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A search suggest drop-down list is a query feature used in
A search suggest drop-down list is a query feature used in computing
Computing is any goal-oriented activity requiring, benefiting from, or creating computer, computing machinery. It includes the study and experimentation of algorithmic processes, and the development of both computer hardware, hardware and softw ...
to show the searcher shortcut
Shortcut may refer to:
Navigation
* Rat running or shortcut, a minor-road alternative to a signposted route
* File shortcut, a handle which allows the user to find a file or resource located in a different directory or folder on a computer
* Key ...
s, while the query is typed into a text box
A text box also called an input box, text field or text entry box, is a control element of a graphical user interface, that should enable the user to input text information to be used by a program. Human Interface Guidelines recommend a single ...
. Before the query is complete, a drop-down list
A drop-down list (DDL), drop-down menu or just drop-down
– also known as a drop menu, pull-down list, picklist – is a graphical control element, similar to a list box, that allows the user to choose one value from a list either by clicking ...
with the suggested completions appears to provide options to select. The suggested queries then enable the searcher to complete the required search quickly. As a form of autocompletion
Autocomplete, or word completion, is a feature in which an application predicts the rest of a word a user is typing. In Android and iOS smartphones, this is called predictive text. In graphical user interfaces, users can typically press the t ...
, the suggestion list is distinct from search history in that it attempts to be predictive even when the user is searching for the first time. Data may come from popular searches, sponsors, geographic location or other sources. These lists are used by operating system
An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware and software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs.
Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ...
s, web browsers
A web browser, often shortened to browser, is an application for accessing websites. When a user requests a web page from a particular website, the browser retrieves its files from a web server and then displays the page on the user's scree ...
and various website
A website (also written as a web site) is any web page whose content is identified by a common domain name and is published on at least one web server. Websites are typically dedicated to a particular topic or purpose, such as news, educatio ...
s, particularly search engine
A search engine is a software system that provides hyperlinks to web pages, and other relevant information on World Wide Web, the Web in response to a user's web query, query. The user enters a query in a web browser or a mobile app, and the sea ...
s. Search suggestions are common with a 2014 survey finding that over 80% of e-commerce
E-commerce (electronic commerce) refers to commercial activities including the electronic buying or selling products and services which are conducted on online platforms or over the Internet. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile co ...
websites included them.
The computing science
Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to applied disciplines (including the design an ...
of syntax
In linguistics, syntax ( ) is the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences. Central concerns of syntax include word order, grammatical relations, hierarchical sentence structure (constituenc ...
and algorithm
In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm () is a finite sequence of Rigour#Mathematics, mathematically rigorous instructions, typically used to solve a class of specific Computational problem, problems or to perform a computation. Algo ...
s are used to form search results from a database
In computing, a database is an organized collection of data or a type of data store based on the use of a database management system (DBMS), the software that interacts with end users, applications, and the database itself to capture and a ...
. Content management system
A content management system (CMS) is computer software used to manage the creation and modification of digital content ( content management).''Managing Enterprise Content: A Unified Content Strategy''. Ann Rockley, Pamela Kostur, Steve Manning. New ...
s and frequent searches can assist software engineers
Software engineering is a branch of both computer science and engineering focused on designing, developing, testing, and maintaining software applications. It involves applying engineering principles and computer programming expertise to develop ...
in optimizing
Mathematical optimization (alternatively spelled ''optimisation'') or mathematical programming is the selection of a best element, with regard to some criteria, from some set of available alternatives. It is generally divided into two subfiel ...
more refined queries with methods of parameters and subroutines. Suggestions can be results for the current query or related queries by words, time and dates, categories and tags. The suggestion list may be reordered by other options, as enumerative, hierarchical
A hierarchy (from Greek: , from , 'president of sacred rites') is an arrangement of items (objects, names, values, categories, etc.) that are represented as being "above", "below", or "at the same level as" one another. Hierarchy is an importan ...
or faceted.
Although not the first deployment of search suggestions, Google Suggest is one of the most prominent. Four years before it was considered stable, the feature was developed in 2004 by Google engineer Kevin Gibbs and the name was chosen by Marissa Mayer
Marissa Ann Mayer (; born May 30, 1975) is an American business executive and investor who served as President (corporate title), president and chief executive officer of Yahoo! from 2012 to 2017, when it was sold to Verizon. She was a long-tim ...
. Google, and other large search companies, maintain a blacklist that prevents the display of queries that could be interpreted as violating their social responsibility
Social responsibility is an ethical concept in which a person works and cooperates with other people and organizations for the benefit of the community.
An organization can demonstrate social responsibility in several ways, for instance, by do ...
. Despite this, the company regularly receives complaints that several popular suggestions, or suggestions whose positions have been inflated by bots
The British Overseas Territories (BOTs) or alternatively referred to as the United Kingdom Overseas Territories (UKOTs) are the fourteen dependent territory, territories with a constitutional and historical link with the United Kingdom that, ...
, should be added to this list. The Electronic Frontier Foundation
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is an American international non-profit digital rights group based in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 1990 to promote Internet civil liberties.
It provides funds for legal defense in court, ...
's Jillian York has criticized Apple
An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...
's blacklist for including words that are merely provocative.
One example of a project using suggested queries to expose societal attitudes was a 2013 ad series called ''The Autocomplete Truth'' by UN Women
The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, also known as UN Women, is a United Nations entity charged with working for gender equality and the empowerment of women. UN Women is charged with advocating for the righ ...
. The campaign showed several gender stereotypes being displayed as popular searches by Google Suggest. Another was a story by Bad Astronomy that revealed a distrustful perspective on scientists in the suggestion box. Additionally, cases related to libel
Defamation is a communication that injures a third party's reputation and causes a legally redressable injury. The precise legal definition of defamation varies from country to country. It is not necessarily restricted to making assertions ...
laws have posited that suggestions may inspire people to associate specific names with specific alleged crimes when they would not have otherwise.
Some users have criticized the fact that suggestion-enabled text boxes, unlike the web forms
ASP.NET is a server-side scripting, server-side web-application framework designed for web development to produce dynamic web pages. It was developed by Microsoft to allow programmers to build dynamic web sites, web application, applications a ...
of static HTML, send data about each keystroke to a central server. Such data has the potential to identify specific people. This has caused at least one Mozilla Firefox
Mozilla Firefox, or simply Firefox, is a free and open-source web browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation and its subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation. It uses the Gecko rendering engine to display web pages, which implements curren ...
developer to opine that "users mostly dislike search suggestions". Apart from the privacy debate, some users have expressed negative reception over the usefulness of search autocompletion. Specifically, the sudden appearance of a suggestion box in some programs has been compared to the behaviour of a pop-up ad
Pop-up ads or pop-ups are forms of online advertising on the World Wide Web. A pop-up is a graphical user interface (GUI) display area, usually a small window, that suddenly appears ("pops up") in the foreground of the visual interface. The pop- ...
.
HTML supports this feature using the