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Feb 3 2009   7:41PM GMT

Will Microsoft ever get search right?



Posted by: Troy Tate
documentation, Google, Live search, Microsoft, Microsoft Live, Powershell, search

I am looking for some documentation on Powershell to better understand how to use it. Per Wikipedia: Windows PowerShell is an extensible command-line shell and associated scripting language from Microsoft. So, I went to the Microsoft.com home page at www.microsoft.com. I typed powershell into the Search field at the very top of the page. I clicked the magnifying glass… waited a few seconds… and NOTHING was returned! So, I clicked on the Live Search option and 39,500 results were returned. So, now when I go to the main Microsoft page and then enter powershell into the same search term field as before and press Enter, the Live search results get returned – filtered for Microsoft.com only. It seems like my Live search excursion “woke up” the main Microsoft website search into knowing some powershell content does exist at Microsoft.com

I have often been frustrated in the past when searching Microsoft support using the exact error or event code from a Microsoft system or application log and nothing gets returned. It just seems like Microsoft is still missing the boat when it comes to search.

So, I guess I will continue to Google for Microsoft support information until I can see that Microsoft is better able to search their own website from their homepage.

Thanks for reading & let’s be good network citizens out there!

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Troy Tate  |   Feb 3, 2009  7:50 PM (GMT)

See this ITKE fellow blog posting about [A href="http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/vbscript-systems-administrator/tip-searching-google-for-solutions-to-a-microsoft-product-problem"]Tip: Searching Google for solutions to a Microsoft product problem[/A] – seems pretty related to my rant!


 

Jlees  |   Feb 3, 2009  8:15 PM (GMT)

Great minds think a like Troy! Hopefully the post above will help some other folks find the stuff they need when they need it… because I don’t think they will EVER get Live Search right. ;-)


 

Colin Smith  |   Feb 5, 2009  6:08 PM (GMT)

I agree that Microsoft search sucks. But if you do Windows Admin then Powershell is worth wading thru all the crap and getting down to the good stuff. Check out the powershell blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/powershell/ this is not really a how to but i thin they will have some links and some good info. Also check out PowerGui.

I have written powershell scripts to do things from random password gen to monitoring 100 SQL Server instances. This is what Windows has been missing for years. Jeffrey Snover is the man!!


 

SJC  |   Feb 10, 2009  2:50 PM (GMT)

I had an incident just yesterday trying to get details on a specific error code and all that got returned was “generic” ya-dah, ya-dah! Very frustrating indeed. My problem seems to be either too new because it involves Win 2008 Server, or not enough terminal services is getting used. Thanks for your rant!