User talk:TVMaven

THE Search process
Having been working on creating a search engine for TV shows and online videos, my team had a number of discussions regarding the process of searching.

We have recently come to the conclusion that the nature of the search process has changed significantly since the advent of computers.

I will try to elaborate on those thoughts in this and several following articles and related blog posts.

This particular discussion will serve as a brief outline to start the process and hopefully elicit contributions by others.

What is search?

Search has been defined as a systematic process of looking for a result or a finding among a number of possible and available outcomes or alternatives.

What has been the nature of search before computers?

Search prior to computers could be simply defined as either of the following:

1. Browsing - namely the sequential review of a number of alternatives (such as searching in a library catalog file) 2. Exploration of alternatives - Random or Scientific, namely the individual review of available alternatives based on a one-by-one examination (such as searching for the source of the Nile, by exploring individual geographic areas).

There was no other possible method of searching.

The nature of search has changed significantly since computers came about, as we are now able to explore and examine a very large number of alternatives, almost instantaneously.

This process allows us to setup various automated approaches where possible alternatives are examined and the most likely (or exact) results are presented instantaneously. This process allows us to examine practically all possible alternatives in no time at all and obtain the best or final result(s) instantly.

No more browsing or time-consuming exploration is ever required if a computer can be used in the process.

The major challenge for computer based searches is the setup of the search criteria and the programming of the search process itself. Based on people's experience with computer based searches, the general assumption is that all possible results will be provided at the end of the computerized search.

The risks in this assumption are:

1. If the search setup (namely the specification of the inputs) is incorrect or ambiguous 2. If the search process has been incorrectly programmed

There may be no results, incorrect results or incomplete results (or a combination of any or all)

When a user places blind faith in the search process (like that of an Internet Search Engine) if no results appear, we automatically assume there exist no matching results to our search query.

As can be seen in many instances, that assumption is false and before search results can be accepted as correct and complete, the search process has to be fully tested and validated to yield complete and accurate results, without "false negatives", meaning that if no9 results are found, there in fact were no items matching our search criteria.