“Live Filter” compared to Faceted Search

September 9, 2006

“Live Filter” compared to Faceted Search

Ajaxian points to an article on a so-called “Live Filter” pattern (if the original article‘s site is down, see the Google cache).

The definition from the article:

We propose that for many problem domains, the basic concept of filtering is now much more appropriate than searching. With a search, you start off with nothing and potentially end up with nothing. Counter to this approach is filtering, where we present everything available, and then encourage the user to progressively remove what they do not need. Using Ajax to provide immediate feedback, we can display the number of results a user can expect to see if they were to submit their query at this moment.

The original article goes into many details about how it’s implemented underneath, and there is a Live Filter demo available.

This seems very much like a solution in need of a problem. For example, nowhere in the article is there a mention of faceted searching/navigation. It’s unclear why faceted searching did not meet the author’s needs, or why the concept of filtering should be thought unique in 2006. In all, it looks a bit like an excuse to promote AJAX and, especially, Ruby on Rails.

Judging by the demo, this is a poor man’s faceted search system. When you click on one of the (static and pre-determined) “filters”, the only thing the AJAX interface gives you is a message that reads: Your search will return 7 results. and a button you can click to actually see the results.

A real faceted search system, on the other hand, will present you with context-aware options and immediately tell you how many results each option will give you. This is usually implemented without AJAX, but an AJAXY interface can be a great design help: hiding suboptions, preventing full page refreshes, or even displaying the best results for an option as you hover over it.

I can see how “live filters” are slightly better than a normal search box for some specific, narrow applications, but, compared to building out a faceted search system, you might as well be doing all this in a TN3270 terminal.

The original article goes into good detail on what’s unique about Ruby on Rails in making building and maintaining this applicatation easier than on other platforms. As an introduction to building applications in Rails and/or server-side AJAX design considerations, it’s great, and probably on par with a lot of toy applications you’ll find in intro books. (I recommend looking at Live Filter source.)

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