Ethiopic
Ethiopic
Internet Search
By
Dr. Aberra Molla
One
of the advantages of the Net is because one can search it. While computerizing Ethiopic, a novel
feature I added was the power to type a few words without the need for
a program. This, along with some others, has made it possible to
search the Internet for Ethiopic documents without using EthioWord, the
program with which Geez is typed.
To search for [Yaty[y kmpyTrcn sftwr] in Amharic [Yaty[y kmpyTrcn sftwr] is
typed in the search space. This is our standard Ethiopic typing method without the vowels. It is only with this
standard that one can search for Ethiopic and it is the only seeking method
currently available. The Ethiopic pages appear with the real Geez
characters along with other language letters and can be printed or saved
to disk just like the English, provided our fonts have been installed on the
computer. No downloading of players to see pictures of
letters that do not exist or changing of character encoding is involved.
I evaluated the various search engines by submitting the "yaty[y
kmpytrcn sftwr" words and I got the best response of more than 80 documents from
Snap. Northern
Light
came second with 46 and MSN
was third with
23. DOGPILE Search,
Mamma.com
and
LookSmart
retrieved about a dozen each. Many picked a few while some spiders did not fetch even one
page.
Google
searched 1,326,920,000 web pages and came up with three for
[g]z
BanTnrt]!
Most of the search programs were poor with single words. For
instance, only Yahoo and Mamma.com
found two responses for [Mng.t]
or
[Mng.t].
Both correctly missed the
[Mngst]
word when the wrong
[Mngst]
Amharic
spelling was submitted. Snap snapped two of our Ethionet papers when
[BMDgGm] or [BMDgGm]
was searched.
The
choices are limited for site searches. FreeFind is the most
reliable one many have used at Ethiopic.com. It retrieved over 80 for [Yaty[y]
or "yaty[y" alone. Yet,
"sftwr" was not recognized indicating the weakness of the
search systems.
Currently most of the Ethiopians are writing
their Internet Amharic in Latin (English) alphabet and such Geez documents do not
exist on the Web as Ethiopic. However, it is possible to retrieve some
of these Latin Amharic, Tigrigna, Oromiffa, etc. by
searching for them using the English spelling typing method they were
typed with in English. Click here, here, here, here
and here
for examples. Some are posting fake
characters or pictures of text pages typed with ligated glyphs. Click here, here
and here
for examples. It is possible to search for some documents typed with half and fake characters
with the programs they
were typed with e.g. GeezEdit. Unfortunately, the shrinking character
sets and some other factors continue to compromise their stability. Read this and then this
fiction and this. The half characters, in particular, are difficult
to retrieve since the copycats have incorporated our Ethiopic dots and
introduced new Amharic spelling errors to their standards for half Geez. Others have continued to alter our
products and sets making searching an impossibility. Click
here,
here
and here for examples.
These have undermined our Ethiopic search, even
though our standard is simple, logical and free.
Searching
is an important criterion in the computerization of Ethiopic. Even a
free typing program would not replace our free (typing) search method. The Web is growing fast at an incredible
speed and size. Ethiopic users have fallen behind by wasting their time
with
unreliable keystrokes. We must also refrain from posting documents and
pictures of documents that may
not be retrieved.
2/7/01
|
ankn
Dhn Mu!
