Search Forum Now Using Google. Why?

  • At the right top of the forum, there is a search field. Usually, before posting a new topic in this forum, I search for entry with same topics. At the past, the search worked perfectly. I can grab almost every entry which has same topics by filling up keywords.

    But now it seems that the search function is using Google. Why should we use Google? Is it better?

Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 49 total)

  • I like the old function better. It showed the age of the last reply.

    I like the old search better too ??

    Add me to that list. If only we could choose wether to have our search processed by Google or by WP.org…

    Moderator James Huff

    (@macmanx)

    Search Forum Now Using Google. Why?

    Because far too many people were complaining that the original forum search engine was “horrible”.

    Well, it was. ?? But the Google method isn’t much better, perhaps worse.

    Probably not the place to mention it but email notification of replies to topics we start or post to, as most other forums do, would be fantastic!!

    ( I don’t know the history of this forum style so I apologise if I am stepping on someone’s toes. PHPBB is just so much better.)

    having a non Google search would help keep down the same questions being asked over and over

    I’ve had to give up searching and just ask which I hate doing. It appears that the Google search being used is the Adsense setup.

    “having a non Google search would help keep down the same questions being asked over and over”

    We had a non-Google search, and no it didn’t.

    well I say that, it should if it was used correctly. Myself I’d much rather search first before asking

    The biggest difference that I see between the two, is that the google search goes further back into the forum than the previous search did. Which, can be a bad thing, ’cause if someone just installed 1.5.1.1, and did a search, they could be reading a thread relating to 1.2, and not realize it. I’ve found myself reading threads, only to realize that exact fact, and the info in the thread is obsolete. Not a big issue, but could be confusing to a new user.

    well I guess whatever they do they’re screwd. when the original search was made available the complaints were:

    it doesn’t give enough search results
    it doesn’t search very well
    I can never find what I’m looking for
    I did search, but I don’t think it’s working properly
    I don’t like the way it searches, why can’t it be like this

    So then they were told to use google in addition to the search, but the complaints were always the same in addition to:

    Can someone teach me how to use the google search, because I don’t like the WP search facility
    Google gives better results why isn’t that included?

    So here we are, and it’s now using google, it’s actually better in that gives more results – something users wanted. If the USER is more specific about their search, the search will be better, and although it doesn’t have the WP layout, it’s still searching WP

    They just can’t win I guess ??

    Thread Starter jalansutera

    (@jalansutera)

    Well both internal-search and google-search have its own pluses and minuses. Is it possible to provide two search engine for the forum where users can choose which one suits their needs.

    Who agrees to my idea?

    Having the both options would surely be the best solution as long as didn’t cause server overloads.

    I guess due to popular demand it will happen, but at the same time, I’m also waiting for someone to ask for the results to be combined so they don’t have to use both ??

    Hey – let’s combine them so we don’t have to use both ! ??

    FWIW:
    – Searching. Either people do, or they do not. And if they do not then no matter how good the results, they just won’t do it. As a %, I would say we see around 10% of questions here asked that cannot be answered with a search.
    – Engines. The results are going to be the same bar the User list. You can fairly easily see how old a post is in a google result by looking at the post number.

    And as a google-hater, I vote we use Yahoo ! :p

    My problem with the current one is that it shows the WHOLE WordPress world, not just the forums. Id liek to see an option to include/exclude the rest of the WP universe.
    The current one just seems to include alot of largely irrelevent pages and I find myself mentaly scanning and removing non forum results.

    Oh, and any chance of a post preview?

Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 49 total)
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