How to search with SSServer™

Introduction

The Subject Search Server™ service is your powerful assistant in finding information on this Web site. You tell SSServer™ what you're looking for by entering phrases, questions or keywords in the search field and also by selecting additional or narrowing search options. The search service responds by providing you with a list of all pages on the Web site that are related to your search phrase. The most relevant content is quoted and corresponding quotations are shown on top of the search report that you receive. In addition to reports that answer your queries, SSServer™ can provide you with the Site Map, which shows the whole contents of the site in a single document.

SSServer™ and Subject Search Server™ are trademarks of Kryloff Technologies, Inc.



Executing queries and SSServer™ Search Options

Please, look at the Search Query Form:

Search for:
Report to you with: selections from the most relevant pages
Display selections as:
Each selection should contain: characters
Extract no more than: quotations per a page
  Show plain text only in each selection

Apply search method: Subject Search (smart fuzzy) with % of relevancy
Literal Search (exact)

The general search procedure is very simple:

  1. Type your search phrase or keyword(s) in the Search for field. For example, type in "Web Master" if you want to get in touch with the Web Master of this site.
  2. Select desired values for the search options under the Search for field.
  3. Finally, press on the Search button to start your search.

Along with space provided for entering queries (The Search for field), this form also contains a number of options. You may not see some of these options on the original Search Form as the Web Master could have decided to simplify searches on this site, though in this document we supply you with the short description of each of the search options shown above.

  • Search Method.
    SSServer™ is able to perform two types of searches: Subject Search and Literal Search. Developed by
    Kryloff Technologies, Inc., the Subject Search method is the intelligent and the most powerful way of information retrieval. The core Subject Search technique is also used in the rest of Kryloff Technologies' products known as Subject Search Suite™. This method accepts natural language enquiries and is used by default, so it is unlikely that you would need to change it.

    Nevertheless, there is another search method which SSServer™ also supports; this is Literal Search. Use this method when you are looking for digits, number, names, etc. For example, assume that you want to find your friend's e-mail address. If you type in "John Griffiths" and hit the Search button, the Subject Search method may also find "John Griffit", "Jon Griffiths", etc. To get rid of rubbish, you should select Literal Search by clicking on the Literal Search radio button. But, you should do this only in case when you are completely sure about the order of words, spelling, gender and form of every word in your search phrase! Literal search method never selects phrase "Look, this is how to cook chocolate chips..." if you've typed in "recipe chocolate chip cookies" for your search phrase. On the other hand, the Subject Search method says "nothing found" when you are looking for numbers while Literal Search is quite powerful in this specific area.

    To select a desired method, simply click on the corresponding radio button on the query form.

  • The Report to you with search option.
    Specifies the number of hits you would like to see in the resulting report.

  • The Display selections as search option.
    Depending on the option selected, each hit contains the document title with a hyper-link to the corresponding page, and also one of the following:
  • the most relevant quotation extracted from the original page,
  • the beginning of each page found,
  • page summary or quotation. If some pages do not contain summaries, displayed are the most relevant quotations from them.
  • page summary or beginning. For pages which are not supplied with summary, SSServer displays the beginning, instead.

  • Number of characters in each quotation.
    Specifies the size of each quotation or document summary (in characters) to be placed in the resulting report.

  • Extract no more than ... quotations.
    Documents may contain relevant to your query information in many paragraphs: there might be two or more phrases which answer your question. As a result of it, SSServer™ can quote the same document several times. This option limits the number of quotations from the same page that SSServer™ is allowed to place in the final report. If you wish to see only one quotation to be extracted from each document, enter "Extract no more than 1 quotation" in this field. This will prevent the appearance of "duplicates" (i.e. different quotations but those from the same page that are included into the SSServer™ reports).

  • Show plain text only in each selection.
    As it is described above, SSServer™ can display quotations, summary or beginning of each page that it selects. In all cases SSServer™ presents the corresponding selection as close to the original page as possible copying such text attributes as colors, paragraphs, etc. Check the "Show plain text only" option if you want to see in the resulting report only plain text without any text formatting.

    See also: The Display selections as search option.

  • Relevancy.
    The Relevancy field (Minimum percentage of relevancy) is relevant to those queries for which the Subject Search method is selected. SSServer™ generates reports with the most relevant quotes/extracts from the pages accessed during the search. Each quotation is ranked for relevancy with some value in the 0%-100% range. This option instructs SSServer™ to skip those quotations which do not exceed the value you specify in this field. The higher the value, the fewer quotes. As a general rule, 20%-50% is good value to place here.

  • Search for All Terms, Any Term, As a Phrase.
    This option is relevant when you select the Literal Search method. Choosing All Terms instructs SSServer™ to select only those pages which contain all terms that are mentioned in your query; choosing Any Term selects documents containing at least one term and, finally, the As a Phrase option causes SSServer™ to select only files that contain your phrase exactly as you type it in.

    The search terms you input do not have to be complete words. "Wash," for example, will match occurrences of wash, washer, Washington, etc.

  • Case Sensitivity.
    This option is relevant for Literal Searches only. The Case Insensitive option instructs SSServer™ to treat uppercase and lowercase letters equally while selecting Case Sensitive refines your searches as in this case SSServer™ makes a distinction between, for example, capital "A" and small "a".

  • The Search button.
    Having entered your search phrase, simply press this button to start searching.

  • The Help button.
    Press this button to receive this Help file.

  • The Site Map button.
    SSServer™ has a powerful ability of generating and displaying site maps in an easy-to-understand and navigate hierarchy of directories. To receive a map of this site, you do not have to enter a search query; simply press this button.



    Search Tips and Hints

  • Try the default search options first.
    As you can see on SSServer's query form, all search options have been already assigned some values. For example, the default size of quotations set to 1,000 characters makes your reports neat and easy to download. So, change these options only in case when you still cannot find the answer on your query.

  • Type your search phrases naturally.
    Be aware that when entering queries, SSServer™ accepts natural language inquiries in all European languages (see also:
    Powerful multi-language support of Kryloff Technologies' products). Even though the Subject Search technology compensates for many spelling/grammar errors, pay careful attention to use correct spelling and grammar under the Search for field. Use capital letters where necessary.

  • Get rid of "rubbish" in your query.
    Just type the phrase which is most likely to be included in the document being searched. It is usually not necessary to include English words like "the", "and", or "a" as SSSiter typically ignores them while searching.

  • Enter long phrases using Subject Search method and short ones when you search literally.
    The more words you specify in your query (e.g. 5 or more), the more reliable your search will be. This is relevant to the Subject Search method; as for Literal searches, just list a few words only (keywords) related to the subject of your query.

  • Do not complete words while searching literally.
    The search terms you input do not have to be complete words. "Wash," for example, matches occurrences of wash, washer, Washington, etc. if the Literal Search method is selected.

  • Do not use special syntax.
    Do not include asterisks or other non-alphanumeric characters in your search terms unless you actually want them included (as with "C++") as part of your search.

    The search on this site is powered by Kryloff Technologies, Inc.