79 points Summary of the idea/dream: Search is a vital feature for any media be it filesystem, database, web site, e-book or anything else. Why not have this feature in printed books?
Hi all,
recently some idea came to my mind. The idea is to have "online index (search)" for "offline books". Let me explain what I mean.
One of the important concepts in computer world is search. Our filesystem carries out millions of searches behind the scene when the user tries to read this or that file. Databases also have search functionality which lets us have all kinds of database-driven applications and web sites. Many web sites themselves have search functionality which lets search-oriented user find what he is looking for very quickly. Or not so quickly if this function is awkward and hard to use. Finally, there are several major search engines that allow to find relevant documents in the net within seconds.
So, as you see searching is a vital feature and its presence can attract more visitors to your site, as well as distract them if you don't have one.
But this all holds true for online world. That's not the case in offline world. And my concern here is
recently some idea came to my mind. The idea is to have "online index (search)" for "offline books". Let me explain what I mean.
One of the important concepts in computer world is search. Our filesystem carries out millions of searches behind the scene when the user tries to read this or that file. Databases also have search functionality which lets us have all kinds of database-driven applications and web sites. Many web sites themselves have search functionality which lets search-oriented user find what he is looking for very quickly. Or not so quickly if this function is awkward and hard to use. Finally, there are several major search engines that allow to find relevant documents in the net within seconds.
So, as you see searching is a vital feature and its presence can attract more visitors to your site, as well as distract them if you don't have one.
But this all holds true for online world. That's not the case in offline world. And my concern here is





