[Taxacom] Sophophora: Database issues

[Kim van der Linde]

During the debate on renaming Drosophila melanogaster to Sophophora 
melanogaster, one argument made for the retention of Drosophila 
melanogaster is that it is a problem with databases. Despite my 
preference to preserve that name, I do not think this is a major 
argument in favor of retaining the name.

Just consider Google. A substantial number of searchers for a specific 
word will not only give you back the exact search term, but also related 
terms, for example shorter versions of the word, or British-American 
spelling variants. This is an extremely useful feature for a search engine.

When Sophophora melanogaster becomes reality, the database search 
problem can be resolved in a similar manner. And that means, that the 
name search problem will be rather limited and generally not much more 
than a technical issue that can be resolved rather simply, especially 
with search engines like google etc.

The main problem with databases is the older databases that are not 
updated anymore, or for which the administrators are not willing to add 
this capacity.

Kim

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http://www.kimvdlinde.com