"Who does these search engines?" Topic

OK, so I'm on Amazon, very pleased with myself because I've thought up presents for wife and son well before birthday/anniversary, and the total is just a bit below the $35 USD that gets you free shipping. I'll get a cheap book for me, right?
Type in the Search block "Vikings History."
100 pages!!
Scan page 1--not bad, though mostly things I have
Scan page 2--covers featuring people getting naked, titles like The Virile Viking, not history but at least sort of Viking.
Still looking for the perfect Viking book, one I don't have that just gets me over the $35 USD mark.
Scan page 5--I find Madeline--the Hans Bemelman children's book. You remember:
In an old house in Paris, that was covered with vines, lived twelve little girls in two straight lines…
the smallest one was Madeline.
How, oh how, do you see this as a Viking book? Even Pepito, the kid next door, is Spanish, not a Viking.

Grumpy Grelber
Who will not be buying a copy of Madeline today

If you know what you are looking for, Amazon is great.

If you are browsing, Amazon is rubbish.

Did you search just in the history section?

Possible explanations:
Was Paris ever sacked by Vikings?
Was there ever a town named Madeline that was sacked by Vikings?
Was there ever a Viking named Madeline?
If none of the above, then I'm stumped.

If you want some serious Viking books, skip Amazon and go to David Brown/Oxbow Books then search 'Viking', you may be pleasantly surprised.

If you are just looking to make up a value at Amazon you can just cut and paste the book titles, but Amazon often list books as 'unavailable' because the publisher won't give them an obscene discount.

You can also throw in search terms like 'Archeology', 'Iceland' and 'Saga'.

Does Viking Book Publisher publish Madeline?

Does Viking Book Publisher publish Madeline?

Yes.

This highlights one of the challenges with managing semantic content through a medium that is purely syntax. The more content you include, the broader the meaning base and context for every term.

Social tagging was going to solve this problem because people you like are more likely to think like you, so their networks are likely to have an understanding of things more similar to yours. But even that doesn't work any more than the last thing to solve the problem … search engines.