Search feature at help.ubuntu.com

[Peter Matulis]

On 12/05/2014 12:10 PM, Doug Smythies wrote:
> 
> On 2014.11.04 Gunnar wrote:
> 
>> Doug and I have been tweaking some details behind the scenes with
>> respect to how the search engines index the official docs at
>> <https://help.ubuntu.com>. Also, the search feature has been modified a
>> bit together with Dustin Kirkland, who implemented the feature a few
>> years ago.
> 
>> When you use the search feature at help.ubuntu.com, you currently get
>> results from Google's indexing of these sites:
> 
>> - help.ubuntu.com/lts (server guide)
>> - help.ubuntu.com/stable (desktop guide)
>> - help.ubuntu.com/community
>> - askubuntu.com
>> - manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/trusty
>> - wiki.ubuntu.com
> 
>> wiki.ubuntu.com was added to the list in response to
>> https://launchpad.net/bugs/1310309
> 
>> Since wiki.ubuntu.com mostly contains other things but user
>> documentation, there is a risk that this change will lead to additional
>> irrelevant items in the search results. Therefore we intend to
>> re-evaluate the inclusion of wiki.ubuntu.com in a few weeks.
> 
>> It would be great if you could try a few searches, and let us know about
>> such irrelevant wiki.ubuntu.com pages in the search results. We are of
>> course also interested in knowing about any other oddities you may find
>> when using the search feature.
> 
> I would like the ability to narrow the search to include just results from
> the serverguide. I.E. I would like to be able to use the search tool to
> help me find my way around the serverguide.
> 
> Similarly for when I am using the desktop help pages.
> 
> It is my understanding that currently I can only narrow the search to include
> "official", which includes at least desktop help and serverguide results.
> 
> Currently I use the PDF version of the serverguide and do my "searching" there.
> 
> ... Doug
> 
> 
> 

As I mentioned in bug 1044259 [1] I have acknowledged the problem and I
am looking for help in improving this (from Canonical).  Recall that
this potential help was the bonus I talked about during the discussion
for bringing in the Canonical cloud docs (which are about to be
published on h.u.c by the way).

[1]: https://bugs.launchpad.net/serverguide/+bug/1044259/comments/10

/ Peter