Can Forums Searching Be Improved?

[dejo]

I'm enquiring to see if it's possible to make the vBulletin searching mechanism a little better. I am frequently getting the "The following words are either very common, too long, or too short and were not included in your search" message. For example, "seen". Is that really too common? And in Advanced Search, could we have some more power in the keyword selection? Things like quoted phrases to match the whole string (e.g. "match this whole string") or +word or -word?

 

[russed]

oh dear... is someone getting too used to using spotlight and its efficicency!

 

[Applespider]

I've bookmarked edesign's MRoogle for when I get those kind of answers back. It's basically a page on his site where he's added the site:forums.macrumors.com to any Google search string so that Google does the searching work.

 

[bbarnhart]

I'd never seen the MRoogle before. Makes a lot of sense. How long does it usually take before Googles crawlers read new posts?

 

[edesignuk]

I've bookmarked edesign's MRoogle for when I get those kind of answers back. It's basically a page on his site where he's added the site:forums.macrumors.com to any Google search string so that Google does the searching work.

It started as just that, now it's got a few more advanced "features" You can now search just the forums, or the entire site (front page, page2, buyers guide & forums). When searching either type you can do all word, any word, and exact phrase searches. I'm also looking to add a way of searching only forum thread titles, which is a useful feature of vB's search tool.

 

[iGary]

Type in "iBook vs. PowerBook."

OR

My personal favorite: "What RAM for my Mac."

 

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

Or, install AcidSearch and use the "Google This Site"-function in the search field.