Last modified: 2013-11-28 17:45:31 UTC
I'd like to propose the addition of a new special page that would display all the searches that were unsuccessful. This would be a log of recently searched for but unfound items. By sorting them on the basis of times they were searched for and not found, we could more easily fill the gaps that still remain in the databases. This would be complementary to Special:Wantedpages and Requested articles that are part of some Wikimedia projects. The log available to all users would contain the following data: * terms that have been looked for * their frequency (how many times they have been looked for) * the date of the first and of the last search for each unfound term. It would also be very useful to be able to limit the displayed time period and to set the sorting order (ascending/descending) and whether to include all results or only those that have been searched for more than once in this time. This would be very useful for smaller projects to know where to focus their limited manpower, but also for larger ones to know which areas are not covered well and which redirects should be created but have not been yet. We've had a discussion here: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Village_pump_%28proposals% 29&oldid=59410881#List_of_recently_not_found_results Three problems were mentioned: * possible server overload or impracticality due to server setup * privacy issues - hereby my opinion is that if the log does not show IPs or usernames, the privacy is protected * someone would have to take his time to code this ;)
See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Village_pump_%28technical%29&oldid=100310238#How_to_find_requested_but_not_found_articles.3F
*** Bug 7969 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 26308 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
I think, in addition to the reasons posted to the duplicates (using the system to improve the search system etc.), the feature would contribute most to the development not only of Wikipedia but particularly of Wiktionaries.
There was some discussion about that here: http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/wiki/wikitech/186831 Also, Wikisticks provided a list of top missing search queries at one point (by rewriting search URLs so that they get collected in the squid logs, then removing existing pages), but it is broken now: http://wikistics.falsikon.de/2008/wikipedia/en/wanted/
For the time being, User:West.andrew.g's list can be used to get this information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:West.andrew.g/Popular_redlinks
