forum search with keywords from subject line fails?

[zjohnr]

I don't want to make too much of this because, frankly, I've never met a search engine on any forum that I've been impressed with. Maybe that's just me ...

But I figured a quick post asking about it shouldn't hurt anything.

After reading a thread with the subject line "DIR-655 Firmware v. 1.30 removes 802.11B" I wanted to see if there were any other threads out there about DIR-655 Firmware. So I tried searching with the keywords "DIR-655" Firmware

The result was Sorry - no matches. Please try some different terms.

I expected the search would at least turn up the original thread from whose subject line I took those two keywords.

What's up with this? Is it user error?

-irrational john

 

[jdabbs]

It's likely due to a combination of factors: hyphen handling (treats as space?) and a minimum "word" length of 4 characters. I found that "Dlink" and "D-Link" return different results, while "D-Lin" (1c + 3c) returns none at all. I don't know why a search for "DIR-655 firmware" wouldn't at least provide results for firmware.

The Google forum search isn't subject to this quirk.

 

[thiggins]

Vbulletin search has numerous oddities like that. That's why I added the Google search option.

 

[zjohnr]

How could I focus Google search on the forums?

Is there an easy, reliable way to ensure that the Google search will target only the forums?

Perhaps just adding site:forums.smallnetbuilder.com would be enough?

Is there a way via keywords to ensure that Google searches only particular discussions, e.g. General Wireless?

-irrational john

 

[thiggins]

There is a Google search option built into the Forum search.

Click the Search link up in the Forum menu bar, then use the box at the bottom of the pop-up that is titled "Search Forums with Google".