Search feature at help.ubuntu.com

[Doug Smythies]

-----Original Message-----
From: Peter Matulis [mailto:peter.matulis at canonical.com] 
Sent: December 5, 2014 9:37 AM
To: Doug Smythies; ubuntu-doc at lists.ubuntu.com
Subject: Re: Search feature at help.ubuntu.com

On 2014.12.05 08:37 Peter wrote:
> On 12/05/2014 12:10 PM, Doug Smythies wrote: 
>> On 2014.11.04 Gunnar wrote:
>>> 
>>> Doug and I have been tweaking some details behind the scenes with
>>> respect to how the search engines index the official docs at
>>> <https://help.ubuntu.com>. Also, the search feature has been modified a
>>> bit together with Dustin Kirkland, who implemented the feature a few
>>> years ago.
>> 
>>> When you use the search feature at help.ubuntu.com, you currently get
>>> results from Google's indexing of these sites:
>> 
>>> - help.ubuntu.com/lts (server guide)
>>> - help.ubuntu.com/stable (desktop guide)
><> - help.ubuntu.com/community
><> - askubuntu.com
><> - manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/trusty
>>> - wiki.ubuntu.com
>> 
>>> wiki.ubuntu.com was added to the list in response to
>>> https://launchpad.net/bugs/1310309
>> 
>>> Since wiki.ubuntu.com mostly contains other things but user
>>> documentation, there is a risk that this change will lead to additional
>>> irrelevant items in the search results. Therefore we intend to
>>> re-evaluate the inclusion of wiki.ubuntu.com in a few weeks.
>> 
>>> It would be great if you could try a few searches, and let us know about
>>> such irrelevant wiki.ubuntu.com pages in the search results. We are of
>>> course also interested in knowing about any other oddities you may find
>>> when using the search feature.
>> 
>> I would like the ability to narrow the search to include just results from
>> the serverguide. I.E. I would like to be able to use the search tool to
>> help me find my way around the serverguide.
>> 
>> Similarly for when I am using the desktop help pages.
>> 
>> It is my understanding that currently I can only narrow the search to include
>> "official", which includes at least desktop help and serverguide results.
>> 
>> Currently I use the PDF version of the serverguide and do my "searching" there.
>> 
>> ... Doug
>> 
>> 
>> 
>
> As I mentioned in bug 1044259 [1] I have acknowledged the problem and I
> am looking for help in improving this (from Canonical).

Yes, I saw your note on the bug report, which is why I did this e-mail.
I think the issue is trivial to fix via the custom search engine (CSE),
If we agree to do it, or at least try it, that way. 

Myself, I would like to be able to narrow the included search terms further.
Gunnar had some opposing arguments on his reply.