1 - A way to find posts BY me, or by any other member

2 - A way to search just titles, or titles and text, or text only

3 - A way to select which forum or forums you want to search

And all of that in any combination, of course.

When I search, I wish the results would appear in date order, newest first.

I second the idea of being able to search for posts by a certain person.

I also would like to see the results arranged by date.

I just want to go to the "last comment read" so that I don't have to scan
through the post I've already read to get to the new post.

I don't know what you guys mean by not being able to search for a certain
person by name to see their post ?
Don't you just put their user name in the search box to get that ?
Or do you mean something else ?

Oh, and an easy link up next to the clipping section where you can click to report spam.

It would be great if each user profile had a link for viewing the past posts made by the user.

As a writer, I frequent history forums. Links to users' past posts and personal blogs/websites are a common feature on users' profiles there. However, in order to view the user's full profile, including the links, I have to register and log in, apparently for privacy reasons.

Hi everyone!

Thanks for the great suggestions so far. Please keep 'em coming!

Once again -- we appreciate you staying focused on the topic of search engines. Suggestions for other improvements are always welcomed, but please email those separately.

Thanks !

Tamara

I agree with the above.

Somehow when you search on your own name, it only shows up if it was mentioned in the text.

It would be great to search text and/or user name and/or subject as well as option to select which forums to search.

Thanks for asking and may the force be with you...search engine stuff isn't easy....

Google custom search, perhaps

Annie, I still am lost..
When I search your name I come-up with 1460 post...
Am I missing some ?

Here is a link that might be useful: http://ths.gardenweb.com/search/nph-ind.cgi?term=AnnieDeighnaugh&forum=&forum_name=Home+Decorating+%26+Design

I think the confusion is searching for a post "by" someone. Sometimes you might remember which member was looking for a polka dot bed spread but you don't want to see every thread that the member has commented on.

I would like it if we could do a partial name search, some members have a name we recognize but followed by some numbers for example. If I'm looking for Amy123 I wish it would let me just enter "Amy?" and then give me the result of "Choose from the following: Amy126, Amy129, Amy123". That would help a bit with members names that we don't spell 100% right.

Forboystoo, yours is another perfect example--I hear in my head "4boys2", but is it "Fourboystwo" or "fourboystoo", etc. Do you know what I mean?

I used to work where I needed to search sometimes for a name that was hard to understand and we would have the option to search by "sounds like ____" and the search engine would spit out options for us.

I also like the suggestion to have the search results be in order from most recent to oldest.

And while this is not search related, can we please have a "flag" this post to get rid of spammers? the old threads that are popping up because spammer brings them up are annoying. Suddenly members are answering someone's question from 5 years ago. This just bumps down valid and current threads. I know members should look at the original post date but really, not many do that.

Definitely search by member so you can put in keywords and a username and get posts by that member with those keywords.

It would be nice to be able to also check "attachment" or photo to find photos posted by a member, preferably also with keywords. It's so hard to find pics you know are posted by a certain member.

Funny, I've tried searching for my own posts and have never come up with that many....not sure how you did that.

I end up going to google and searching for my name and gardenweb and then I'm far more likely to find the post I'm looking for than searching within GW.

So I just tried again to find a thread that I started and it didn't come up with it using my name and bedroom which I was sure was in the post.

I suspect it's not searching the name of the creator of the thread and that's why I can't find what I'm looking for....

However, I did do a google search on gardenweb my name and bedroom and it found the post right away....

This post was edited by AnnieDeighnaugh on Fri, May 3, 13 at 8:07

It seems I recall members saying that the search box at the top of the page was different than the search at the bottom. Can't remember which one was more efficient, but I believe it was stated that one was better than the other?

I agree with others, results should show most recent first.

Thank you Garden Web for the best forums on the internet!

The ability to get search results by individual post or thread.

A thread result from a "wythe blue" search will include threads about other colors and other information. An individual post result should just show posts that have the phrase "wythe blue".

I'm assuming you will be adding the Boolean search parameters that most search engines use - and/or, not including, quotations, etc.

Forboystoo, if you type in a poster's name, all the topics come up that they've either started or commented in.

The problem is that they are in random order. Page 1 could have a topic that's 5 year's old.

The results should be listed from newest topic to older. Since it's not, it's really hard to find what you're looking for.

No one has answered what Tamara is asking..what search engine do you like ? That is all she wants to know at present. Not the particulars that you want the search engine to perform or what you perceive as the short-comings of the current program(s). So I am linking to the top 10 search engines . Please read these and pick out the one you like or more than one. If you have no favorite or don't even know what any of them are...that would be me...then at least tell Tamara that piece of info. Hope this helps get the conversation on track. c

Here is a link that might be useful: Top 10 search engines

Trail - Tamara's post says,

"Tell us what you'd find most helpful in a search engine. What features do you absolutely need? Is there a search engine out there you really love? "

I think we are answering her question! :)

Google's search engine is the best. I especially like the feature that allows for searching within specific time periods like past week, past month, past year, etc.

speaking of google

I love being able to put in a photo and search for it.

