When professionally created, indexes to periodicals perform a tremendous service to subscribers, as well as make a profit for the publisher. P ublishers are also seeing the value of putting their magazines online, with an intuitive, online index that works with far more precision and accuracy than would ANY search engine. Search engines which locate files containing a particular word or phrase rarely help the searcher find relevant information quickly. I work for a monthly trade publication and we're beginning to place the entire editorial content of each issue online, article by article, for searching by industry members who visit our web site. A big problem with online searching is that browsing is difficult.
People have to look to find the information.
This makes an index for online material even MORE important, perhaps, than an index for the same material in print form. Broccoli Information Management's most recent periodical indexing project is for 25 years worth of an extremely well- known and respected science magazine.