means that the tag is there and "-" means that it does not have the tag specified?
@sgoman5674: if you are using the query string, + is implied by default and does not need to be specified.
Also, the combinations are limitless:
for example: http://deals.woot.com/deals/tagged/apple/ipod/-nano/3gs
@josefresno: ok I am lost already. I know next to nothing about programming and I don't have the time to learn.
As @shrdlu says, my eyes have glazed over and my head has hit my desk.
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- a year ago
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