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All search is practically useless. It's nothing but ads.

I have quite a large library with no shortage of theology books. But I performed a smart "All" search for "Who is God" and I stopped counting at 60 locked resources--basically ads. Not one hit in my library other than a couple "images." Useless to me.

I wonder if that could be fixed.

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Dave Hooton

Why blame ALL when you can do a search of your own books, but I think there is a Suggestion that ALL should have an option for all your resources!?

Do a Books Search and limit the resources to a collection of theology books e.g. type:theology. A search of all my books did not return a Synopsis from a theology book!

Doc B

I think the easy fix is to rename the "All" search to something that indicates it is a search of the entire Logos catalog. Even the most rudimentary usability study would quickly show that the average user would expect "All" to include all the resources they have on their computer rather than the entire catalog.

I find the idea of searching unowned resources a useful one and it should be retained, but as you can see from @GaoLu 's tone here, doing that with an "All" search isn't the best choice of descriptors. Find one that can't be mistaken for the entire catalog and this frustration goes away while keeping the option to find stuff I don't own and might buy.

DMM

This does seem to be a common complaint/misunderstanding - meaning that for whatever reason it's just not clear to many users what ALL Search is supposed to be.

If you click on Books, it comes up with

But All doesn't have the "Your Books" text - it has nothing. Perhaps this would be a good spot for "All Search Searches the entire Logos Catalog".

Even better, perhaps this could be replaced with "Entire Logos Catalog" and then that could be further refined (like "Your Books" in the Book Search), if the user wanted. Perhaps the user only wanted to search books, but not journals (or vice versa), or only books written BEFORE (or AFTER) 1950, or only commentaries, or only books published by Zondervan, etc. Not only would that allow the capability to make the search much more specific but it would also make it pretty clear that it's searching the entire Logos Catalog and not just books the user owns.

DMB

Agree 'All' is a mystery. I operate off-line, so there's no Logos catalog. It sort of just dumps stuff. But since it looks at my 'Documents', I'd of assumed it looks at highlight content. But not. I avoid it altogether.

MJ. Smith

I thought the prefer local resources program setting was intended to lessen this problem. As I don't have the problem on the types of questions I ask, I can't really test it. Using your prompt, I get 8 locked resources in the first block of results … mostly from evangelical sermons which should be low priority in Verbum.

GaoLu

Maybe "Search Store?" I guess All is intended to exclude the User Library? But it doesn't entirely. Is that a mistake? What exactly is it supposed to do?

My "Books" Smart search couldn't find any of what should be a lot of hits. So I took a shot at All. Useless. Finally, I went back to the Old World precise "Books" Search and tuned up my prompt to find what I wanted. So, there is still that.

Dave Hooton

@MJ. Smith I thought the prefer local resources program setting was intended to lessen this problem.

Although it has a sense of being global, the Setting states that it is restricted to Factbook and Insights.

Using your prompt, I get 8 locked resources in the first block of results … mostly from evangelical sermons which should be low priority in Verbum.

This "God" query is the first I seriously question about AI priorities. The Verbum ALL Synopsis comes from a Q & A book and a Who's Who book. The Logos Synopsis includes the Verbum books and a Q&A for Curious Kids! The Q&A book is in my Library. I don't see a theological book until I restrict Books Search to a Theological Collection.

GaoLu

I have done a little more work with ALL. It has apparently changed recently. It no longer returns resources from my library like it used to do. It entirely returns ads from the Store. Why not just call it "Store?" I know we had open rebellion when Logos tried that a few years ago, but since that is what it is anyway, why not just say so. Unless it just needs to be fixed.

Graham Criddle

I have done a little more work with ALL. It has apparently changed recently. It no longer returns resources from my library like it used to do. It entirely returns ads from the Store.

I am seeing results from my library - what search string are you using?

GaoLu

Most recent try. I scrolled down below Factbook and My Documents. All other resources are locked. Same for the Search you indicated above.

Synopsis does provide a few hits in each case. Is that what you are referring to?

Graham Criddle

As per my screenshot, around half (maybe a bit more) of the search hits shown searching for intercession are from books I own

My understanding is that Logos tries to return the most relevant results - irrespective of whether we own those resources or not.

Jack Caviness

I performed an All search for "Who is God?" and about 55% of the hits were from resources which I own. For me, "All" implies that the search covers everything, owned and unowned.

GaoLu

I guess my index is broken. I am getting 0 (zero) other than Synopsis, Factbook, and Your Documents.

Would re-indexing affect this?

Using V 45.0.39 Plan Max

This screenshot below is after scrolling below Factbook and Your Documents…so a few down. As far as I scroll down—all are locked. I believe you are getting hits. I used to as well. But not now.

GaoLu

My library has 18,441 resources. So, I should get something.

This is from the top:

Graham Criddle

As far as I scroll down—all are locked

In the screenshot from your earlier post - two up from here - the 2nd and 5th results seem to be unlocked.

GaoLu

Yes. And other searches fare better.