PDB: why can't we search by ALL words rather than just ANY

I think it would be MUCH, MUCH easier to find things in the DB, especially when searching by common names, if it would search by ALL the words you put in the search engine. For instance, if you look for 'Black Eyed Suzy' you get like 700 things that have no relation to a black eyed suzy - you get everything that has 'black', 'eyed' or 'suzy' in the name.

Although the search works great if you know the latin names, it doesn't work well if you just know the common name and, usually, if I'm searching on there it's because I don't know the latin name. . .

Is there any chance of changing that so you could search on ANY or ALL words?

Am I the only one that has this problem?

Thanks!!

Onalee

No, I totally agree. I don't know that much about programming, but there might not be a way without a huge upgrade. Dave, is there a way this can be done?

It would be nice to put the search terms in quotation marks, like when a search is done in google, to limit the results we get to the exact phrase. I would love that option in the Plant Database as well.

This message was edited Jun 26, 2004 3:39 AM

I agree. I've found a bit of a work around. Usually if I know the Genus or can determine it from the list of 100 plants it returns I will view a plant from the Genus and then click on the GENUS name in that plant's PDB entry. That then brings up a list of all the plants in the PDB in that GENUS so I can sort by cultivar or species. This works when I'm trying to find a specific cultivar.

I think a boolean search is really needed (which is what Google uses). Quotation marks for specific phrases and + or - signs for words you want to include or exclude in the search would make it a lot quicker to find exactly want you're looking for.

until that happens, you can google the pdb . . .

To only get pdb info pages (not image pages and such) include the phrase "Detailed Information"

example - the search string

site:plantsdatabase.com "black eyed susan" "Detailed Information"

returns 26 results. http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=site%3Aplantsdatabase%2Ecom+%22black+eyed+susan%22+%22Detailed+Information%22

The downside is that with google you are only able to search what was indexed the last time google indexed the pdb . . . I think google indexes every month to 6 weeks (not sure). So you won't get the latest stuff. (The in house seems to search what's there at the time)

it comes in handy for me

Cheri'

Cheri - Thanks for that info - I never thought of doing that!!

I will definately give it a try!!

Onalee