Search me

A client called, wanting help getting their logo on an odd operating system. So I bopped over to the IBM site to refresh my memory, and the search engine gave me fits.

IBM does do usability, but this search page needs help, because it produced this:

HTTP Web Server: Lotus Notes Exception - Query is not understandable

in response to my search. Nice error message, eh?

After some wild-goose chasing, I had an epiphany: I'd cut and pasted my search term, and sure enough, on looking at it more closely, it was "PCX ". The dreaded trailing space broke the search.

Posted by Chad Lundgren on Monday, August 5, 2002 (Link)

Comments

Posted by Donna Maurer Monday, August 12, 2002 at 06:15 AM

I implemented a notes search engine once. The developer changed this error message to:

"You idiot! When will you learn to type. Get it right next time"

The first time I read it (while testing), I nearly fell off my seat...