----- Forwarded Message Follows -----

Date: Sun, 17 Jan 1999 14:56:14 -0600 (CST)
From: Richard Webb <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask] (Multiple recipients of NFBnet Blind-Talk Mailing List)
Subject: searching but not finding

Hi folks,

I penned the following article over the last few weeks and submitted
it to the editors of Fidonews.  It was published in fidonews Vol 16
no. 1, which is available at ftp.juge.com/fidonews/fnewsg01.zip  and
give explicit permission for it to be distributed anywhere it might be
deemed of interest.

SInce it has much significance to the way many of us use search
engines and similar technology I'll reproduce it below:



                    Searching but not finding

                  It's not a game to many of us


     I am writing this article in hopes it will generate some
thought and be distributed to folks who can make a difference in the future
of the net and search technologies.  If you are such a person, sit
back and relax, I'd like to converse with you about this for a few
moments in a totally nonthreatening way.  you might even be glad I
did.

     LEt's take your typical day, and mine.  WE've gotta get the
kids off to school, during our work day we've got to research for
upcoming projects and network with coworkers to do our daily tasks.
Yes, we've also got to do lots of research, whether it's on which
model of furnace to get for the house or is this a safe toy for
Junior.  The internet was gonna make this easier for us, right?

     At this point you're uttering the great words of modern search
technology, such as yahoo, excite and so on.  WEll, all that's fine
but we're missing the boat.

During one of those average days you want to order a piece of
equipment you need.  YOu want to make that call when you're not on
your boss's dime which limits your available time to do this.  So,
you're going to do some research.  Ah yes, the supplier has a web
site, and somewhere on that web site is a price list for products
they sell, and another of used merchandise they have in stock.
WEll, no big deal, right?  We're gonna go there and grab those two
lists which are common garden variety zip files, download 'em,
unzip 'em and either print 'em out or read them.

     Not so fast!  well, we get there, but we can't quite remember
under which link we found it before.  LEt's wander around for
awhile.  Hmmm, here's a neat one, a midi file downloads and plays
while a dancing bear tells you about something you really don't
want.  THe text scrolls across the screen so fast you couldn't read
it if you tried, but let's back up, our link didn't seem to be
there.  Let's try another.  Still not there.  Where's that darned
file?  A coworker reminds you that you're going to be late for your
lunch appointment with the prospective client if you don't get a
move on, so you log off and grab your coat.  AH well, maybe later
this afternoon.  Oops, can't get outside on the net now, can't
connect, whatevver.  NO luck.

     We had it but we lost it!  Remember when the internet was a
collection of machines in the halls of academia, technology
companies and the military?  My first contacts with the internet
were in the later years of this period, through something called
fidonet.  It was a gateway connection, no binary files could be
transferred, but a guy could get a lot of work done.

     Under the strategies employed in those halcyon days of the
net, I might get the price lists in the above example via ftp.
REmember Ftp?  Simple to use, allowed anonymous log-ins, didn't
care if your browser doesn't have the latest plug-ins.  IT worked
for everybody, worked well too.  I might ftp the file, or I might
use a doccument or database search tool such as wais to narrow down
my search to items I knew I wanted.  I can have a price quote of
those items via email using something akin to wais.  I send out my
email, meanwhile go have my lunch with my coworker and the
prospect, come back and get other work done.  When checking my
email later my request has  made it through the queue, I find.  The
results of my search are now sitting in my email in-box for my
perusal.  No muss, no fuss, no strain, but the gain I sought when
I was playing with my browser like I was channel surfing between
football games.  I don't  want to channel surf I want to get what
I want and leave.  If I'm in the mood for browsing, the web or my
public library both work fine, but if I really want to find it, my
public library has the edge.  It can accomodate me there too with the Dewey
Decimal system and knowledgeable librarians.


     Yes, I lament the loss of some of the old standard
     internet search tools, Archie and wais to
name but two.  Consider the FIdonet gateway I spoke of earlier.
SEarch tools such as those I mention could be used from gateway
connections to the net such as Fidonet.  Not so with the newer
breed of search engine and information retrieval which is the www.
Here's another example of the search from hell.  This one was
saved, though, by a knowledgeable librarian who figured out
four11.com just wasn't getting us where we wanted to go.  Yes, the
web has opened up the internet to the masses, and there
are many web search tools to choose from which offer the same
functionality.  Or do they?

