A Look Inside a Search System
March 16, 2009
A happy quack to the reader who sent me three links to posts by Vic Cherubini. Much of the detail will not be of interest to non tech readers, but I think a quick look at these three articles will provide a useful window into the complexities of search. Keep in mind that there are some trophy generation consultants running around saying, “Search is easy. Search is stable.” Baloney. Baloney. Baloney. Don’t believe me. Navigate to these posts and scan them:
- On Building an Efficient, Indexed Search Engine With a Word Proximity Algorithm here
- On Building an Efficient Search Indexer here
- Update: On Building an Efficient Search Indexer here.
These write ups make clear the effort required to avoid bottlenecks in essential components of a search system. Keep in mind that more complex systems require intricate ballets of numerical recipes, memory, and storage devices. Still think search is simple? The minor error Mr. Cherubini handles in a professional way is probably one that only a small number of Beyond Search readers would recognize and know how to remediate. Simple, right? Beware consultants manufacturing baloney from ignorance, please.
Stephen Arnold, March 15, 2009
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