Links

• Search: http://people.ubuntu.com/~kirkland/search.html

• Source Code: https://launchpad.net/ubuntu-documentation-search

• Blue Print: https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu-doc/+spec/ubuntu-documentation-search

Motivation

The Ubuntu Documentation Search is a Google Custom Search Engine designed to help find the most relevant documentation on given search terms, elevating the priority of a number of predefined Ubuntu-related sites. The goal of this project is to become the single point of entry for all Ubuntu documentation, formal and informal.

The Ubuntu Documentation Search was created and is maintained by DustinKirkland.

• N.B. The idea is based on a brief conversation Dustin had with Eric Raymond at the 2005 Fedora User Developer Conference, where documentation is organized with more authoritative sources being searched first.

Design

The Ubuntu Documentation Search supports a number of Google search refinements which are organized in a logical manner.

Manuals

This documentation includes the man pages, info pages, and documentation included in the operating system distributions. These are the most static, most heavily vetted, and as such, arguably the most authoritative form of Ubuntu documentation.

Official Documentation

This documentation includes the pages on http://help.ubuntu.com (minus the wiki). These are official documents and howto's published by the Ubuntu core community for the Ubuntu user base.

Wiki Documentation

This documentation consists of the community-driven wiki at http://wiki.ubuntu.com/community .

Answers

This documentation includes the very directed and specific information provided by http://answers.launchpad.net .

Forums

This documentation includes the tremendous amount of non-reviewed tips, tricks, hacks, and workarounds found on http://ubuntuforums.org .

Lists

This documentation includes the development and support discussions that occur on Ubuntu mailing lists archived at http://lists.ubuntu.com .

Bugs

This documentation includes comments to bugs in http://bugs.launchpad.net .

Code

This documentation includes any content in http://code.launchpad.net and http://launchpadlibrarian.net that can be indexed by Google. Ideally, all source code and inline documentation in all Ubuntu packages would be indexable (somewhat like http://lxr.linux.no/).

To Do

1. Pay Google to remove the directed advertisements
2. Find a more appropriate and permanent home than in ~kirkland's home directory

3. Move the automatically generated man pages from their temporary home at http://ubuntu.dustinkirkland.com/manpages to perhaps manpages.ubuntu.com

4. Generate info pages in a similar manner
5. Ensure that Google indexes those man pages

6. Perhaps link or include in the home page on http://start.ubuntu.com

7. Perhaps include the Firefox Search Engine Plugin in Ubuntu's Firefox