Re: [Usability] Usability Digest, Vol 27, Issue 2

["Michael Gilbert" <michael s gilbert gmail com>]

> > On 6/9/06, Matthew Paul Thomas wrote:
> > > Hardly surprising: a file search definitely isn't a "place". It's not
> > > an application either, but at least "Applications" looks vaguely like a
> > > Start menu.
> >
> > the best solution is probably an item called something like "File
> > Finder" placed in either "Applications" or "Applications -> System
> > Tools."  my gut tells me system tools is better, but that menu is
> > already quite cluttered.
> >
> > > The default should be to  search everything you can access, just like in
> > > Web search engines,
> >
> > agreed.
>
> I would agree too but the problem with that is how horribly slow a full
> search would be on most systems.  The tool was designed with the intention
> of search for user files (documents) which the developers would have
> expected to find in the users home folder, if perhaps the search checked
> $HOME first and then the rest of the system it might provide be a good
> balance.

i agree, home should definately be searched first.  really, root files
should be darn quick if one should use locate.  and perhaps follow-up
with a "find /" to be complete.  the user can hit stop at any point
once they're satisfied with the results.

> If I understand the original message correctly the underlying task you
> want to achieve is "searching for available programs" and specifically to
> do that using the existing find tool so that even programs which have not
> been correctly listed in the menus could also be discovered.  So perhaps
> the tool could be modified to better allow it to search for programs, to
> offer options for that specific task.  In that case too searching the
> whole system would not be as efficient as searching in a few specific
> places first could improve the search.

i'm saying that a search engine should search everything.  google
doesn't just search a user's home web (a noosphere concept that i am
inventing right now that encompasses only the user's writable portion
of the web), it searches the entire web.  it just makes logical sense
to search everything.

have a nice evening,
mike