Better search possible?

[Arlee]

So I have been quite frustrated with the ability to search the forums for information and I found an example the demonstrates everything that I find really frustrating about it all in one.

So say you are looking for a thread you know exists that is called [Priest] Hit Cap FAQ. If you search for the name of the thread it only searches for [Priest] (because hit, cap, and FAQ are all too common to search for) and then you have to go through all those results to find the thread you are looking for because there doesn't seem to be any option to narrow down the results. If you use quotes around them, which for most search engines means I want these words together in this order, you get a message about how the words are too common to be searched. If you search "Hit Cap FAQ" you get "sorry no matches found".

Even the advanced options aren't very helpful. One thing I do like is that you can search individual forums, however the default in the advanced search is the "search multiple content types" and I don't think it's all that intuitive to know what options the different tabs would give you even to know that the different tabs are both part of advanced search and not one is advanced search and the other is the normal basic search.

Anyway... I am basically wondering if there might be a better way to set-up our search feature so that it is a bit more user friendly. Also, this is not about the specific thread I was looking for, more that it happened to be on example that shows the biggest issues I have with the search function on this site. Thanks

[apepi]

You could go to google and put site:http://www.mmo-champion.com after what you would want to search. Like if I want to search search in mmo-champ I would put
search site:http://www.mmo-champion.com

Like this http://lmgtfy.com/?q=better+search+site%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.mmo-champion.com

In your case you would want to search Hit Cap FAQ site:http://www.mmo-champion.com and you would get http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Hit+Cap+FAQ+sit...o-champion.com

[Arlee]

Well yes that is an option. I was meaning more along the lines of, one of the main rules of this forum is that you should search for whatever topic you are wanting to post about before you do and people are always telling you to use the search button. So I feel like the search on the site itself should be a bit more user friendly. Not to say some people still wouldn't use it, but I really get the feeling from some people that the reason they don't use it is because it is pretty bad... and after messing with it a bunch I have to agree with that opinion.

[apepi]

Yeah it is pretty bad...I only use it when I am bored, but I use the google method alot more, it gives better results. I would like to to be better but alas it is not my job.

[Deleted]

yeah i tryd to use the search function several times to. pretty much failed

and we shouldnt have to go to google to search stuff on this site

[apepi]

yeah i tryd to use the search function several times to. pretty much failed

and we shouldnt have to go to google to search stuff on this site

Well then we are stuck in between a rock in a hard place, the latter is better then the alternative.

[Arlee]

Well that is why I am hoping there might be the possibility that a better built in search function is a possibility. Also, I have been wondering how likely that when necro threads get resurrected how often that could be blamed on the search on this site as well. Most people don't like looking past the first page for things, but when you search you get everything.

[Sunshine]

These and several other issues (inability to search on URLs, for example) have been on my mind for a while, and I'd asked the devs if there's anything we can do.

I'm not sure what will happen or when it will happen, but I'll show them the examples in this thread also.

[Arlee]

Thanks Sunshine