> The main issue (to me) is that it says "Did you mean: [bold blue link]", > which in this context I think most users would expect to be able to click > and go directly to the article. It should be simple enough to query the page > table for page existence, but perhaps two messages would be better here.
This link is context-specific. If the user comes to Special:Search by pressing enter (i.e. equivalent to what "Go" used to do), and Did you mean.. suggests a complete article title, the link will lead directly to the article. Only if the user is searching (i.e. by pressing the Search button or "containing....") then it won't. This behaviour is the relic of the distinction between Search and Go. However, since the vast majority of users come to Special:Search with "Go", this link actually does what one would expect. I think the confusion mainly arises because it is not straightforward to know if one is in the "Go" or "Search" mode, nor if the suggestion is a whole article title or not. I wonder how much this actually matters to an average user that would click on a Did you mean link even before checking what the suggestion is believing it will magically show more helpful results (I at least do it in my everyday browsing). Thus, I would find having two links for what should be one and the same even more confusing. Also I believe this is a separate issue from the engine providing useless suggestions that just lead to other suggestions, which seems to be the theme of the original post. r. _______________________________________________ Wikitech-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l
