[XML-DEV Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message] RE: Some questions
At 03:46 PM 12/1/99 -0800, Tim Bray wrote: > >But I think metadata wins. If you count hits on Internet search engines, >the Yahoo and ODP directories, which are both human-constructed metadata, >absolutely wipe out any fulltext search engine you can name, ... This is a subtle issue -- in aggregate, the metacontent is used more, but each user spends more time with content than with metacontent. The better the directory or search engine, the less time you need to spend with it (an interesting conflict when you are ad-supported). Here are stages of having the info (content) that you want, ordered in increasing amounts of wasted time. 1. I have the information. 2. I know where the information is. 3. I know it exists, but I don't know where it is. 4. I don't know if it exists. Only the last two need some sort of metacontent or finding aid. Organizing and indexing content is a time-saver, and sometimes that is essential. Sometimes, the metacontent has the whole answer (which companies sell rhinestone tiaras), but most people really want to buy the tiara. So I still put my money on Jane Austen or the OED over the card catalog. Heck, I'll put my money on Fanny Burney or 40,000 Words over the card catalog. On the other hand, I strongly agree that metacontent should be interchangable, both in syntax (RDF) and in data (e.g., AACR2 for author names). I just wish that the RDF spec was as clear as AACR2. wunder PS: My wife did need to buy a rhinestone tiara, and I was really impressed by the results for that search. Who would have guessed that the web has dozens of places to buy those? -- Walter R. Underwood Senior Staff Engineer Infoseek Software GO Network, part of The Walt Disney Company wunder@i... http://software.infoseek.com/cce/ (my product) http://www.best.com/~wunder/ 1-408-543-6946 xml-dev: A list for W3C XML Developers. To post, mailto:xml-dev@i... Archived as: http://www.lists.ic.ac.uk/hypermail/xml-dev/ and on CD-ROM/ISBN 981-02-3594-1 To unsubscribe, mailto:majordomo@i... the following message; unsubscribe xml-dev To subscribe to the digests, mailto:majordomo@i... the following message; subscribe xml-dev-digest List coordinator, Henry Rzepa (mailto:rzepa@i...)
|
PURCHASE STYLUS STUDIO ONLINE TODAY!Purchasing Stylus Studio from our online shop is Easy, Secure and Value Priced! Download The World's Best XML IDE!Accelerate XML development with our award-winning XML IDE - Download a free trial today! Subscribe in XML format
|