Searching vs Browsing/Filtering Data at ZFIN
People search the ZFIN database every day, most frequently by gene symbol. From there, the vast majority of searchers go to the gene page for the gene they searched for. From the gene page, all the information in the ZFIN database about that gene is available. This is a very direct and powerful way to get to the gene record you want to see in ZFIN. However, this is also a narrow view of the potentially insightful related data that may surround that gene record. Often, a data browsing/filtering approach can be more powerful for open-ended or complex queries. By making that cloud of related data more visible, browsing and filtering may also reveal relationships in data that may not have been anticipated. ZFIN supports data browsing/filtering using the "single box search" found on the ZFIN home page and at the top right of all other ZFIN web pages (Figure 1).
Figure 1. Access the ZFIN single box search from the home page or the top right of other pages in ZFIN.
Let's look at some examples.