Site Needs Better Search Capabilities

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Obbzest
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Site Needs Better Search Capabilities

Post by Obbzest »

Hi guys. The site here is a tremendous resource and I am learning a lot from it. My only gripe is the site search is pretty anemic in some ways. Any chance you would consider adding something better?...google site search perhaps?

In the mean time, I find I can get better search results in the link below for some specific terms when the search function here balks - saying not enough characters or too common a phrase. Others may be interested in this as well.

http://www.google.com/sitesearch/

Thanks... :idea:
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MegaMav
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Re: Site Needs Better Search Capabilities

Post by MegaMav »

Please give me some examples of the issues you are seeing, so I can look into it.
I made some adjustments early on to smooth some issues like this out.
This is the first im hearing of this since over a year ago.

-Eric
Obbzest
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Re: Site Needs Better Search Capabilities

Post by Obbzest »

Sure! Here's one problem...too many results. Go to the search function and search for: 3.25" pin to pap. What you get is 67 pages of stuff. The problem is: "Search for all terms or use query as entered". It is certainly doing that, however there is no option to pull only those results "as entered" It's been awhile since I've messed with phpbb, but it should have this as an option.

Obbzest
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MegaMav
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 4694
Joined: April 27th, 2007, 5:00 am
THS Average: 225
Sport Average: 200
Positive Axis Point: 5.5 Over & 1 Up
Speed: 16.0 MPH - Camera
Rev Rate: 375
Axis Tilt: 14
Axis Rotation: 45
Heavy Oil Ball: Radical - Informer
Medium Oil Ball: Brunswick - Fearless
Light Oil Ball: Radical - Bonus Pearl
Preferred Company: Radical Bowling Technologies
Location: Malta, NY

Re: Site Needs Better Search Capabilities

Post by MegaMav »

I think if you're searching for a string "pin to pap" on a bowling message board search utility you're looking for trouble. That phrase is used many many times across any bowling website in terms of expressing layouts.

I would recommend using more required words in your search.
You can indicate a required word by prefixing it with a plus sign (+).

"Pin to PAP" returns 1322 matches
"pin to pap +wood +lanes" returns 48 matches
"pin to pap +wood +lanes +scorpion" returns 4 matches

We only index words of 3 characters in length to 14 to keep the searching time to a minimum. Typically if you use the word "to" or "in" they will be ignored.

Let me know if you have any additional questions.
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