Re:Ask HN: Please review my OpenCourseWare Search Engine
by nl on Wednesday April 21, 2010 @08:34AM
(#1281990)
My view is that advanced search interfaces don't add a lot of value, but filtering does.
People like to be able to explore result sets interactively. Properly implemented filters give you all the functionality of advanced search, but with the benefit of seeing exactly what you are getting dynamically.
Have a look at the filters on a search like this: http://shopper.cnet.com/1770-5_9-0.html?query=Core+i5&ta...
It gives much better feedback than an advanced search does.
What I'm imagining now is actually at least two new user tools to help them do their searches: a query builder that does the advanced operator searches for them (like Google's advanced search form) and filters on the search results.
You got my brain in over-drive :)