OCLC First Search and WorldCat and ECO

On April 18, 2004, the WorldCat database on FirstSearch was moved to a new
technology platform that has enabled several major enhancements to
searching. Foremost of these are:

The keyword (default) index for WorldCat now includes Author Keywords, ISBNs
and publication dates. Users are more likely to have successful searches and
get expected results. In particular, the addition of Author Keyword mirrors
the operation of many local systems and other search services.

The default ranking by holdings has been made more accurate by basing the
ranking on actual holdings counts instead of by ranges of holdings. The
exception is that records with 0-5 holdings will be ranked together, rather
than by actual counts. The more accurate ranking will allow users to judge
their results more easily.

Non-English articles will be removed from the start of phrases. Users will
get consistent results from phrase searching, no matter what language.

The reloading of WorldCat on FirstSearch has enabled many other
enhancements. These include new indexes and minor display changes designed
to improve results. After the installation of these changes, users will get
different results - most noticeably in the Keyword Index - from the same
searches they did previously. Please note that neither the old results nor
the new results are erroneous; the indexing has simply changed.