Index Server - Puzzled and Perplexed

[hope135]

OK. I'm new to Index Server, but it all seems rather straightforward,
really.

Then why are my results so odd?

I've hacked my catalog WAY down for the purposes of testing, and have
deleted the old catalog and stopped / started the Indexing Service.
It's Status shows as "started", the "Total Docs" count is correct and
the "Docs to Index" shows 0. We should be good to go.

All indexed docs have the same format, (they're static versions of
database-driven content). In this particular case, we happen to have
one page per state. Each page has multiple mentions of the state in
question - same frequency for each state - and no mention of any of the
other states. Each page also has several occurences of the word
"installation". Again, same frequency for each state's page.

A "query the catalog" advanced query for the phrase "texas" returns the
appropriate page for the state of Texas.

A "query the catalog" advanced query for the phrase "installation
texas" also returns the appropriate page for the state of Texas, but
only AFTER the pages for Montana, North Dakota, New Hampshire, New
Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Carolina,
South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, and a bunch of others, all of which have
the same frequency occurence of the word "installation" but NONE of
which have any occurence of the word "texas".

The results are sorted in descending order of "relevance". I know that
the calculation of relevance or rank can be sort of complicated -
dependent on total number of occurences of each word in the entire
catalog, etc. - but it sure doesn't appear to explain this scenario.
What could be more relevant to this search than the page for Texas,
with all other content of each state's page being the same?

Very odd. I'd really appreciate some help if it's available.

Thanks.

[Susieber]

I wish I could help, but I am unable to get valid and/or consistent results
from "Query the Catalog" myself, after performing dozens of controlled tests
in our lab. I've tried it in both Windows XP and Windows Server 2003
(Enterprise). It's not reliable, and I'm not even sure it actually works. I
wonder if Microsoft has tested this feature since its first release in W2K?
Also, when I click the "Query Syntax" button, nothing happens. Do you
experience the same anomaly?

Post by hope135
OK. I'm new to Index Server, but it all seems rather straightforward,
really.
Then why are my results so odd?
I've hacked my catalog WAY down for the purposes of testing, and have
deleted the old catalog and stopped / started the Indexing Service.
It's Status shows as "started", the "Total Docs" count is correct and
the "Docs to Index" shows 0. We should be good to go.
All indexed docs have the same format, (they're static versions of
database-driven content). In this particular case, we happen to have
one page per state. Each page has multiple mentions of the state in
question - same frequency for each state - and no mention of any of the
other states. Each page also has several occurences of the word
"installation". Again, same frequency for each state's page.
A "query the catalog" advanced query for the phrase "texas" returns the
appropriate page for the state of Texas.
A "query the catalog" advanced query for the phrase "installation
texas" also returns the appropriate page for the state of Texas, but
only AFTER the pages for Montana, North Dakota, New Hampshire, New
Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Carolina,
South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, and a bunch of others, all of which have
the same frequency occurence of the word "installation" but NONE of
which have any occurence of the word "texas".
The results are sorted in descending order of "relevance". I know that
the calculation of relevance or rank can be sort of complicated -
dependent on total number of occurences of each word in the entire
catalog, etc. - but it sure doesn't appear to explain this scenario.
What could be more relevant to this search than the page for Texas,
with all other content of each state's page being the same?
Very odd. I'd really appreciate some help if it's available.
Thanks.