Advertiser e-headlines and search

[Linkmeister]

Is anyone else a subscriber to the headline service? Suddenly a week or so ago I stopped getting anything but the mail header. No links to articles, no nothin'. I've corresponded with Chris Kanemura, the Content manager, and he/she can't find any glitches at their end. Since I've been using the same mail client since about 1997 with no changes to the filters for the paper, I don't get it.

Secondly, does anyone else think that search engine at the Advertiser could be vastly improved? A week ago there was a big story about 30 years of Aloha Stadium, yet when I tried to find it through search (using "Aloha Stadium," then "Thirty Years of Aloha," and a bunch of other terms) I couldn't find it.

[Palolo Joe]

Re: Advertiser e-headlines and search

A week ago there was a big story about 30 years of Aloha Stadium, yet when I tried to find it through search (using "Aloha Stadium," then "Thirty Years of Aloha," and a bunch of other terms) I couldn't find it.

I went to Google and entered "Honolulu Advertiser Thirty Years of Aloha Stadium," and found the articles. Second link on the page was the timeline that ran as a sidebar, which led me to the main story.

Maybe it's just better to use Google to search the Advertiser website?

[pzarquon]

Re: Advertiser e-headlines and search

Maybe it's just better to use Google to search the Advertiser website?

That's what I do. Says a lot about what's great about Google, and a lot about what's lacking on the Advertiser's own system.

I'm surprised, though. I would've thought things would've inproved noticably since since their switch to an automated content management system (Publicus). If anything, the trade off for those ugly, database-value-clogged URLs and occasional machine errors was supposed to be better indexing and faster page rendering.

See also this previous thread that touched on search engine suckiness.

[Jeffrey Green]

Re: Advertiser e-headlines and search

Thanks for your comments. We agree our search engine needs work. We are in the process of researching new vendors and should make the upgrade soon. Thanks for your patience. I'll post an additional response to this string when we are operational with the new vendor.

Jeff Green
Senior VP
The Honolulu Advertiser

[Linkmeister]

Re: Advertiser e-headlines and search

Thanks for your comments. We agree our search engine needs work. We are in the process of researching new vendors and should make the upgrade soon. Thanks for your patience. I'll post an additional response to this string when we are operational with the new vendor.

Jeff Green
Senior VP
The Honolulu Advertiser

I'm glad I was polite in my complaint.

[Jeffrey Green]

Re: Advertiser e-headlines and search

Politeness not required....I took a ton of abuse over the Michelle Wie ad, none of it polite. I'm also going to follow up with Chris (he's male) about your headliners problem.

[kimo55]

Re: Advertiser e-headlines and search

Politeness not required....

maybe, maybe not. we will see how it effects change, (if any) for this pet peeve; non functioning, frustrating, time wasting internal search engines...which has been a bone of contention for at least a year. bitched about it here as well as directly to the paper(s) for too long...

[Linkmeister]

Re: Advertiser e-headlines and search

Politeness not required....I took a ton of abuse over the Michelle Wie ad, none of it polite. I'm also going to follow up with Chris (he's male) about your headliners problem.

Ah, but I like to think I have relatively good manners.

Chris tried pretty hard, I think, but we couldn't figure it out. After he and I mucked around for a couple of days I tried switching the sub to HTML from text, but that didn't make any difference.

[Peshkwe]

Re: Advertiser e-headlines and search

maybe, maybe not. we will see how it effects change, (if any) for this pet peeve; non functioning, frustrating, time wasting internal search engines...which has been a bone of contention for at least a year. bitched about it here as well as directly to the paper(s) for too long...

I think it broke longer than a year ago...not too long after the fake Lingle incedent the search engine to a dump. I wonder if it had something to do with wiping that whole section rather than the individual posts.