Quick search and No results found.
Magnifying glass search with results.
Magnifying glass search with results.
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Search with No results found, and with results
- Thread starter OilStained
- Start date
I tried again. The term Fifa, again no results found. The term cup or world, instant results. I understand it now. Quick search… is by thread title.
I got 8 pages of results
https://bobistheoilguy.com/forums/search/2025248/?q=fifa&o=relevance
And it makes sense that when you tried last night during the reindex, because titles are reindexed first and it's very quick.
Tried today, not from last night. Still no results. This from the main forum page.
https://bobistheoilguy.com/forums/
https://bobistheoilguy.com/forums/
Because there are no threads that have a title containing "FIFA"
It's not 'localized' to you either (not that it should be anyway) - I get the same "no results found". Did someone say the quick search only looks at thread titles ? If so, that's kinda silly.... The other search link has a checkbox to only search titles if that's what one wanted. I think that is likely to not find many otherwise valid results though.
We can remove the "quick search"
I didn't realize until now (this thread) that it only searches thread titles. No wonder I didn't get results too often.
Tried to find a constantly used thread. All it pulled up was to locked threads with the same title. Zenforo search is really bad IMHO
dnewton3
Staff member
The type of search tool used does matter on this platform.
Although it takes more effort, I find that I get good results by using the "advanced search" tool.
Then make sure to use the specific drop-down menu option (typically "search threads")
put in the keywords (select "title only" if appropriate - it will help narrow the search)
you can further narrow the search by using the "search in forums" sidebar choices (for example PCMO, or GaOT, etc)
and at the bottom, make sure to select "date" (instead of relevance); that way it will list results chronologically for easier visual scanning
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We use Elasticsearch, which is a big upgrade from the stock Xenforo search. Elasticsearch is MUCH faster, like several orders of magnitude faster than using stock Xenforo plain text search. Elasticsearch implements word stemming and accent character removal, which can make search results more relevant.
However good Elasticsearch is, it will never be google search. Google has spent $100s of billions over the decades refining search and there is no better. The problem we have is all search is compared to Google search.
Why can't it just be simple?
Nothing in a database our size is simple.
How about a box that lets you enter the title of the thread, shows the results and you choose the thread you want. Simple!
I've seen forums or websites that integrated Google search into their own site. Is that feasible or an option ?
We had that but removed it due to complaints.