     Sometimes using modern search strategies you just can't get
there from here.  A few months ago, I wanted to look up an alleged
bail bondsman from the Kansas City Missouri area.  He had contacted
me looking for one of my daughters as she'd helped out a boyfriend
once.  I had a phone number and wanted to cross reference it with
listed bail bonding agencies in the area, so off to my local
library I went hoping to browse their cdrom telephone directory.
AS I'm a blind person, I scheduled time with my reader to accomplish this.
Much to my surprise, the Library's telephone directories
cd  had disappeared in favor of an internet
workstation.  (Great!  another one for patrons to use.)  But now,
on with our search.

The librarian  punches up four11.com for my reader.  WE try to find a way to
just browse listings for the area, but it wants to know if we want
to buy a computer, we want to find people or whatever.  WE enter
"Bail Bond" as a string but it burps on that.  SO much for
four11.com or similar strategies.  WHat a joke!
After wasting twenty minutes we're still not finished and we have
other things to do with our afternoon.

An emailable wais server, on the other hand would have given us
just what we need.  With a hardcopy telephone directory or Boolean
logic and the old text search engines we would have been able to
retrieve our information and be on our way.  one can narrow one's
search terms and get the
information sought.  In the phone directory search example, the
librarian finally figured out we couldn't get there from here and offered us
a hardcopy Kansas City area phone directory.  Within its pages was
what we sought, and we verified the legitimacy of the individual
and moved on  It took us exactly three minutes from the
time the physical phone directory was placed at our disposal.  .


SO now I'm to the place where I'm going to ask you to do something.
If you're an average net citizen like me, demand that search
engine providers provide an offline search capability.
which usually would mean an emailable interface.  Offline
searching saves you time.  It also saves other
net citizens trouble.  Sure, your request is queued up behind those
who got there before you, but you're using less resources to
accomplish the job than you would online browsing complex web
pages.    You don't get the seeming instant gratification you get
from a web search, but how many times did you really need the
information you sought right now?  While you were clicking away to
get your search started, wouldn't you rather have sent your request
out over the net and gone to have a cup of coffee or a snack?
Maybe you would have had time to help Junior with that math
problem.

     If you're a system administrator or operator in a network such
as Fidonet, demand such services be placed at your disposal by the
companies with whom you do business as an alternative to all the glitz.
.  Your users can benefit from
them as can you yourself.  Value added is a big buzzword today, and
for the bbs operator hobbyist, it isn't gratifying without callers.
Callers will call when they feel they derive a benefit, and these
tools are definitely a benefit when they're understood.  A little
education makes them quite understandable.  Try it, your users will
like it!  Just tell 'em a little bit about how to use it.  They'll
do the rest.
I know, I was such a bbs operator for awhile.   The internet
hadn't yet come to town, and users were using the mail gateway and a few
search tools I made them aware of.
They were quite happy to find they could do this with their
older hardware and software, especially since full net access
had yet to come to my community.

If you're someone in a position to choose what software options
will be available for users of search technologies, consider these
simple options from the earlier days of the net.  They use less
resources but are just as useful.  For your
users who are intimidated, explain to them how these systems work.
YOu'll find converts aplenty when they realize how much faster it
really is for them.
Platform dependency isn't an issue with these search engine
strategies either.  The old apple II, the commodore models,
anything that can use email and a terminal program can access them
if it has a net connection somehow.  SOme still use
email services through gateways from bbs networks and the like.
FOr  those folks and the developing nations' citizens such
strategies give them full access to the resources that make the internet what it
is.


FInally, thanks for taking the time to read this.  YOu are free to
distribute it to any interested party or appropriate usenet forum
or listserv.

REgards,

Richard WEbb

P.O. Box 614

West Burlington,  ia.  52655

Internet [log in to unmask]

Messages voice phone only:  (319) 758-0427


Richard Webb

Electric Spider Productions

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End of Document


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