(! = top-level material. OAS18001 – see this for a bit on tips on how to possibly improve search efficiency.)
The INTENTION of this page is being an entry-point, top-level page, to all aspects around ‘search’, ‘searching’, …
See also
- macOS-focus – which is also the page with lots of different applications for searches are discussed.
Table of Contents
Applications for Searching
Currently kept in macOS-focus section.
Best Practices
google.com/search?q=different+types+of+search+implementations+terms+autocomplete+contextual
18 Ecommerce Site Search Best Practices For 2021 – searchnode.com/blog/ecommerce-site-search-best-practices/, written 2021.06.20, retrieved 2021-08-15:
- How Natural Language Processing Improves Search Accuracy And Understanding
- Data Processing Plays A Big Role In Ecommerce Search Experience
- Distinguish Between Synonyms
- Transliteration To And From Other Alphabets
- Anticipating The User’s Search With Autocomplete/Autosuggest
- Accommodate Typos With Spellcheck
- No Zero Results Page
- Optimized For Mobile Search
- Contextual Filtering For Easier Prioritization Of Products
- Merchandising Your Search Results
- AI Assistant
- Personalized Ecommerce Search
- Ecommerce Search Performance That Can Adapt Based On Analytics Data
- Delivering Results Quickly
- Voice Search
- Image Search
- Improving Ecommerce Search Is A Continuous And Ongoing Process
- Auditing Search Regularly
Cloud-Based File-Focused Solutions (Dropbox, Google Drive, MS OneDrive, …)
- Disks and Files Utilities – /is/apps/macos/disks-files/
- Dropbox – /is/apps/dropbox/
- Google Drive – /is/apps/google/drive/
What Can / Will Be Found
mbp17:$ searchtest.sh.php -c
Case | Off/ On-l |
stat size |
file size |
Disk du |
Local Disk |
Test file | Spotlight, local DtS |
Dropbox web [go] |
iCloud web [go] |
Google Drive web [go] |
OneDrive web [go] |
||
1. Local FS | offl | 909 | = | 909 | 4.0K | = | 4.0K | SearchTest 1 Local FS.txt | Yes | No | N/A[1] | No | ? |
2 Dropbox, Personal | offl | 909 | = | 909 | 4.0K | = | 4.0K | SearchTest 2a Dropbox, Local file (Personal acct).txt | Yes | Yes | -“- | No | |
3 Dropbox, Personal |
onl | 0 | * | 909 | oB | = | 0B | SearchTest 2b Dropbox, Online Only (Personal acct).txt | No | Yes! | -“- | No | |
Dropbox cache: 35M $HOME/Dropbox (Personal)/.dropbox.cache |
– | – | – | – | – | ||||||||
4 Dropbox, Business | onl | (Not found on this system.) | No | Yes | -“- | No | |||||||
5 Apple iCloud | offl | 909 | = | 909 | 4.0K | = | 4.0K | SearchTest 3 Apple iCloud.txt | Yes | No | -“- | No | |
6 Google Drive | offl | 909 | = | 909 | 4.0K(a) | ! | 4.0K(b) | SearchTest 4 Google Drive, Available Offline.txt *) 4.0K on both remote disk (du command)(a) AND/PLUS local disk (in cache)(b) |
## | -“- | Yes | ||
Google cache: 6.7G /Users/johan/Library/Application Support/Google/DriveFS | – | – | – | – | – | ||||||||
7 Google Drive | onl | 907 | = | 907 | 4.0K | ! | 0 | SearchTest 4 Google Drive, Online only.txt | No | ## | -“- | Yes | |
8 MS OneDrive |
offl | (Not found on this system.) | Yes | ## | -“- | No | |||||||
[1] Apple iCloud web interface doesn’t have any search mechanism…. (Aug 2021)
Details of used test files, identical file created in a number of different locations, and some tweaks of attributes like ‘Online Only’/other name (which – so far, Aug 2021 – MUST be done manually using (e.g.) Finder contextual menu (no CLI tools found for any drive, yet):
=== START (this line is NOT part of file contents) ============================ searchtest.sh.php, v1.1 2021-08-17, (C) 2021 COMGT/JOHSAR This is a test file for document searches, on desktop. Same content, as below, with changes in 1. Filename 2. Online/Offline sync status (if apply, terminology, and function vary depending on cloud service) SearchTest! 1 SEARCH217010 offl SearchTest 1 Local FS.txt SearchTest! 2a SEARCH21702A offl SearchTest 2a Dropbox, Local file (Personal acct).txt SearchTest! 2b SEARCH21702B onl SearchTest 2b Dropbox, Online Only (Personal acct).txt SearchTest! 2c SEARCH21702C onl SearchTest 2c Dropbox, Online Only (Business acct).txt SearchTest! 3 SEARCH217030 offl SearchTest 3 Apple iCloud.txt SearchTest! 4a SEARCH21704A offl SearchTest 4a Google Drive, Available Offline.txt SearchTest! 4b SEARCH21704B onl SearchTest 4b Google Drive, Online only.txt SearchTest! 5 SEARCH217050 offl SearchTest 5 MS OneDrive.txt === END (this line is NOT part of file contents) ==============================
Locations
- Regular local file system
- Dropbox, personal account
- Dropbox, business account
- Apple iCloud, (in $HOME/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~TextEdit/Documents/)
- Google Drive (in $HOME/Google Drive/), which can be link to Volumes/GoogleDrive/)
- Microsoft OneDrive (in $HOME/OneDrive/)
- dropbox.com/search/personal?path=%2F&query=searchtest!
