The software teams that develop search engines must be
such a puckish lot. At least the ones that build out that whole autosuggest “were
you looking for” element. You know, the part that implies that you could not possibly have been searching for what you told it you were searching for.
And it’s not just limited to Google or Bing.
I was looking through the catalogs of several library
systems here in the Valley they call Silicon, trying to find a book called The Kentucky Mint Julep. None of the systems
has it; here’s what I was given by way of hopeful suggestions:
San José Public Library suggested:
Yeah, I get that. At least we were still in the Commonwealth.
Sunnyvale Public Library went a little farther afield with:
Mmm, well, at least the right initial letters for each word.
But Mountain View Public Library just ran off the rails:
What the hell—I’ll just have a glass of Macallan.
UPDATE: Santa Clara County Library tweets that only 65 libraries in the US have this book, so I can try an inter-library loan request. Which I'll do. I also think I should find out what this Nantucket Diet is, and why it's murderous.
UPDATE: Santa Clara County Library tweets that only 65 libraries in the US have this book, so I can try an inter-library loan request. Which I'll do. I also think I should find out what this Nantucket Diet is, and why it's murderous.
1 comment:
You might be interested to know that San Jose, Sunnyvale, and Mountain View Public Libraries happen to have the same database vendor, so the search algorithm is the same. What's different is what is actually in each of our catalogs. Librarians, the original search engine, are the most helpful when it comes to finding answers. Also, we're also happy to take customer requests for purchase!
Laura Shea-Clark, Library Services Manager, Mountain View Public Library
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