Inefficient Search Engine

I have never had luck with the search engine on these forums. It never pulls relevant threads. Did anyone else notice this too?

I have never had luck with the search engine on these forums. It never pulls relevant threads. Did anyone else notice this too?

I agree. Every time I've tried searching it seems it only pays attention to the first term. A 1 term search returns way to many hits to be meaningful.

For example: the other day I was remembering a thread where someone recommended a speaker model by infinity. I tried searching for 'infinity speaker' and found a thread where the only match was the word infinity used to mean the car model. All the other threads were similarly meaningless.

Looking at all the infinity speakers at crutchfield that will fit a corolla helped jog my memory. The search feature didn't help a bit.

jim

1. You can put the search terms in quotation marks (") and get the exact phrase match as in google. ("infinity speakers")

2. You can use the "advanced search" feature. That page also tells you a help on what operators you can put on the search terms ("+infinity +speakers" find pages with both "infinity" and "speakers").

3. You can always use Google to search pages inside corolland. Just use "site:corolland.com" as one of the search terms. e.g "infinity speakers site:corolland.com". no space between "site:" and "corolland.com"

4. I am sure there are other ways also.

Cheers,

There is a "search" feature?

When you pull down the search box it will ask you if you want to "Search this forum only?" .....uncheck the box.

I have noticed that it doesn't work for common acronyms like EGR, TPS etc.

Jay in MA

I have never had luck with the search engine on these forums. It never pulls relevant threads. Did anyone else notice this too?

To narrow down results, use operators to narrow your search.

If you're searching for, as an example, how to do a brake repair, you will get better results by searching for

+brake +repair than just using brake repair.

Usage examples under "advanced search help" link:

apple banana - Find posts that contain at least one of these words

+apple +juice - Find posts with both words

+apple -juice - Find posts with 'apple' but not 'juice'

apple* - Find posts with 'apple' and/or 'applesauce'

"Some Words" - Find posts with the phrase 'some words of wisdom', 'some words' but not 'some noise words'

EDIT: Oops, I just noticed foobar's post which explained the same thing. I also use google to search sites, since google searches . Especially useful when search function is disabled for non-member sites ( e.g. experts-exchange.com )

To narrow down results, use operators to narrow your search.

If you're searching for, as an example, how to do a brake repair, you will get better results by searching for

+brake +repair than just using brake repair.

I actually do use the advanced search frequently, but I must confess I don't read all the screen. Shameful for an IT person I know.

See, back in 1995/1996, you had to put + in front of every search term to explicitly indicate your preference, But then along came google which implicitly assumed a boolean AND, and I've gotten in the habit of expecting all search features to work that way. I know the tivocommunity forum for example seems to work that way.

In google, I occassionally use quotes to indicate an exact pairing of words, and a - to exclude things (usually ebay). I've also used the site: feature. However, google can't possibly be as up to date as the forum's own search engine, no matter how good they are. I haven't used a + at google in 3 or 4 years that I can remember.

Anyway, thanks for the tips (thanks to foobar as well).

jim

I use the search feature to see if anyone has responded to my posts.

The "search" feature, if working properly would be an immense help for someone seeking information on a specific topic.