A possible new feature at On a Book Bender
Have you ever noticed how Goodreads’ search capabilities are… odd? Let me demonstrate.
Days later, and I am still wondering how you get Ray Rankins from rearranging stars.
But this phenomenon is not exactly uncommon.
And in my infinite wisdom, I thought: I should totally take screen shots of all the crazy Goodreads search suggestions and post them to my blog. I’ve had more weird search suggestions than these two examples, but they were the only ones I thought to capture.
What kind of suggestions has Goodreads given you?
Blahahahah! Yes, I’ve noticed. It’s happened to me, though I’m blanking on examples but it always leaves me wondering how the heck those connections came up.
Gotta love goodreads.
Goodreads is definitely a source of entertainment.
Funny! Yes, I’ve gotten some bizarre “Did you mean” suggestions. Um, no, Goodreads. I meant what I meant!!
Haha, that’s exactly how I feel. :)
The thing that drives me nuts is that I can’t seem to search one word only. So when I don’t know the author, common titles pose a problem.
Yeah, I had that problem the other day (although I don’t remember what exactly I was searching for) and it’s super annoying. Sometimes I’ll just give up and go search for it in Amazon, then back to Goodreads.
Goodreads a source of entertainment for me on a daily basis because of their “did you mean this” search :)
As a technical person, I look at it like this—their wildcard search capabilities are not very good which is probably due to the fact that it is a full-text index and not a more in-depth search tool.
Still enjoyable sometimes when it isn’t frustrating :)
The thing that gets me most is that although they offer a weird suggestion, they ALWAYS have the book I want in the search results.
Felicia, you might enjoy/be able to provide some technical information to my post tomorrow — I’m talking spell check. :)
Sure!
In the product I support from a server side, the spell check (it is part of the office suite of products–sharepoint) is one of the most complained about features. I have done a lot of research into that area and it is interesting to say the least why spell check products don’t really work.
Awesome. I’m starting an “editing myths” feature tomorrow, and my first myth is that spell check is your friend. Ha. :) I honestly think that spell check is over-relied on.
Yes, it’s ridiculous. Not sure who created that search engine, but they gots some fixing to do!
I am guessing they use an “in-house” product that can’t leverage a search engine such as google because of restrictions to the database lines. Plus, I am guessing that they also can’t leverage “best bets” (more popular picks) or “clicked-on” topology for their search results. Which can be frustrating when searching.
Makes sense. Thanks for the tech knowledge! :)
As long as they return the book I’m looking for in the search results, I’m okay with their odd suggestions. :)
Haha, I think the techies at Goodreads must also work for my company. You type something simple into the intranet, and get every other phrase *but* the one you were looking for.
Or, hey, maybe they just typed Google into Google and broke the internet. :)
Smiles!
Lori
At least with Goodreads, they actually give you what you’re looking for. ;)
You know, I’ve had a lot of these lately, too. I’ll have to pay closer attention and share the ones I get, too! LOL
lol. Perhaps I’ll start a meme and get everyone to share their Goodreads suggestions once a month. :)
LOL!! I have had the same issues, I just chuckle and shake my head.
Yeah. I’ve kind of taken it one step further. ;) It’s fun to share, though.