Comments on: Is Search Broken? http://davepress.net/2007/03/05/is-search-broken/ Using the internet to make government more interesting Mon, 14 Jun 2010 17:06:57 +0100 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Dave Briggs http://davepress.net/2007/03/05/is-search-broken/comment-page-1/#comment-5126 Dave Briggs Mon, 05 Mar 2007 22:15:30 +0000 http://lgnewmedia.net/blog/2007/03/05/is-search-broken/#comment-5126 Thanks for your comments, Jason. Microformats are indeed interesting and something I really want to get to know more about. I wrote a little bit about them <a href="http://davebriggs.wordpress.com/tag/semantics/" rel="nofollow">on my personal blog</a>, but must get my head around it properly! Thanks for your comments, Jason. Microformats are indeed interesting and something I really want to get to know more about. I wrote a little bit about them on my personal blog, but must get my head around it properly!

]]> By: Jason Ryan http://davepress.net/2007/03/05/is-search-broken/comment-page-1/#comment-5125 Jason Ryan Mon, 05 Mar 2007 21:10:42 +0000 http://lgnewmedia.net/blog/2007/03/05/is-search-broken/#comment-5125 While I don't agree with all of Tom's points, I can see how search is <em>critical</em> to the delivery of government information and services. I think we have to take some of the responsibility here and ensure that the content we publish is both findable and reusable. Microformats are one way of delivering content that empowers the users (allowing them to reuse information that they have effectively paid to have created) and is also optimised for search. It means that the govt namespace becomes a usable database, rather than a sea of brochureware. Search isn't necessarily broken, but our approach to it (at least in most jurisdictions) is not exactly ideal... While I don’t agree with all of Tom’s points, I can see how search is critical to the delivery of government information and services. I think we have to take some of the responsibility here and ensure that the content we publish is both findable and reusable.

Microformats are one way of delivering content that empowers the users (allowing them to reuse information that they have effectively paid to have created) and is also optimised for search. It means that the govt namespace becomes a usable database, rather than a sea of brochureware.

Search isn’t necessarily broken, but our approach to it (at least in most jurisdictions) is not exactly ideal…

]]>