Search CPAN with Google

Tom Hukins tom at eborcom.com
Mon Dec 18 05:58:32 PST 2006


This just showed up on the London.pm mailing list.  I remember us
discussing problems with searching CPAN at some point, probably in the
pub, so I thought I'd forward it:

----- Forwarded message from Andy Armstrong <andy at hexten.net> -----

To: Module Authors <module-authors at perl.org>,
  "London.pm Perl M\[ou\]ngers" <london.pm at london.pm.org>
From: Andy Armstrong <andy at hexten.net>
Subject: Search CPAN with Google
Date: Mon, 18 Dec 2006 12:05:01 +0000

I've just been playing with a Google Co-op search of CPAN:

http://www.hexten.net/2006/12/18/search-cpan-with-google

It certainly doesn't beat search.cpan.org all the time - but for some  
queries the fact that the Google search goes deeper pays off.

CPAN's big enough that the quality of the search interface is  
critical - for most people it's the primary interface. I've certainly  
had cases where the search has missed modules that I've subsequently  
discovered indirectly - mentioned on a mailing list or in someone  
else's code.

I imagine it might be politically sensitive to add a Google powered  
search to search.cpan.org - but I'd certainly have found it useful in  
the past.

-- 
Andy Armstrong, hexten.net



----- End forwarded message -----


More information about the MiltonKeynes-pm mailing list