Historical Directories - They've messed them up

[LizzieW]

Has anyone looked at Historical Directories recently.  There is a message on the home page which states "These pages replace the Historical Directories website, withdrawn in March 2014. The site ran for ten years but could no longer be maintained due to hardware and software obsolescence".  You can still browse by location, but the site states "Please note that free text searching for names, towns, villages and occupations may prove difficult and time consuming. The site may also run slowly on occasion due to the volume of data being searched".

I tried a search but it was hopeless, and even the site remarks that "If you are undertaking genealogical or one-name study research you may find resources supplied by commercial genealogy suppliers more suited to your needs".

That's all very well but does anyone know any commercial genealogy sites that have lists of newsagents in East Yorkshire?  I know a few occupations are listed on Ancestry and Findmypast, but in my opinion they are not viable alternatives.
 

[Alexander.]

This free and valuable resource is much improved compared to how it used to be. Obsolete software cannot be supported forever.

The directories are transcribed by OCR - just the same as it was before - thus it is not perfect.

If you are having trouble finding an individual by search, you can easily browse the relevant directory by using the "Browse" buttons at the top of the page. Yes it takes a little more time.

Please also take the time to read the page on search tips:
http://specialcollections.le.ac.uk/cdm/helpdocs/collection/p16445coll4

[LizzieW]

Alexander I tried that and put in newsagent (having already selected Yorkshire) and got too many results, so I then put in a name + newsagent and got a lot less results, but when I clicked on a page where there were supposed to be say 4 possibles, all I got was a jumble of names.

I'll give it another go and see if I have any better results.  I'm going to start by searching for someone I know is listed because I found them in the old version of HD.

Unfortunately, I'm not a computer expert and I understand obsolete software cannot be supported, what I don't understand is why a change of software had to be so drastic.