Aaaarrrgggh!! Fix the Search tool!!! PLEASE!!

[Thoric]

Hi Kenn,

Thanks for the info, and sticking your head up above the parapet!

Yes, I made an error and searched not for 9.5.1 but 8.5.1. My mistake. But my reaction is the result of many negative experiences using NI search. I hope you can bring something far improved for us all to use this year, I look forward to experiencing it!

Thoric

[ThiCop]

I must admit that I sometimes also use google to search some specific (public) information.

I don't really use it for drivers, but sometimes I do use it for finding back some (older) product pages.

[Ray.R]

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Kenn_N wrote:

This post started with a rant on querying for a DAQmx version that doesn't exist (8.5.1), and that is obviously not something that the search engine can present as a result since it does not exist.  Could we handle that better, yes. I will look into that.  I think the results for searching for DAQmx 9.5.1 are relatively good, but search is subjective.

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Spoiler

I was too slow to post my own rant.. 

You could put a feature that wouls say:  "You searched for 8.5.1, did you mean 9.5.1?"  ...... I guess that is also similar to Google..

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@JÞB wrote:

(e.g. "How do you find Kenn's office?" 

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If you seach for: "Kenn_N" using Google, his NI forum profile is first in the list.

[Kenn_N]

Google does this in common cases, but in situations like this where 8.5.1 could be a valid version it usually only provides a did you mean if they see that as a common path.  This would be difficult to pick up programatically since I would be simply guessing which digit you typed incorrectly. We could default to the first digit though.  It would require some modeling of the driver version information on our end though.

FYI:

We have just replaced the backend search engine that is powering ni.com search. Extra credit to those that can figure which engine we are now using based on information online. We plan to update the UI, but in the meantime we are making tweaks to relevancy in certain areas where it's problematic. For example we are going to be making changes to driver relevancy in the coming weeks. Please feel free to continue to post examples that we can investigate.

[altenbach]

Well, it is still not good and can be exceedingly frunstrating.

Case in point:

You want do download the newest version of NI-RIO, so you enter "NI-RIO" in the search box on top of e.g. this page.

Nothing releveant shows up:

So you narrow it dow to "downloads": Some ancient versions show up.

So we go to the support page, go to downloads and narrow it down to real-time hardware drivers. Nothing is found.

If we widen the search by removing the "real-time", we can a list of ancient versions in seemingly random order. How are we supposed to find the current version? It should always be on top of the list!

(continued in next post below)

[altenbach]

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@altenbach wrote:

If we widen the search by removing the "real-time", we can a list of ancient versions in seemingly random order. How are we supposed to find the current version? It should always be on top of the list!

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Continued from above due to attachment limits:

How are we supposed to find the current version???? It should always be on top of the list!

[altenbach]

Now let's try google:

Second result is what we actually wanted!

 

[jcarmody]

I tried to show a colleague the USB-TC01 today.  It didn't show up on the first page and I had to use Google. 

[Hooovahh]

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@jcarmody wrote:

I tried to show a colleague the USB-TC01 today.  It didn't show up on the first page and I had to use Google. 

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I love that little thing.  And I can never find it on NI using the search.  I always have to use Google.  Just tested and I can find it if I search TC-01 then only look at products and services, but on the normal search all it is first on the 3rd page.

[Thoric]

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FYI:

We have just replaced the backend search engine that is powering ni.com search.

Please feel free to continue to post examples that we can investigate.

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OK, so I searched for "DAQmx" to test this:

1. On the ni.com homepage I put "daqmx" into the search field.

2. I get results covering all aspects of DAQmx. Fair enough. To the left are some filters, so as I'm looking for the latest release of DAQmx to download, I select "Downloads"

3. The results list now shows four Documentation hits, the first is versionless, the next three being V9, V8.9 and V8.8. After that, links to DAQmx Base 2.2 and Base 1.0. Where is DAQmx 9.8?

4. I'm offered more filter options, the default ones shown being "Software", "Data Acquisiton", "Modular Instruments", "Real-Time", "Signal Conditioning". So, as I'm after a download, I select "Software". Now the results show: "Measuremnt Studio Visual C++ Support 8.6...", "Measuremnt Studio Visual C++ Support 8.6...", "NI Device Drivers 2008.03", "LabVIEW Real-Time Module 7.1 ETS"... Where is DAQmx 9.8??

5. At this point I'm already maddeningly frustrated, so I look again at the filters list, and I now see five more options: "DIAdem", "Device Drivers", "LabVIEW", "SignalExpress" and "MeasurementStudio". So I select "Device Drivers" and the results now shows: "Device Drivers 2008.03", "Device Drivers 2013.08", "Device Drivers 2012.08". Still no DAQmx!!

After six clicks I've given up this path, so I try again:

1. Knowing the shortcuts, I try "ni.com/downloads" and see "Drivers > Go to Drivers". Wonderful! So I select this.

2. Then "Popular Drivers: NI DAQmx". Wonderful! So I select this.

3. Then a tabular list, in "Download Version" order, with "NI-DAQm 9.5.5" at the top. Wait. What!? Where's 9.8!? Oh, there it is, fourth in the table! Given the first three rows show "9.5.5", "9.5.1" and "9.5", you can imagine that anyone who navigates here is going to stop looking down and think these are in version order (as it says it is in the table header) and download the top-most item, DAQmx 9.5.5. But this is nearly TWO YEARS OUT OF DATE.

So even I, a LabVIEW Champion, familiar with NI.com, still struggle to find a link to the latest NI-DAQmx drivers without having to carefully scrutinise the search results for what I need.

I asked my colleagues to try to find the latest NI-DAQmx release from ni.com (without using google)

One a software developer, one not technical. Neither were able to get even close to the DAQmx 9.8 download page.

Throwing the Challenge at Google:

Search for "DAQmx":

 - Foremost is a sponsored Ad Link to ni.com - not immediately helpful

 - Result 1 is a link to http://www.ni.com/dataacquisition/nidaqmx - not immediately helpful

 - Result 2 is a link to NI-DAQmx 9.8 direct download - exactly what I'm looking for!

Google wins again.

<rant>

This shouldd not be difficult. If someone searches for "DAQmx", or "daqmx driver" or similar, then one of the default options at the TOP of the search results page should be a direct link to the latest DAQmx driver release. Why are we being told this is hard to achieve? Google can do it with their generalised search facilities! Why can't the people who design ni.com make this happen too!?

</rant>