Spotlight’s search window provides ‘AsYouTypeTopHit’ ranked search, including a measure of recency, 3 opaque scores, related search, and hits across multiple search domains. Here’s how it does that.
search ranking
From the outset, Spotlight has included websites and other items in ranked search, and local files listed exhaustively using filters. As we work with ever more data, ranking is becoming more important in our search methods.
Spotlight’s search window is incremental and ranks search results across many domains. How this works in practice, and why it may not be ideal when searching for files.
As the web exploded in size, early curated directories were replaced by search engines. These were revolutionised by Google’s PageRank for popularity, and are now being replaced by AI overviews.
The most popular interface to Spotlight, through the menu bar, dates back 27 years to Sherlock, when mixing web and local search seemed a good idea. A great deal has changed since, but not Spotlight.
Search is getting worse: only 2 good hits in the first 15. The time has come for independent benchmarks to provide Google and others with consumer-oriented targets.
Search engines don’t work, as they’re indifferent to quality and accuracy of content. Existing eBook formats are little more than book-in-browser. So how to publish more demanding content?
Even the least money-motivated of us become tempted to play to the gallery, and their view statistics.
How can I improve my website’s PageRank so that it appears higher up in search results, and the site gets more visitors?
The Eclectic Light Company 