Kobo's lousy search function

franklekens · 07-11-2013, 10:23 AM

Does anybody agree the Kobo shop has just about the worst possible search function imaginable?
Probably because of my IP I'm routinely routed through to http://www.kobobooks.nl.

Then when I search for
"watson before i go to sleep" I don't really find Watson's novel "Before I go to sleep" very easily. The Dutch translation of it is at the top, but only as the *second* hit. Why on earth is "Ibiza to go or not to go?" by Rianne Verwoert the first hit?
And why don't I get the English version of the novel? It's in the shop, I found it some other way. But I don't feel like browsing page after page of irrelevant search results for this.

And this is just one example. In many other cases it really takes some time to find the title you want.
Whereas at Amazon I nearly always find the right title almost before I've finished typing it -- or even when I've misspelled it.

Really. What a lousy lousy search engine they have. It's almost as though they don't *want* to sell books.

AnemicOak · 07-11-2013, 10:36 AM

It's been criticized since Kobo first launched. It's better than it used to be, but I often have more luck using Google to search for books on Kobo.

PeterT · 07-11-2013, 10:41 AM

When I sesrched the NL site for

Code:

Watson "before i go to sleep"

the desired book is the first item found.

Now yes, I am coming from a Canadian IP address.

BWinmill · 07-11-2013, 12:58 PM

Oddly enough my experience was different from PeterT's, though his search criteria definitely produced better results.

Knowing how to use a search engine, by using techniques such as placing phrases in quotation marks, will almost always produce better results. This is because computers are not very good at figuring out natural languages so they aren't very good at figuring out which words really ought to go together.

DNSB · 07-11-2013, 03:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PeterT

When I sesrched the NL site for

Code:

Watson "before i go to sleep"

the desired book is the first item found.

Now yes, I am coming from a Canadian IP address.

But you are cheating by placing "before I go to sleep" in quotes. Shouldn't the computer figure out what I mean? Isn't that why the DWIM instruction was invented decades back?

Regards,
David

PeterT · 07-11-2013, 03:58 PM

Surely though, DWIM means searching for the term WATSON along with the term "before I go to sleep".

paola · 07-11-2013, 04:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by franklekens

Does anybody agree the Kobo shop has just about the worst possible search function imaginable?
Probably because of my IP I'm routinely routed through to http://www.kobobooks.nl.

Then when I search for
"watson before i go to sleep" I don't really find Watson's novel "Before I go to sleep" very easily. The Dutch translation of it is at the top, but only as the *second* hit. Why on earth is "Ibiza to go or not to go?" by Rianne Verwoert the first hit?
And why don't I get the English version of the novel? It's in the shop, I found it some other way. But I don't feel like browsing page after page of irrelevant search results for this.

And this is just one example. In many other cases it really takes some time to find the title you want.
Whereas at Amazon I nearly always find the right title almost before I've finished typing it -- or even when I've misspelled it.

Really. What a lousy lousy search engine they have. It's almost as though they don't *want* to sell books.

agree it is pathetic - one way around it is to modify the address, where you must use %22 for the quotes, + to separate the search words query, and various tags for the things you want, linked with &. For instance to find your book in English the following should work:
http://www.kobobooks.com/search/sear...+sleep%22&l=en

I don't think kobo likes it if you put both author and title in the same search string. If you remove the quote around the search terms they will be treated as an OR, while with the quotes it will search for all terms.

Suzanna · 07-11-2013, 05:18 PM

I think the search function might be improved with the new version of the Kobo site, which I know not everyone is getting right now. When I search for "watson before i go to sleep" (without the quotation marks) I get exactly one result - S.J. Watson's Before I Go To Sleep.

meeera · 07-11-2013, 08:38 PM

Am I the only weirdo who rarely uses search facilities on shop websites? I just do this:

https://www.google.com/search?num=10...Akobobooks.com

samhy · 07-12-2013, 03:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PeterT

When I sesrched the NL site for

Code:

Watson "before i go to sleep"

the desired book is the first item found.

Now yes, I am coming from a Canadian IP address.

I tried it and got the French translation first. The next nine results on the first page are from the same author, but still in French. Also, I can't select the language on the left as I use to do.
I seldom put the author name and book title in the search field, though.

Quote:

Originally Posted by meeera

Am I the only weirdo who rarely uses search facilities on shop websites? I just do this:

https://www.google.com/search?num=10...Akobobooks.com

Never thought of that. I'll try to keep that in mind for next time

07-11-2013, 10:23 AM	#1
franklekens Addict Posts: 398 Karma: 3421956 Join Date: Sep 2009 Device: various Kobo's, Onyx Note2, Pocketbook 360, Kindle Keyboard	Kobo's lousy search function Does anybody agree the Kobo shop has just about the worst possible search function imaginable? Probably because of my IP I'm routinely routed through to http://www.kobobooks.nl. Then when I search for "watson before i go to sleep" I don't really find Watson's novel "Before I go to sleep" very easily. The Dutch translation of it is at the top, but only as the second hit. Why on earth is "Ibiza to go or not to go?" by Rianne Verwoert the first hit? And why don't I get the English version of the novel? It's in the shop, I found it some other way. But I don't feel like browsing page after page of irrelevant search results for this. And this is just one example. In many other cases it really takes some time to find the title you want. Whereas at Amazon I nearly always find the right title almost before I've finished typing it -- or even when I've misspelled it. Really. What a lousy lousy search engine they have. It's almost as though they don't want to sell books.

07-11-2013, 10:41 AM	#3
PeterT Grand Sorcerer Posts: 13,367 Karma: 78877538 Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Toronto Device: Libra H2O, Libra Colour	When I sesrched the NL site for Code: Watson "before i go to sleep" the desired book is the first item found. Now yes, I am coming from a Canadian IP address.

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07-11-2013, 10:36 AM	#2
AnemicOak Bookaholic Posts: 14,391 Karma: 54969924 Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Minnesota Device: iPad Mini 4, AuraHD, iPhone XR +	It's been criticized since Kobo first launched. It's better than it used to be, but I often have more luck using Google to search for books on Kobo.

07-11-2013, 12:58 PM	#4
BWinmill Nameless Being	Oddly enough my experience was different from PeterT's, though his search criteria definitely produced better results. Knowing how to use a search engine, by using techniques such as placing phrases in quotation marks, will almost always produce better results. This is because computers are not very good at figuring out natural languages so they aren't very good at figuring out which words really ought to go together.

07-11-2013, 03:58 PM	#6
PeterT Grand Sorcerer Posts: 13,367 Karma: 78877538 Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Toronto Device: Libra H2O, Libra Colour	Surely though, DWIM means searching for the term WATSON along with the term "before I go to sleep".

07-11-2013, 05:18 PM	#8
Suzanna Living in the past Posts: 432 Karma: 6011289 Join Date: Sep 2010 Location: Toronto Device: Kobo Aura HD, Kobo Arc	I think the search function might be improved with the new version of the Kobo site, which I know not everyone is getting right now. When I search for "watson before i go to sleep" (without the quotation marks) I get exactly one result - S.J. Watson's Before I Go To Sleep.

07-11-2013, 08:38 PM	#9
meeera Grand Sorcerer Posts: 5,803 Karma: 68407974 Join Date: Dec 2011 Location: Australia Device: Kobo Libra 2, iPadMini4, iPad4, MBP; support other Kobo/Kindles	Am I the only weirdo who rarely uses search facilities on shop websites? I just do this: https://www.google.com/search?num=10...Akobobooks.com

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