Culture · 6 pages · 12 min
Why search did not make indexes pointless
Search finds strings. An index points to the discussion, including pages that never use your word.
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From the opening
A full-text search finds places where a string of characters occurs in a digital text. An index finds places where a topic is treated, including passages that use a synonym, a pronoun, or no keyword at all. The opening covers strings are not topics, synonyms the searcher did not type, and trivial hits an index drops.
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Inside
- Strings are not topics
- Synonyms the searcher did not type
- Trivial hits an index drops
- Why both tools still coexist
- Where the idea stops applying
- A distinction worth keeping
Sources
- Full-text search as string matching
- A human index as a map of topics