Last modified: 2014-07-08 12:28:48 UTC
From the discussion at http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Village_pump_(proposals)&oldid=233712687#expansion_of_numerical_ordinal_searches , it would be nice if the alternative forms of ordinals ("1st" vs "first") could be considered in the search feature. I think the most efficient way would be if it were handled in the same way as capitalisation - the exact string the user enters is searched first, then capitalisation variants, then (if an ordinal like "1st" or "first" was present) try its alternative form. I know that this is only the tip of the iceberg in terms of what 'alternative forms' the search tool *could* be considering, and it's probably opening a whole can of worms to start chipping bits off that iceberg, but if the goal is to make the search feature more 'intelligent', then stuff like this is probably a good place to begin...
Feature request still valid when using the new Search backend at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/?srbackend=CirrusSearch however this seems to be a very English-language specific request...
