Editor's Note: Clues for the Clueless - May 2001

I feel more clueless than usual these days.

That was okay in the days when I used to construct crossword puzzles in my spare time. (I never did get one published by The New York Times, though then-editor Eugene Maleska had some nice things to say. One more unfulfilled ambition comes back to haunt me!)

But being clueless these days is disturbing.

Here's what I'm sort of clueless about: When you search for content on TechNet, what are you looking for?

7 Across. They're broken during defenestration

Answer: Windows.

And Windows was the top search term — by a margin of 50%! — during a recent period for which I examined our search logs.

For the record, these logs don't give me any information about who is searching; they just aggregate the data about text people have typed into the Search box during a given period.

What happens when you search for Windows? Go ahead and try it now.

Okay, I apologize if I sent you on a fool's errand. I just tried it myself and got back links to accessibility, upgrading to Windows 2000, a comparison with a competitor's product and with some products of our own, coding tips for Windows CE, migrating to AD, WSH, and other random acts of kindness. Most of these articles are pretty good if they're what you're looking for, though frankly I have my doubts about whether one or two of these meet the bar. But are they what you're looking for when you search for Windows?

What content are you looking for? That's what I'm clueless about.

At least it's one thing I'm clueless about. I'm sure my daughter will insist it's not the only thing.

11 Down. Workplace

Answer: Office. (If this had been Saturday's puzzle, the clue would have been "duty or position.")

Office is another top search term on the logs I'm looking at. Like Windows, it offers an olla podrida, an omnium gatherum, a veritable hodgepodge of topics. If you search on Office, do you find what you're looking for?

In the TechNet workplace, we need to address a pair of related problems.

First, is our search returning the best possible documents for given terms? This is hard enough with specific terms such as DHCP (17th on the hit parade for that day) or RAS (35th); it's almost impossible to hit your particular mark with more general terms.

Second, do we actually have — somewhere, anywhere — the content you're really looking for?

Please tell me what you're looking for. Specifically.

Maybe it's me, but I can't figure it out from our search logs.

26 Across. Trade

Answer: Exchange. (I wanted to name this product Agora eight years ago, after the Greek word for an open marketplace. Luckily, folks here are too smart to let me name products.)

Exchange also made our top-ten list that day. But there's another Exchange I'm interested in, the exchange of information in TechNet's agora.

I'm not kidding when I ask you to tell me what you're looking for. I know you're usually in a hurry when you search; any payback for your efforts won't come until the future. But next time you look for something on TechNet, whether by search or by browsing links, could you tell me what it is you were hoping to find? What is the real question you were asking? I'd also be curious, if you have an extra moment, to know whether or not you found it. Tell you what — since we're talking about exchanges, I'll ask my team to pick some number of these e-mail notes and search along with you, writing you back with what they came up with if you didn't strike gold.

Bottom line — I want to make TechNet better. We can tweak the UI, make search a bit more responsive, make key content easier to find — and we're working on that now. But if we don't have the content you're looking for, all the rest of our work won't make much difference. We can test the UI, feature key content, and put on our best party clothes all by ourselves, to little effect. We need your help to solve the toughest clue in the puzzle, the right content.

15 Down: Hudson 's tenant at 221B

Answer: Watson. (Our Watson, the crash-log app, was about 40th on the list.)

Supposedly, Holmes never actually said these words, but... it's elementary. I need clues.

Please take a moment to clue me in. Something like this would be great: "configure Win2000 DHCP in a workgroup; didn't find answer." Even this much detail puts us well ahead of what we can learn from search logs.

Whether you're looking for specific or general information, we can really benefit from understanding what information you need to do your job. We will use this information so that you benefit, so that TechNet has the content you need.

By the way, these e-mails get transferred to a mailbox on my system. I promise to read them all; respond to some of them; share them as appropriate with the TechNet team (e.g., our content leads); and not intentionally allow our marketing folks to see your address.

Thanks for your help. If you have general comments and suggestions, please click here to tell me how we can do more to help you. We succeed only when you succeed.

Steven B. Levy
Product Unit Manager
Microsoft TechNet