How I learned and added 20 new keywords to the Help System and why

Started by Mario, September 30, 2018, 09:37:55 AM

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Mario

The search in the online IMatch Help System is based on a manually curated (by me) index and a full-text search.
When curating the index, I manually assign keywords to each help page, making assumptions of what users may enter in the search. This can work well, or not and is influenced by many factors.

In the past (before IMatch 2018 and while still using the Windows help system) I way blind, because I could not see how users use the help, or which words they search for. Thanks to the online version of the help and the built-in logging, I have now some hard facts to work with. Which is great.

Just to be clear: The tracking in the help is not linked to individual persons, your IMatch license or community account. I only collect general statistics, e.g., how often each help page is viewed.

I have learned much just by looking at which help topics are read most often. And especially by seeing the search keywords users enter.
For example, the search words "shortcut" and "short cut" were used quite often. But I had not added these as keywords to the Keyboard Cheat Sheet. Stupid me.

Tip: Did you know that you can create a link like the one above (to a help page or a specific headline on a page) just by clicking on the button on the right side of each headline?

There are similar examples of keywords entered by users and the results returned by the help. I check the stats about once a week and then make updates to the online help. And the changes are immediately available for all users, which is great.
-- Mario
IMatch Developer
Forum Administrator
http://www.photools.com  -  Contact & Support - Follow me on 𝕏 - Like photools.com on Facebook

Jingo

A perfect example of using gathered data the correct way to make things better! Thanks Mario!!

ubacher

I assume what google does is what Mario does manually just automatically. This way common misspellings are soon also accepted.
And I assume Google adds "Synonyms" in what it looks for.

Is there no system available which adds Google-like search capabilities for the end user? You would think this would be
wanted by all help-page providers.

Can one do a Google search and tell it to look at Imatch help pages?

I assume searches in Imatch help are case insensitive - are they?

Mario

QuoteIs there no system available which adds Google-like search capabilities for the end user?

Yikes! Privacy! dsgvo! Giving the data of my users to Google. Nope.

An admin can integrate Google search into a web site. Everything the user does, including his IP address, what he types on the site, which pages he looks at is then transferred to Google and there analyzed, linked to the other data Google has about the user and then they make as much money from your data as possible.

Why would I want to integrate such a technology into my web site?

QuoteCan one do a Google search and tell it to look at Imatch help pages?

The sites are public and I'm sure the Google bot visits them often. Hence you can Google them.
You can use the usual site: parameter in the Google search to limit your search to a specific site.

Note that this also feeds the Google AI and lets them learn about you. While when you use the search function in the help, no data is transferred to 3rd parties, advertisement networks and suchlike.

If you speak German, you may find the information in this current article interesting:

https://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Nutzerfreundliches-Design-und-Tracking-fuehren-in-die-digitale-Entmuendigung-4178650.html

-- Mario
IMatch Developer
Forum Administrator
http://www.photools.com  -  Contact & Support - Follow me on 𝕏 - Like photools.com on Facebook