- drive.google.com/drive/u/0/search?q=searchtest!
- onedrive.live.com/?qt=search&q=searchtest%21
Extension, if exist/apply |
Finder sidebar |
QuickLook | Finder | Web | |
Apple File system | (Finder std) | Yeah… Duh! | Yes | Local | N/A |
Apple iCloud cloud storage | (Finder std) | Yes – ‘iCloud Drive‘ | Yes | icloud.com/iclouddrive | |
Dropbox | Yes – ‘Dropbox Finder Extension‘ | $HOME/Dropbox/ | dropbox.com/home | ||
Google Drive | No | Yes – ‘Google Drive‘ | $HOME/Google Drive/ | drive.google.com | |
Microsoft OneDrive | Yes – ‘OneDrive Finder integration‘ | ??? Possible? How? | $HOME/OneDrive/ | onedrive.live.com |
What does the extensions do?
- Dropbox, ‘Dropbox Finder Extension‘:
- Enables Smart Sync functionality, thus required on our systems.
- help.dropbox.com/installs-integrations/sync-uploads/filesystem-integration
- google.com/search?q=dropbox+finder+extension
- Google Drive – no extension found (macOS 11.3 Big Sur)
- Microsoft OneDrive, ‘OneDrive Finder integration‘:
- Enables ‘ get sync status directly from Finder by enabling Finder overlays in Settings.’, thus required/strongly-recommended if/when OneDrive
- support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/sync-files-with-onedrive-on-mac-os-x-d11b9f29-00bb-4172-be39-997da46f913f
- google.com/search?q=onedrive+finder+integration
Communications – Transportation – Solutions
Like email, Slack, SMSs, … i.e. systems/technologies that really only should be viewed and used as TRANSPORTATION solutions, NOT as any repositories, locations for any storage of information.
When to use what when – Slack vs. Email vs. Meeting – medium.com/office-hours/slack-vs-email-vs-meeting-5b9acf91396c, Oct 3, 2018
Keys point when using any communications solution include:
- (Having an agenda, if more to discuss than just a single issue)
- Taking notes, for the benefit of both some permanent record of what was decided and who will act on what, and provide means for others in the future to get access
- Save those notes in some form of actual repository, could be
- File in file-based solution like Dropbox, Google Drive, MS OneDrive, …
- As free-text or as file in Content Management System
Content Management Systems (CMSs)
Great for handling free-text information and general also great at providing search in this.
Just be aware that there absolutely can be kinks of various sorts… (At one point, searching on IP addresses in Confluence failed miserably.)
And how special characters may be treated and are used can differ, depending on what underlying system for regular expressions that is used, if/when used i.e. OAS18001
Drupal, Joomla, WordPress, Atlassian’s Confluence, Microsoft’s SharePoint, Wikipedia and other wikis, and many more. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Content_management_system
Local sections:
Finding Information
- Where to search – where COULD information reside
- How to search – what tool(s) exists and how to use
- Any special characters like regular expressions, or special tags decided by own/corporate process. Like described in J&P Groups’s OAS18001.
Gears-Concept by J&P
Under development.