Suggestion: Improve Search by adding keywords

I see this same concept used in Gamespot and other sites, and it works great. To improve the search, and to help with different spellings and titles of items, what if we had 'keywords' area in 'Edit Description', and search results scan thru these keywords as well as title? This is different concept than tags. It will be a bunch of hidden words to help find certain hard-to-search-for titles.

I mean, its getting to the point its better to add alternative spellings in the title itself, so having keywords would help with that:

You can never find F.E.A.R., so 'Fear' had to be added to title:
www.listal.com/game/fear-first-encounter-assault-recon-pc

similar for the game S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
www.listal.com/game/stalker-shadow-chernobyl-pc


It can also be used to add keywords for different spellings, and certain popular abbreviations of the game:

example: Grand Theft Auto IV, keyword 'GTA'
RollerCoaster Tycoon, keywords 'roller' and 'coaster'
No One Lives Forever, keywords 'NOLF'
SimCity, keywords 'Sim' and 'City'

and so on.

I mean, to type in CITY and not find Simcity, its a shame. But by using custom keywords, we may get good results eventually with the search button.

I agree entirey that searching titles is awkward. The ability to manipulte the keywords will have to be controlled though, lest they become tagging mark 2.

I am also going to steal this thread to suggest a more refined search when making a list.

Book lists become especially difficult. I wanted to add a title by Catherine Cookson called 'The Girl' I had to trawl through over a hundred books with these words in. Would it be possible to refine the search, say by author as well.

For example,
Instead of: The Girl
We could type: Catherine Cookson, The Girl.

Maybe the introduction of an author/artist field? Or maybe encorporation of the author into said keyword section would work? I.e, the alternative titles Catherine Cookson The Girl, Catherine Cookson's The Girl. If this was adopted, perhaps you could have the choices 'Search' or 'Search by Keyword'?

Just think how many albums are called 'Best of', 'Greatest Hits' or 'Debut', some are even untitled...God help you if you want to add them to a list.

And good luck finding The The music group. :)

I'd like to point out that often times, when adding new game titles, its easier going directly to amazon.com, searching it there, and then punching in the BIN number in a manual add in Listal. So if I find myself doing this to get accurate results, somethings not right with our search engine. :)

And good luck finding The The music group. :)

www.listal.com/artists/music/1/all/?query=the%20the ;)

I do agree with the idea of adding additional keywords

Just one more thing I dont quite get. When I was a Listal rookie, I spent ages trying to find 'Basil the Great Mouse Detective'...I didnt know it was released without the Basil bit in the US. For that matter the title bit confuses me.

Title (English)
Title (As Released)

By (English) does it mean, the language or does it give precedence to what the title was called in in UK? Maybe it should be Title (As Released) and Alternative titles. In what field should 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone' go compared to 'Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone' ?

oh, we could discuss for hours about how to list films. For Harry Potter, that's a tough one. Its a hollywood backed movie, so I'd say primary is Sorcerer's stone. but then again, Potter is a brit, and its even based on the original Philosopher's stone.

Or 'The Good Bad and Ugly'. It was released under its Italian name, it being a spaghetti western, and with an italian director, but everyone knows it by the good bad and ugly title.

Another recent pet peeve of mine is calling the original Star Wars movies as 'Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope'. Sure, its 'technically' episode 4, once you factor in both trilogies, but look at the movie posters. That movie was called 'Star Wars' and nothing else. So I'd like to see all this Episode IV New Hope be kept in the DVD section and not apply it to the movie. Same goes with its sequel, which real title should just be 'The Empire Strikes Back', not this 'episode V' crud.
www.listal.com/viewimage/3456

But that's a whole other ball game that we can tango to later, lol

Come to think of it, this suggestion for keywords would be magic to movie section as well. 'The Great Mouse Detective', and keyword added 'Basil'

Or maybe keep it away from keywords section, and instead of 'As Released' and 'English' titles, have 'Primary English title' and then a bunch of 'Also known as:' fields for multiple languages - French, Dutch, German, Chinese. I wonder if all these multi-national titles can be 'borrowed' from IMDb Database?

Yes, I mentioned it in my first post (at least I think I did), that keywords should definitely be hidden, only seen after someone clicks on 'Edit Description' (and only put in by members with lots of points, 25,000+)

Another great example. T2 keyword is 'Terminator'.

keywords would also be great for game compilations.

Case in point: "The Orange Box". Sure would be nice to add keywords 'Half-Life', 'Portal', 'Team Fortress', 'Episode One', and 'Episode Two' for the search engines to find it.