On GW, that would be great! How many times does someone say "Does anybody remember whose kitchen this is?" and then have a photo. Luckily the minds of GW members never seem to disappoint because somebody always seems to remember!

The ability to search using a photo would be really great.

A search by words in thread headline or by thread headline and text, and the ability to use additional parameters of date and poster name.

If you go to the forums at fodors.com you will see that each poster's name is a hot link, and clicking that link will take you to their member page. There there is a list of threads started by that member, as well as a separate list of threads to which that member contributed. Below each thread listing is a hot link "see comment" which takes you directly to their last post (if more than one) on that thread. The threads are listed chronologically.

Also, on each thread in each forum is a "go to the newest comment" hot link.

I believe that forum has every feature asked for above and would encourage you to look at it, as a better organization of posts and topics to begin with In your primary programming would eliminate a lot of searches as people often remember the name of the poster who had relevant information.

This post was edited by kswl on Fri, May 3, 13 at 9:22

Thanks, everyone! If you do have a favorite search engine, I'd love to hear what it is. But, any and all suggestions about what makes up a good search engine are welcomed! Trailrunner, however, gets extra brownie points (and an extra-fudgy brownie) for helping to keep everyone on track! ;)

Searching by members is definitely on the list - a very important feature! And, beekeeperswife, I LOVE Google's photo search option. It would be a perfect addition. I don't think it's possible for our first launch, but it's definitely at the top of my wish list. Great idea!

I can't say that I've used very many different search engines.

Because I like Google search so much, I try to always use that.

I'm one of the ones who use Google to search for GW posts.

In case it helps, I do not like Bing and try to never use it.

:)

Hands down Google is my favorite search engine. I dislike Bing and Yahoo, they seem to throw in links to other things and you have to scroll down to find what you want.. You get exactly what you want out of Google at the very top.

Just my two cents!

ha,,thanks tamara....I like vanilla ice cream with my brownies :) I didn't mean to infer that you wanted only search engine names but it did seem that you wanted them more than just suggestions for improvement in searches after your second post. Sorry if I came across as a "know it all" .c

I have one question about Google.
If GW is considering using Google, does that mean that Google collects information about us as a side deal?

I use Google and Bing for searching, but i am well aware that, although Google (and Facebook) describe us as customers and users, in fact we are the product.

Your resident old fogey,
Bronwynsmom

I am not happy with how many ads Google lately has and how it tracks me down but it is still my favorite search engine always giving me the best results and I like the image searching also.

I wish GW would let us search for posts started by a member and not just posts that the member has commented to. I wish they would let us do advanced searches to narrow down what we want to appear. I also would like the posts in most recent date order.

Take a look at the search engine on talk.collegeconfidential.com. You can search across all forums, within a specific forum or thread, by user name, etc. It's excellent.

Hi Bronwynsmom --

We aren't planning on using Google as our search engine.

Tamara

Tamara, Maybe GW can create their own search engine using the criteria that we all feel is important?

Tamara, just curious, why don't you want to use the search engine that Google has for websites? It is used on another site I visit and it seems to work pretty well. And you can enable image search as well.

Here is a link that might be useful: Google Custom Search Engine

I just typed the word "search" into the current engine, and this thread did not turn up on the first page of results. I also knew a basic no-earlier-than date, and that the original post contained the terms "garden*" (didn't know if it was "gardenweb" or "garden web"), and that one of the followup posts contained "google". I couldn't recall the posters name, but if available, I would have entered "gw*" in the field for original posters name.

How about:
1. Search by title (any phrase or blank, wildcard would be helpful, ands and ors within the search)
and
2. Search by individual post content (any phrase or blank,wildcard would be helpful, ands and ors within the search)
and
3. Search by entire thread content.
and
4. Search by thread originator (any phrase or blank, meaning it may not be the posters exact, complete name)
and
5. Search by contributor (any phrase or blank, meaning it may not be the posters exact, complete name)
6. Return results by mm/dd/yy hh:mm of original post
or
time of last contribution by anyone
or
time of last contribution by above-searched contributor
and
7. Choose recently started posts first or reverse
or
8. Instead of sorting by post origination date, sort by contribution date.
9. Return titles only
or
return text like today

Is it possible to search posts older than a certain date? I am not sure, because I do not have patience for the current search, but I believe that posts older than a certain date are unavailable?