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Show HN: Doc Search – a research tool for finding PDFs on the web

4 pointsby aparks517over 2 years ago

1 comment

aparks517over 2 years ago
Happy Friday! I built Doc Search with the generous help and advice of my wife. During a long car ride, we got to talking about the increasing difficulty of finding in-depth information on many topics using consumer-focused search engines. She lamented the disappearance of the option to show only PDFs in the search results as well as the shift toward &quot;helpfully&quot; ignoring some of the terms or directives she would try to add to a query to refine it.<p>I think I understand (at least some of) the constraints and incentives that push consumer search engines to work the way they do and I suspect the current state of the art strikes a good balance in accommodating them. After all, there are a lot of really smart people working on the problem.<p>By scoping the problem differently, I suspect that smaller operators can build tools shaped by different constraints and incentives and provide better service to their respective niches. Doc Search is my contribution to this effort. We&#x27;ve been using it for the past eighteen months or so as I&#x27;ve worked to grow the index. It&#x27;s getting to the point where it usually gets us useful results, so I thought it would be a good time to share it and solicit broader feedback.<p>I hope you find it useful! Please let me know what you think. I&#x27;m also happy to answer any questions you may have.
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