Google-like search functionality
Reported by Kai Grossjohann | July 19th, 2014 @ 08:24 PM
Hi Benny,
I've now used the Custom Search for a while, and I must say I miss the Google style search, and I miss the option to embed search parameters into the search string.
So I'd like a single text box, and if I enter "foo" into that box, it searches for foo everywhere -- in all headers, in the body, and so on.
And if I enter "from:foo" into the box, then it searches for foo just in the From header. Similar for "subject:foo" and so on.
And if I enter "from:foo subject:bar", that means to search for a combination of these two criteria. I'm not sure what is the right combination: do we want to make it a disjunction, but emails that match both criteria are ranked higher? Or do we want to make it a conjunction?
An alternative to the above would be to improve the keyboard shortcuts when searching. For example, when I hit Command-Option-F and type "foo", then I get a little widget:
(From [V]) (contains [V]) [foo]
If I intended to search the subject header instead, I have to backtab into the header selection, but if I then type "s", that selects "string", not "Subject". So basically I have to use the cursor keys -- eww. :-)
Kai
My system: MailMate/4317 MacBookPro7,1/x86_64/2/10.9.4
Comments and changes to this ticket
-
benny July 22nd, 2014 @ 09:25 AM
- State changed from “new” to “accepted”
Some kind of “quick search” interface is a relatively high priority
item. I've done part of the implementation and it is likely that I'll
provide a default quick search language similar to what you suggest, but
it'll be possible to provide a custom language for expert users.
Currently, the default language allows the use of “and” and
“or”, but defaults to “and” if it is not specified.I haven't given much thought to ranking of search results.
[state:accepted]
-
Kai Grossjohann July 22nd, 2014 @ 09:18 PM
Awesome! I'm happy with Boolean logic, as well.
I think sorting the search results by date makes a lot of sense for emails, and I think coming up with a good UI for ranking search results by relevance is going to be tough, because the users rely on ordering by date so much.
-
benny February 11th, 2015 @ 10:32 AM
- State changed from “accepted” to “fixcommitted”
It's not perfect yet, but this is part of the latest beta.
-
Please Sign in or create a free account to add a new ticket.
With your very own profile, you can contribute to projects, track your activity, watch tickets, receive and update tickets through your email and much more.
Create new ticket
Create your profile
Help contribute to this project by taking a few moments to create your personal profile. Create your profile ยป
Mac OS X email client.
benny