search function is crap

[seafox]

Why is the search function on this site so bad?
Any search brings up all sorts of rubbish unrelated to the search.

It will just search for the words typed in the search screen. Even when I enclose a few words together in "xxxx xxxx xxxx" it will still bring up searches for the individual words. Say I search "anti fouling paints" and put brackets around the three words, the search will look separately for anti, fouling and paints.

As a result you get heaps of un wanted posts and threads.

It aint a good search function and as a result lots of threads get repeated over and over.

Any chance of fixing it??

[MarkJ]

Yes the VB board search is horrible!

Use google and put in last site:cruisersforum.com

So for "antifouling paints" (or even antifouling) "anti fouling paints" site:cruisersforum.com - Google Search=



For all the posts you have made using the term "servicing winches" seafox "servicing winches" site:cruisersforum.com - Google Search=

Now thats powerful!


Mark

[seafox]

thanks for that Mark

[SkiprJohn]

Yes, the search function used to be very much better. As it is now it is pretty much worthless. No sense refering newbies to the search function if it doesn't work properly.
JohnL

[seafox]

I used to get annoyed when people asked the same question over and over and the same thing got thrashed in dozens of threads.

With the useless search function here I now don't blame them.

[SV Someday Came]

Yup. Ask a question and at times you get the snooty reply... well, if you bothered to do a search... of ... then there is the "there was a thread on that a while back". Then silence.

The search function totally sucks. And it is one of the reasons I ask as few questions as possible -- I don't like hearing that mantra. On the other hand, you do learn something after reading 7 pages of captured key words that range over the entire spectrum of boats in general.

Michael

[GordMay]

Please don’t mistake this for a defence of the CF “Search” function, which is total crap; but one problem is poorly phrased post titles.
Now that we’ve recruited a few more Moderators, we’re going to try to correct some of these.

Ie: I changed one recently, from “Need Help” to "Help me sell my boat”

As MarkJ pointed out, Google does an excellent job of searching the CF (or any other site).

I do a lot of simple/basic research, and my first search is often simply a "cut & paste" of a phrase directly from the original query, to Google.
My success suggests that many of us don't do any independent research. Nonetheless, there's no need for anyone to emulate Bart Simpson, and respond with a "snooty" reply.

[Alan Wheeler]

If Google can do it, then surely so should the CF SF do it. I will look into the search function and see how it can be improved to be more like the Google one.
BUT!!...it also brings to the front the need to ensure threads are titled with a relevant heading. This is neccessary on any BB. If you use some out there title to be funny or attract attention, it doesn't mean it is going to be easy to find or attract attention of the search function. As we get bigger, boring to the point titles are more important.

[seafox]

A good search function will find what you want regardless of the heading. If you put the words you want in brackets "xxxxx" it will search for the exact words.
Eg if you type "chunder over the side" it will only bring up posts with the exact phrase "chunder over the side" in it. Doesn't matter if the heading was SPIT or whatever.

[cooper]

..it is worth comparing the search function on this site to some other forums some are worse most are better...way better....the search function is crap

: )

[Janet H]

I agree the search function leaves something to be desired. However, using the advanced search will get a better result by helping you narrow your search.

Search using Google's search tool for a more accurate result (markj mentioned earlier).
You can search only this forum using google. To do this, open a google search window in your browser and key in your search parameters, leave a space and then type site:www.cruisersforum.com

Example: If you want to find info about varnish your search would look like this: varnish site:cruisersforums.com. Don't forget to hit enter.

You could also use the google advanced search page which will allow the kind of search you want and you can specify that it only searches this site.

Google has some nifty tips for searching using the advanced page and even more info on the basics of searching here

Finally - check out the google cheat sheet.
Print this and stick it to the corner of your monitor.

The vbulletin advanced search only searches key words and gets somewhat befuddled when you add punctuation.

[scotte]

Google makes this really easy. For example, this took less than 30 seconds to setup: Cruisers & Sailing Forum - this is a custom Google search of just this entire site, and it's much easier than using the general Google search.

This sort of thing can be easily integrated into any site or page. Yes, you are stuck with ads. I think if you have an existing adsense account you can do the same thing with your targeted ads. The admins here could easily integrate this same sort of thing as the default search.

Ads don't bother me, the Customize Google extension for Firefox takes care of that.

[seafox]

Scotte,
that is one of the best things I have ever seen on this site. i have just book marked it.
thank you very much.

[cooper]

dito.........

[scotte]

I was playing some more with the Google customized search last night, and it's got a couple of other features that are useful.

You can create searches of a number of particular sites. For example, I created this custom search of a bunch of various cruising+sailing forums Cruising and Sailing Search. Yes, yes of course cruisersforum is best and in fact the only one I visit on a regular basis, but being able to search across many is handy and without noise of a general internet search.

And it's got a sort of social aspect to it in that anyone can sign up and add additional sites to a search.

It still only works for sites that allow searching (for example, a couple boards in my example above aren't indexed and don't work).

Finally, since it hooks in with Google AdSense, the admins here could incorporate it and at least get the ad revenue from it. I'm not a big fan of ad-based services at all, but at least help make the money go to the right place...