

Ask HN: review my app: Search engine: ruby/rails, javascript, CSS, browsers - gtani
http://h4dev.com/entries?search=erlang+java
This is a database I've compiled over the past couple years to help me with grammar, tool and implementation issues with Rails, mySql and the Ferret, solr and sphinx fulltext engines.  I think for certain areas like these 3 index/query engines, and CSS/JS issues with firefox and IE, it provides pretty good results.  Obviously, there's going to be a lot of holes, and the interface needs work, but any feedback appreciated.
======
andrewljohnson
Here's some feedback. Keep on truckin':

* You should add a title, logo, and a tag line that summarizes what the site is for, because people who aren't coming from HN won't know. I like your link that says what you index, but how about summarizing that with one word, one image, and five more words for a tagline.

* Of all the titles for your search results sections, I only know what Sphinx is. I've never heard of Ferret, SOLR, or Xapian, and so these words just confuse me. I mean, I can make an educated guess, but why should I? These words don't convey information and should be removed. How about interpolating your search results?

* I feel like your search results are intended for consumption by a machine. Can't you pull snippets that humans can understand from the stuff you index? Numbers and slashes make me dizzy.

* How about a nice autocomplete? That's sort of standard for search engines these days, and would be particularly appropriate in this domain. YUI provides an easy to use package for this.

* There's no reason to use red for your links. Use blue, and underline them, because otherwise some people won't figure it out.

* Finally, I think you know that your colors and UI need work. Maybe you have designer friend who can give you some pointers. I could also recommend a great one that works for fairly cheap and does my projects.

~~~
gtani
Thanks for looking. Some points: There's a lot of software snippets stored in
the database. Most of the URLs in the databases are mixtures of English text
(and other langugaes) and source code in multiple languages. I can't think of
a natural way to present it.

Searching for software information is difficult because of this mix of natural
language and code. What i've tried to do is to assemble documents that cover
the issues with expanding acronyms, inject synonyms, common typos ("referer"),
compound words (Active Record / ActiveRecord) and all the things that make it
tricky.

And yeah, i'll work on the stylesheet, pretty gnarly.

------
gtani
This is a database I've compiled over the past couple years to help me with
grammar, tool and implementation issues with Rails, activeRecord, mySql, and
the Ferret, solr and sphinx fulltext engines. I think for certain areas like
these 3 index/query engines, ruby syntax, and CSS/JS issues with firefox and
IE, it provides pretty good results. Obviously, there's going to be a lot of
holes, and the interface needs work, but any feedback appreciated.

~~~
arockwell
I'm not sure what this tool does. Can you give a clearer explanation of what
this tool is for, or maybe an example of how it would be useful?

Also, the front page of the site needs to make this goal explicitly clear.
Instead, the front page gives almost no indication of what this is for, and
shows a lot of weird sounding empty result sets.

~~~
gtani
OK, i'll try: (This is obviously a big topic) This database is a topic map for
for several software domains: Ruby, javascript, erlang, .. There are 4 levels
to the topic map hierarchy, so you'll see 4 headings on the left, separated by
"_,_".

I've run this database through several fulltext search engines. The only one
active and returning hits at present is Sphinx, since this is running on a
pretty low-memory VPS. Ignore the other sections.

Essentially the difference between this search and, say, google, is that all
of the words entered in the query must match a database record for that record
to be returned as a hit. This is different from Google, which will return
documents matching only some query terms. I think this returns quick feedback
to the user that either they need to change query terms, or that topic is
simply not covered in the database.

~~~
arockwell
The __.__ as a seperator is way too visually distracting. Why not just a '|'?
Also, 4 levels might be too much information.

The result links are hard to read as well. I have no idea what the numbers
mean... perhaps it should just say result? Whitespace between each line would
help readability as well. The whole result page is wall of text.

