Internal Revenus Service/AltaVista

[Peter C. Gorman]

Hello,

>I see the problem here. But your search was not a good one, and indicative
>of the common mistakes people make when they go to search engines and
>don't take advantage of the available syntax.

It's certainly nice for advanced users to be able to form concise search
patterns in a few keystrokes, but there's no reason why anyone should
*have* to learn that syntax to do precise searches. A well-designed user
interface should be able to present the available options in standard
graphical devices like pull-down menus, etc. If you do a lot of searching
in that particular service, and the speed of formulating the search is
important, it's nice to have a syntax available to make that process
faster. But for the most part, I'd rather spend my time thinking about the
information I need, not the arcane keyboard symbols I need to type to get
it. If I can find the options in human-readable menus or buttons, I don't
mind the extra seconds it takes to use them.


PG
_______________________________
Peter C. Gorman
University of Wisconsin
General Library System
Automation Services
pcgorman at facstaff.wisc.edu
(608) 265-5291