Consultation on the future of quick sesrch

[Einar Saukas]

Are you sure Einar? I just did a quick search for Cobra and it returned 8 pages of stuff, about 90% of which is completely unrelated to that

Now try doing a quick search from the alternate site. For instance open this page and type "cobra" inside "Quick Search" at the top. You will only get 1 result page.

[Alessandro]

Thanks Einar. That's how I would expect quick search to behave in fact

[PeterJ]

It produces many more results on the main site because titles were released by the publisher Cobra.

We added this text to try and explain how it works:



What you are seeing there, in the page by Einar, [mention]Alessandro[/mention] is a search by title only. You will get similar results as Einar has provided by typing Cobra into to title in advanced search.

This is why Quicksearch needs a title, publisher, author, all drop-down by it

[Alessandro]

I also use quick search to find all of the titles related to an author/publisher etc.

However if you take a look at the individual entries you will find that the vast majority of them do not contain the word "Cobra" in any part.

Honestly I find this puzzling to say the least This didn't happen before, if my memory serves me correctly.

[PeterJ]

Hi [mention]Alessandro[/mention],

As mentioned above, it's because most were released by the company Cobra.

It's back to how it was earlier in the week. Promise!

There are some odd ones there though I agree.

Where there is a company and Software title of the same name please use advanced search.

[Alessandro]

I understand Peter, but the confusion arises from the fact that clicking on "Z Cobra" in the first page of the results yields the notorious 8 pages of results. However in none of those entries there seem to appear the "Z Cobra" caption in the Releases section. There is definitely something strange going on

Edit: I see that Z Cobra it is a label of the Spanish company Zafiro. Wouldn't it be better to file them directly under the label name then?

[PeterJ]

I will drop you an email later [mention]Alessandro[/mention], as I'm not seeing that.

[PeterJ]

Ohh, I see now [mention]Alessandro[/mention]. You are talking about the label links at the bottom of the results.

That's a ZXDB thing that I'm sure [mention]Einar Saukas[/mention] can comment on.

Also seen your edit. Thanks.

[Einar Saukas]

I understand Peter, but the confusion arises from the fact that clicking on "Z Cobra" in the first page of the results yields the notorious 8 pages of results.

You are referring to this:

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/list?label_id=15600

You can see the explanation at the top of page. According to the database, "Zafiro Software" became "Z Cobra". Therefore the list of "Z Cobra" titles also includes all "Zafiro Software" titles.

[PeterJ]

Thanks [mention]Einar Saukas[/mention]. I knew you would know!

[Alessandro]

According to the database, "Zafiro Software" became "Z Cobra". Therefore the list of "Z Cobra" titles also includes all "Zafiro Software" titles.

I have some doubts about this.

The database says: "Z Cobra - From: Zafiro Software Division" so it looks like it was the other way round. That "Z Cobra" was a label of Zafiro Software Division can be inferred also by those inlays where its logo appears, for instance:









As you can see, the parent company is still mentioned. This leads to the conclusion that Z Cobra was a label of Zafiro Software Division (just like Kixx was of US Gold and The Hit Squad of Ocean).

In this case, I suggest to create a separate "Released by Z Cobra" entry, only for those titles which were released under this label, and therefore not for those titles which do not bear the Z Cobra logo on their inlays.

[PeterJ]

I will split this topic later.

[AndyC]

My 2p worth:

Weight exact matches over partial matches, this should mean that "obvious" results like Jetpac get floated to the top of results.
Weight game titles over author, then author over publisher. I suspect this is the most probable desired sort order all else being equal.
Sort by Release Date, then alphabetically. I suspect this will help with the myriad of hacks that show up with searches for titles like Jet Set Willy, since it will tend to push the originals nearer the top of the list.

All that should be within the bounds of feasible to do with a well constructed SQL ORDER BY clause.

I think it covers most of the awkward cases - a search for Elite should list the game before the publisher, a search for Ocean should still find the company over the game Ocean Conqueror, classic games should mostly be surfaced before modern hacks and remakes.

[PeterJ]

Thanks [mention]AndyC[/mention],

If we go down the road of quicksearch, and a drop-down for Title, publisher and Author then we will do something similar to what you suggest. Exact matches first, starts with second, then contains.

Just remember that quick search currently searches everything so you may want Elite the game at the top, but another user may want games by Elite at the top. What you are suggesting will only work if we have the drop-down as mentioned above.

[Einar Saukas]

As you can see, the parent company is still mentioned. This leads to the conclusion that Z Cobra was a label of Zafiro Software Division (just like Kixx was of US Gold and The Hit Squad of Ocean).

In this case, I suggest to create a separate "Released by Z Cobra" entry, only for those titles which were released under this label, and therefore not for those titles which do not bear the Z Cobra logo on their inlays.

So it's an error in the database, not in quick search. I'm fixing it now, please try quick search again after the next update.

[druellan]

Another thing that might be improved on the publisher entries list are the "inspirations". Right now if you list all games by Hudson Soft, for example, you get a lot of extra titles from other publishers mixed in the list. I think those must be on separate list clearly labeled to avoid confusion.

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/list?label_id=5976

[PeterJ]

What happens [mention]druellan[/mention] if you put Hudson Soft into the publisher field on advanced search and choose strict search?

[druellan]

What happens @druellan if you put Hudson Soft into the publisher field on advanced search and choose strict search?

In that case I get ONLY Hudson Soft titles, but if I click on "Hudson Soft" on any of the titles, I get the extended list above.

[PeterJ]

Thanks [mention]druellan[/mention],

That's the expected behaviour for search. Whole Database search is the wildest possible search. For more detailed searches there are now messages directing users to advanced search.

We will review in due course. Plans are afoot, but won't be rushed into.