Fuzzy search should not be the default on website when you select from an exact match in the dropdow

I typed in the name of an author whose books I was looking for and selected the name that matched in the dropdown. This should have been a big clue to the Logos website that I was looking for a person's name (and you knew the exact name) not some fuzzy misremembered thing.

The results were humorous, but unexpected.

If a user selects an exact match for an author's name or a book title or collection name from the search dropdown, you should assume they want to search for that exact thing, and not do a fuzzy search.

Find more posts tagged with

Comments

NB.Mick

This is interesting (and once again shows that the shop site search might need some love).

After seeing your suggestion in the other thread and looking into my library, I went to the shop site and typed "provan" into the search bar, hitting enter without even checking for possible suggestions (hint: there are none - the suggestion giver seemingly doesn't recognize the author from his quite unique last name only). The site defaulted to automatically select author Iain W. Provan, just what I wanted (and what you rightfully expected from your more precise input and even more from your specific selection in the dropdown)

Rosie Perera

Another thing that's weird (connected to the original report) is that when I search for something in quotation marks, it still thinks I'm trying to do a fuzzy search and offers to let me "Search for exact matches only" if I click on a link. That's bunk! If I searched in quotation marks, that meant I wanted an exact match.

Furthermore, clicking on the "Search for exact matches only" doesn't change the results I get, it merely adds the parameter &exactMatch=true to the URL, but that has no effect if the search phrase was already in quotation marks.

Here's my first search:

And here's what I get from clicking "Search for exact matches only":

Pretty ridiculous.

Nate Merritt (Logos)

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1271176#Comment_1271176

Thank you for the feedback about the new fuzzy search feature. We are adding these scenarios to our prioritization list for search improvements.

DMB

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1271272#Comment_1271272

This is getting really tiresome .... I want what I typed (Joel Marcus). He's an author. On Logos.com. That belongs to Faithlife. His name is not 'David'.

LOL, I remember the song lyrics ... 'I'm not Lisa ... my name is Julie. Lisa left you ... years ago.' Come on, fuzzy-buzzy ... calm it down.

Added:

OK, I went back and selected Joel Marcus ... but noooooo. We can't present Joel Marcus ... we have to present Marcus Doe! Among other combinations (to include all the Joels ... there's a Marcus!!). I gave up. Amazon time.

Rosie Perera

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1271835#Comment_1271835

This is getting really tiresome .... I want what I typed (Joel Marcus). He's an author. On Logos.com. That belongs to Faithlife. His name is not 'David'.

LOL, I remember the song lyrics ... 'I'm not Lisa ... my name is Julie. Lisa left you ... years ago.' Come on, fuzzy-buzzy ... calm it down.

[:D]

I wonder if this fuzzy search on the website is creating more problems than it's solving. Was there really a problem with people not being able to find what they were looking for before? Was anyone asking for fuzzy search on the website? How about making it optional and off by default? I would prefer not to have it at all. Websites like ancestry.com offer fuzzy search to find names because there were often typos in old records of genealogical information, and you often want to spread a broad net to find the one you're looking for. But searching for books in a catalog that is presumably accurate? Fuzzy search not needed as much.

DMB

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1271836#Comment_1271836

Fuzzy search not needed as much.

As above I gave up, and went to Amazon. But life got even worse (sigh). Joel Marcus was in the drop downs, along with all his books. But stupid me, I thought 'Joel Marcus' would do the trick. Nope ... not a single Joel Marcus to be had. Fuzzy kicked in. I guess the algorithm refuses the literal. I think Faithlife did the same.

I had to use the drop down (which had the book I was looking for).

Rosie Perera

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1271837#Comment_1271837

Fuzzy search not needed as much.

As above I gave up, and went to Amazon. But life got even worse (sigh). Joel Marcus was in the drop downs, along with all his books. But stupid me, I thought 'Joel Marcus' would do the trick. Nope ... not a single Joel Marcus to be had. Fuzzy kicked in. I guess the algorithm refuses the literal. I think Faithlife did the same.

I had to use the drop down (which had the book I was looking for).

Wow, the only way I was able to get a list of Joel Marcus's books on the Logos site was search for "joel marcus" in quotes (though actually the quotes didn't matter since I get the same results without them), then click "search for exact matches only". That narrows it down to 200 results, the first few of which are actual books by Joel Marcus. Click on one of those. Then click on his author name in that product description page.

Then finally, after typing his name and hitting enter and three more clicks I get to what I should have gotten in the first place from selecting his capitalized name from the dropdown when I typed his name.

On Amazon, I use the Advanced Search form (https://www.amazon.com/advanced-search/books). If I type joel marcus into the Author field, it does a fuzzy search but at least only gets 49 hits and 6 of the first 7 results are actual books by Joel Marcus. If I click on his name on any of them, I get to the author page for him. So just one click vs. 3 clicks on the Logos page. Actually, if I put the author name in quotes in the search form, Amazon finds just books by Joel Marcus. Way to go, Amazon.

Did you know you can do searches in the Logos store using similar syntax to the Library?

The results of this are better than the free-for-all fuzzy search for "joel marcus". It gets only 56 results. All of the books by Joel Marcus that they carry are among the results, but so are all the base packages that include those. Not helpful, IMO. Or if they must be included, they should be sorted AFTER all the individual books.

If you click on the author name in one of the book descriptions to get to his author page, it still includes a bunch of bundles that have one of his books in them, though not the base packages this time. Again, if bundles must be included (not likely what users are going to buy if they are searching for a books by a single author), they should all sort AFTER the individual books by that author. This is not currently the case. After the first individual book, I have to scroll past 4 bundles to see the other two individual books by him.

DMB

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1271843#Comment_1271843

Thank you for all that great research! Yes, I knew the author (and title, etc) trick.

I find this whole experience deflating. I love Amazon's 'if you like this, maybe this also. That makes sense. Logos's doesn't work. But displaying hundreds of spelling aberrations suggests it's time for me to clean the carpet.