Monday, August 4, 2014

Searching

BBC Online teams - largely brilliant - are still too bent on their own search algorithms, and work too much in silos.

Just launched in Beta is the BBC Radio Explorer, which sits within the iPlayer (Radio) and finds you a playlist of  programmes and clips from Radio 3, Radio 4 and Radio 5Live which match your keywords.

I tried some of my obsessions. Alistair Campbell produced seven hits, all featuring his inestimable and unchallenged opinions. There were no returns for "Kardashian". "Alba" produced eight items - 6 from Gardener's Question Time e.g. schizostylis coccinea 'Alba' - and two for "The House of Bernard Alba".

A hunt for soul legends Sam and Dave produced three science programmes featuring random contributors, and a nice Paul Gambaccini programme.

A Google search for Sam and Dave BBC produced a top hit which took me straight the the BBC Music page for the dynamic duo.

1 comment:

  1. The BBC Press Office website is another place where it is impossible to find the information you need using their search function.

    ReplyDelete

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