Defining an Ideal Index
What’s an ‘ideal index’? What’s an ‘index’? So say we were to design a public index? What would it be like?
What standards would guide us? What would the ideal index look like? How would it work?
Complete | It would index all available resources. | |
Fast | It would return good results quickly. | |
Simple | It would be easy to use. | |
Timely | An ideal index would be up-to-date. It would be able to quickly discover and index resources and revisit those web sites at appropriate times to record changes. | |
Relevant | Results from searches would be useful as much as possible. | |
Accurate, Honest and Fair | It would present search results fairly and without bias. | |
Private | Users of the index – and the operators – would be protected from surveillance and identification. By design, it couldn’t be used to spy on you, target you, or track you. | |
Secure | It would be impossible to interfere with the collection, presentation, or use of data, or with the network or servers. | |
Robust | The index would be robust – that is, unbreakable. The system would be designed to withstand any kind of disruption. It would always be available. | |
Representative | It would provide equal service to all users, with no one receiving special treatment. | |
Unencumbered | There should be no obstacles to the use and distribution of the index or its parts. It should be free. | |
Automatic | It should run on its own. It should be able to do load balancing and task assignment based on its own monitoring of the network. It shouldn’t require expertise to set it up or to operate it. | |
Efficient | It should make conservative use of resources available to it. | |
Affordable | It should be possible for anyone with basic computers and a network to use and operate it. | |