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worldofrugs View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote worldofrugs Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Product search on keywords
    Posted: 24-July-2008 at 2:01pm
When searching for a product, it PC searches in the name, long and short description.
Is there a way to have it also search on the keywords?
Reason:
As we all know, there's people who mis-spell (or simply do not know how to spell) a specific word.
Now, nothing will show up in the search results if they mis-spell that word.
Example:
I have a product that is called "Modern Chaise"
I have noticed a lot of people mis-spell this and type "chase".
Knowing what they might type, it would be so much handier if PC also searches in the keywords, as there you'll have it implemented for the search engines.
Is it a setting I'm missing? Is it possible? OR... Is it a feature idea for a next version?



Edited by worldofrugs - 25-July-2008 at 11:00am
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Lomito View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Lomito Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27-September-2008 at 3:07pm
That kind of intelligent search will become the norm sooner or later. For now I'm going to use the products from either searchspring.net or nextopia.com to do the trick... still abusively expensive for many small shops, though.

I would love to pay for a PC add-on with a minimum of intelligent search features to start with.
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Hamish View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Hamish Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27-September-2008 at 4:13pm
Hi,   The V3.5 version of PC - out soon - will have a much improved search feature.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Lomito Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27-September-2008 at 4:27pm
I just want to re-assert that the proper handling of misspellings, customization of misspellings, plural/singular matching and synonyms is a must for good search usability and is more important than search results navigation -- which is less meaningful or meaningless unless there is a relatively or absolutely accurate search/result match.

We cannot un-Google the world now :-)

I'm looking forward to seeing the new features. Do you know if any of the above is addressed?


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Hamish View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Hamish Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27-September-2008 at 9:37pm
Do you mean having these features automated - or a facility to provide them as alternative words to use in matching searches?  I'm certain there's no plan for any kind of auto calculation of mis-spellings etc in the wings. That's pretty complex stuff (which is why they charge so much for it I guess) and not built-in to any cart that I'm aware of.      
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Matt View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Matt Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27-September-2008 at 9:52pm
Lomito, do you put your misspellings in the meta keyword field?  If so you could customize  "showsearchresults.asp" to search the field "pcProd_MetaKeywords".  That should accomplish your goal.


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Lomito Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27-September-2008 at 10:38pm
I guess I that would accomplish part of what I'm trying to address. Good workaround suggestion. Thanks, Matt.

But what I'm really getting at is both more powerful and more complex and automated (therefore expensive for the time being. I know one hosted cart solution in the market that offers it.)

Exact match search engines will be replaced with intelligent matching search engines. Google is a good EXAMPEL. (Did I mean: "EXAMPLE") The two in-site options I mentioned above are not as intelligent as Google but are far more intelligent than the exact matches found in all licensed carts I have reviewed and used.

I'm developing a site where many of the 20,000 products contain proper names and most of the customers are English speaking. Exact search search matches is a recipe for lost revenue because English language speakers are widely known for variations in spelling because we write as we speak (or sound). All the bells and whistles of drilling down and filtering serve a purpose ONLY if there is a meaningful search match FIRST.

Many developers and designers do not address this issue because it is a usability issue and not a programming issue or a design issue per se. Usability comes first in priority and coding and design are there to serve usability which, in turn, is there to serve the client's bottom line. Those who are responsible for delivering web sites to their clients can only go so far with exact match searches. This must/will change.

I could go on... But the fact is that there is a need and a hole in the market for intelligent IN-SITE searching. Who will step in and fill it?

If any of you know other options besides the ones I'm considering I'd love to hear.

Thanks for your comments and suggestions.

L

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Hamish Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28-September-2008 at 3:22am
Hi Google also offer a solution. It's a paid feature www.google.com/sitesearch/  ,supports synonyms etc and looks cheaper than the other two. There's also a free version, which shows ads - which means it's possible it would take visitors to another site.

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Lomito Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28-September-2008 at 2:28pm
Thank you for the suggestion, Hamish.

I had thought that Google's site search would search only static pages. But no, it displays results from all my dynamic pages and database product pages. However, it seems to search its own index rather than my database in real time. I just need to investigate further what the implications to that are. For example, it will probably not return results for products added or modified between Google's site crawlings.

I'll post any findings here.

L
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worldofrugs View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote worldofrugs Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02-October-2008 at 12:53pm
Matt,
Is this simple to do for a not-asp-guru? Do you (or someone else) have perhaps a sample code for this, as this is exactly what I'm looking for! Clap


Originally posted by Matt Matt wrote:

Lomito, do you put your misspellings in the meta keyword field?  If so you could customize  "showsearchresults.asp" to search the field "pcProd_MetaKeywords".  That should accomplish your goal.




Edited by worldofrugs - 02-October-2008 at 12:54pm
For those interested to see our shop:
http://www.worldofrugs.com/shop/pc/home.asp
(work in progress!!)
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