Thought for the Day: Improving the Coupled Search Terms  18 03 2010

Dear Maximus,
You have been working hard and there is real progress but somehow the pieces are not coming together. This is partly my fault. The coupling idea is brilliant in principle. Our real problem at the moment is that both the user and the system do not know when it is happening. So I have two concrete suggestions.

1) We need a little sign which indicates when there is coupling and when not.

They should of course be small in size. I suggest that they be positioned on the far upper right of the screen beside the empty why box.

2) I think we need more clarity re what search engines we use. So when we go to strategies  and choose Internet in basic mode we would have exactly what we see now. In Intermediate mode we would see a list that links our main languages to their corresponding search engines, namely:

1. Arabic Yamli www.yamli.com  
2. Chinese  Baidu  www.baidu.com
3. German  Acoon www.acoon.de
4. English  Google Wiki
5. French  Voila www.voila.com
6. Italian  Virgilio http://ricerca.com
7. Portuguese  Sapo www.sapo.com
8. Russian Yandex  www.yandex.ru
9. Spanish Terra www.terra.com 

I have added the websites for your convenience. The user will see only the list of course.

This leads to three use procedures:

a) If I have chosen no term and click Timelines and then click Strategies and wiki I get the list of wiki timelines which you have working at the moment.
b) When I type a word such as art under what and then click Strategies, and then Internet we get this list and if I click on Yandex it searches for art in Yandex.
c) If I have typed art and I turn on the coupling device then if I click Philosophy, Timelines or any of the words below the questions then it will have Art Philosophy, Art Timelines etc as a search term which it uses when I choose a search engine. 

In Intermediate mode if I am in Strategies and have chosen a search engine, e.g. Yandex and want to go deeper, then I click Levels and if the word is art then:

I suggest we might have a tiny +  (for information) sign in the upper right hand. Clicking on this would spell out the choices allowing me to search only for handbooks at level 3.

1.Terms, Terminology, Glossary
2. Dictionaries, Meaning, Etymology
3. Encyclopaedias, Compendia, Handbook
4.Titles
5.Table of Contents, Abstracts, Summaries, Reviews
6. Full Contents, Full Text,
7. Analysis, Criticism,
8. Comparative, Related
9. Conservation, Restoration 
10.  Reconstructions, Models, 3D, VR, AR  

If we want to be still more precise then we click on the filters under the questions, e.g. When we see.  

When
1. Anniversaries
2. Births
3. Dates
4. Deaths
5. Events
6. Festivals
7. Founded
8. Holidays
9. Inventions
10. Periods
11. Theories

If I now click art and then click festivals then the system searches for art festivals, if I click invention, the system searches for art inventions  

This mode is called Lookup mode. So it is mainly for searching for terms and titles of things.
In study and research mode the first six levels remain as before.
Once we have chosen the full contents of an internet page or a book, then internal analysis uses the same principles to search within a text.   

Thus far my thoughts. I hope you agree that this will make things a lot clearer.

1. Terms searches for art terms, art terminology, art glossary
2. Definitions  searches for art dictionaries, art meaning, art etymology
3. Explanations  searches for art encyclopedias, compendia, handbooks
4. Titles searches for art titles  
5. Partial Contents searches for art contents, table of contents, reviews, summaries, synopses, abstracts  
6. Full Contents  searches for art full contents, full text
7. Internal Analyses  searches for art analysis, criticism
8. External Analyses  searches art comparative, art related
9. Conservation  searches for art conservation, art restoration
10. Reconstructions  searches for art reconstructions, Models, 3D, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality.