Search results too broad

[toddburch]

Is it me, or does the search facility on these forums not repsect the fact that I have entered multiple keywords? It seems as if my search results are always way too broad, resulting in multiple posts shown that have only one of my keywords.

Under advanced search, I do not see an option for ""any keyword" or "all keywords", but it seems to default and force "any keyword".

And, I would have searched for topics about this before posting, but....

Todd

 

[dllavaneras]

It could be the keywords that you're using are common, so they turn up in a lot of posts

 

[jsw]

Use the "Search Forums with Google" option under Search.

It's pretty good.

 

[WildCowboy]

This issue keeps cropping up, and the consensus appears (to me, at least) to be that the search function was much better before it was changed awhile back. (For one thing, I believe it did default to AND rather than OR when multiple search terms were entered, which is the logical thing to do.)

Can we PLEASE change it back? Google search is nice a lot of the time, but there are some really nice aspects to the built-in search...like sorting by date if you know that the specific thread you're looking for is recent.

 

[jsw]

Can we PLEASE change it back? Google search is nice a lot of the time, but there are some really nice aspects to the built-in search...like sorting by date if you know that the specific thread you're looking for is recent.

I agree - or at least that we should allow a default AND implementation, even if the entire search mechanism can't be reverted due to vB changes.

 

[Eraserhead]

Use the "Search Forums with Google" option under Search.

It's pretty good.

This is what I always do (or add site:macrumors.com to my google search).

 

[srexy]

This is what I always do (or add site:macrumors.com to my google search).

How do you do this exactly? - I was about to post up a question about the search as it seems pretty weak but I figured I'd search for search posts first

thanks, Rex

 

[WildCowboy]

How do you do this exactly? - I was about to post up a question about the search as it seems pretty weak but I figured I'd search for search posts first

Type exactly that into the Google search box: either "site:macrumors.com" or "site:forums.macrumors.com" (without the quotes) if you want to restrict it to just the forums. Add your search terms as usual, and away we go!

 

[wesleyh]

The site should be default to AND, in addition the option to search titles only should be added (it is possible in vbulletin)

 

[roland.g]

This issue keeps cropping up, and the consensus appears (to me, at least) to be that the search function was much better before it was changed awhile back. (For one thing, I believe it did default to AND rather than OR when multiple search terms were entered, which is the logical thing to do.)

Can we PLEASE change it back? Google search is nice a lot of the time, but there are some really nice aspects to the built-in search...like sorting by date if you know that the specific thread you're looking for is recent.

I agree as well. Results with all of the words, not just one. If I search for iMovie Apple TV to find out about exporting from iMovie to Apple TV, a new option in the expert settings drop down, I get every thread/post with iMovie or Apple TV in it, rather than a list that only contains both.

 

[mkrishnan]

Type exactly that into the Google search box: either "site:macrumors.com" or "site:forums.macrumors.com" (without the quotes) if you want to restrict it to just the forums. Add your search terms as usual, and away we go!

This is good advice (and works for any site, essentially), but my impression is that this will not generally yield current results. I don't know how far back the most recent thread to which Google has access is. But I think if you searched for a phrase from this post, for instance, you would not find it using Google for a few days, at least.