Re: matching versus searching

[Jim Dixon <jdd@matthew.uk1.vbc.net>]

On Tue, 2 Sep 1997, Robert Shaw wrote:

> > The idea is to build a simple directory system that sits above the
> > DNS system.  To the user it looks like this:  if you are uncertain of
> > the domain name, you put a question mark before your best guess (plus
> > optional hints) of what the domain name might be.  The system returns
> > a list of possible matches with enough additional data to help the
> > user to select one.
> 
> Jim,
> 
> In both the latest versions of Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator,
> placing a question mark before a partially qualified URL results in
> a search and returns results for candidate sites. Therefore, it looks like 
> the marketplace is building a solution through browser competition.

Interesting!  I just tried this on a recent MS Internet Explorer, entering
	? vbc.net
It sent me to MS IE Autosearch, which said "No match found for vbc.net"
and added a button leading to Yahoo.

Netscape, given the same input, turned it directly into a query to 
Infoseek.

This isn't what we are talking about, but it is close to it.  The 
difference is that the string after the question mark is treated as a
query on the contents of the entire Web, whereas what we want is a 
query on the whois/DNS database.

Perhaps this is an idea whose time has come ...   ;-)

--
Jim Dixon                                                 Managing Director
VBCnet GB Ltd                http://www.vbc.net        tel +44 117 929 1316

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