[Watchknow-l] Major WatchKnow search engine improvement

[Larry Sanger]

All,

I thought I'd let you know that the WatchKnow search engine is now greatly
improved, which translates to a vast improvement in the overall usability of
the site.  Check out how a few sample searches work:

shark octopus:
http://www.watchknow.org/SearchResults.aspx?SearchText=shark+octopus
gives most relevant match first

silent e: http://www.watchknow.org/SearchResults.aspx?SearchText=silent+e
gives partial matches, but puts most relevant first

pig mud: http://www.watchknow.org/SearchResults.aspx?SearchText=pig+mud
delivers the "Pigs Wallowing" category, because >1 video in the category has
both search terms

United States:
http://www.watchknow.org/SearchResults.aspx?SearchText=United+States
very general searches are handled intelligently

The combination of our fast and very accurate search engine and our
completely unique, collaboratively-built, drag-and-drop, dynamic directory,
makes WatchKnow the best site online for finding K-12 educational videos.
We have almost 20,000 videos indexed now, with age data for most of them.
So while our age filter still misses a few videos (those with no age data),
it catches most of them, which allows you both to filter the directory and
search the database from within a certain age range.

We have, in short, possibly the world's most powerful platform for making
educational videos findable.  WatchKnow (especially with the new search
engine) is very useful for my own son, which to me means a lot of other
people will find it useful as well.

Next stop: if you can help us get more videos onto this platform, and help
spread the word about it, we can ignite "tipping point" effects.

There are many big changes just around the corner for us as well.  I'll let
you know about them as they appear.

--Larry