Search statistics report - counting synonims

[Darek]

Synonimised words are listed in the report as distinct words like in this simple example:

I have created synonym for the word "psy" = "psami".
In the report I get:

psy - 2
psami - 2

How about treating them in the report as one word, i.e. showing only "main" word:

psy - 4

I think it would be more convenient for statistics purposes and readability of the searchwords.log file. The reason is simple: If we define variations for a word we know that they refer to this word, so showing only "main" in statistics report is enough and more convenient.

This is just my point of view. What do you think about it ?

Darek

[Ray]

We think it is actually more useful to log the actual text that was entered in by the end user. This way, you can see how many users are searching for a synonym as opposed to the original word - for example, you might have synonyms for "inquiry" and "enquiry" to be equivalent, but by looking at the statistics/searchwords.log file, you would be able to determine if the majority of your users actually use the word "enquiry". You could then consider adopting that as the actual word used on the content of your website instead. This can be important data in some cases, and I don't think it should be dropped by only logging the indexed word.

[Darek]

OK, I think I did not clarified my thinking sufficiently.

I agree with your opinion, but there is one more important thing to consider.
I am going to use synonyms mainly (but not exclusively, of course) to place grammar word variations, misspelings, singular/plural number etc.

Slavic languages, and especially polish, unfortunately, are very complicated in this matter compared to english. This is especially true for deflection and conjugation. You can believe me, that as I look through searchwords.log people do many, many misspellings, which I get as distinct search words... I believe the same is true for other people from Slavic countries using Zoom.

For this reason I think it would be very nice if, there would be placed an option in Zoom at least, allowing to treat synonyms as a single word in searchwords.log file.

Darek

[Ray]

Thanks for the clarification.

We'll keep it in mind and it will be something that we may look into in the future (especially if other users express interest in this).

[Darek]

Raymond,

I agree. There is no custom to modify/add new options to software just for user only. Developers would get crazy...

Anyway, I let myself to show you just three examples from my searchwords.log below. They are taken from period 2 - 9 May 2007.
Most of them are misspelings and some deflection forms.
Polish language is crazy, isn't it ?
Maybe some day...

Aach, and most important: I like Zoom very much

Here they are:

Variations of the word "zwierzęta" [= animals]

"zwiwrzÄ™ta"; "zwiezenta"; "Zwierzęta"; "zwierzę´ˇ";
"zwierzeta"; "zwierz�ta"; "zwierzata"; "zwieżenta";
"zwięrzęta"; "ZWIERZęTA "; "zwierz�ta"

Variations of the word "rośliny" [= flowers]

"roślinność"; "roślinnosć"; "ROŚLINNOSC"; "rossślinu";
"rosliny"; "roslinno¶ć"; "roslimy"; "roĹ›liny"; "roĹ›linnoĹ›c"
"roďż˝liny"; "ro¶liny"; "ro?sliny"

Variations of the word "psy" [= dogs]
"psów"; "psem"; "psami"; "psami"; "psom"