There are times where I ask my friends on Facebook questions pertaining to entertainment.
In this case, I asked (A younger) Lt. Commander Michael Eddington + Star Wars + Conan the Barbarian =?
How does one answer this question? I will say that if you were a science fiction/fantasy geek whom you might have an easier time and even answer the question right away.
First, if I was the user, I would ask myself what is this geek trying to get at. There is a TV character (that might not be known at the time) and two movies with an equal sign. My intention is that the user will think this would equal to another movie or TV Show in the fantasy/science fiction genre. So, now we know what we are looking for.
Second, if I was the user, I would break down the formula into three concepts.
- (A younger) Lt. Commander Michael Eddington
- Star Wars
- Conan the Barbarian
I would start searching.
The user might search for the concept of “Star Wars,” then they will find information on “Star Wars” and the same goes with “Conan the Barbarian.”
Let us experiment with the key concepts here. We will need to use the Boolean Method of search.
The Basics
- Three Operators: And, Or, Not
- ” ” = Exact P
There is more to the Boolean, but these are the basics. Users mainly search by using Boolean without knowing.
AND says a user wants to search for all the words. The AND is not required if the user writes Star Wars that would be equivalent to writing Stars AND Wars.
OR says that a user wants to search for either or of the words, but not something that has both items. If the user is just searching the two words Star Wars, and places a OR in the middle making the phrase Star OR Wars.
What section of the Venn diagram do you get when searching Star OR Wars?
The user should obtain all the information in the Blue and Badge color area, but not the shadowed area during the middle.
NOT says that a user wants everything with concept X but not the concept Y. In this case the user would write Star but not Wars, so the user would only get information in the Blue area of the Venn diagram.
By placing quotations over words the user is asking to search that concept as exactly written. For example, “Star Wars.” Every source should have those exact words together and in that order.
What will be the results if the user does a search result such as “Star Wars” and “Conan the Barbarian?”
The results…
The user does not get too much as seen on the first five results of Google, nor the other results.
Maybe, we walked through the wrong door when searching. The third concept, (A younger) Lt. Commander Michael Eddington. I would also break this apart too.
- (A Younger)
- Lt. Commander
- Michael Eddington
If I were the user, I would drop A younger and Lt. Commander, and do not search for them. I would add Lt. Commander later if I need to, and also I would use LT Commander to indicate that I am right in my searching results. When I wrote Younger, I was trying to convey to the user to the past.
Notice the Google’s advice from other people searching Michael Eddington. Deep Space 9 and Star Trek appears. I would guess as a user that I am not looking for him on LinkedIn or as an illustration, and design person. The safe bet is picking one of the links pertaining to him as a Star Trek character. Notice the link that I have already looked at that has Lt. Commander. I would go to The Internet Movie Database.
The next question the user would ask. Is the person asking the question alluding for the character Michael Eddington or the actor who plays Michael Eddington?
The Internet Movie Database has that information about the actor, Ken Marshal, who played Michael Eddington on Star Trek.
IMDB lists around twenty-four different acting appearances. There are a few ways to limit the choices. I would subtract any TV Show or movie cameo performances. Hopefully, the user picks up on the fact that the movie or TV Show needs him to be the lead. Second, one can subtract anything that is not in the genres of Science Fiction and Fantasy. Third, the movie or TV show would have to be older than Star Trek: Deep Space 9, because of the key word “younger.”
At this point, one should figure out the answer.
A Blankbook with Information 
