Re: Index vs. Search? (take III)

[stevefjong -at- comcast -dot- net]

It may be trivial to include a thesaurus lookup function as part of an online search, though I doubt it. (Look at Google; do you see any evidence of synonym matching in their search results?)
However, trivial or not, don't underestimate the impulse engineers and marketeers feel to create terminology. No thesaurus can keep up with that! I worked at a place where product management referred to people who tried to defraud our clients as "fraudsters." I wrote the description using the word "frauds," an existing English word that exactly described those miscreants. I got back the review comment that I HAD to call them fraudsters, because our company was trying to differentiate ourselves from our competitors; only we could catch "fraudsters"! Besides, the PM had already used the term in several public presentations, so it was too late to take it back. (Sigh...)

-- Steve (writerster)
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