Searching forums

I'm having trouble searching the forums. The thread I read some time ago is about a sedum that was taking over and covering everything in its path.
I've tried to search for it and when I press enter the search button is cleared and no search happens.
I guess I'm doing something wrong?

The search function is a bit strange at the moment.

When you search, you are taken to another page where you'll need to re-enter your search word or phrase. Once you do that, then you'll be given the search results.

Hopefully, it was just a fluke for that search.
I guess I was confused, too, by the Google search option.

All I wanted was a forum search and there did not seem to be an "enter" place for that search and hitting enter on my keyboard just cleared the whole thing.

Never was able to comlete my search! Oh well.

Thanks, Terry

Please try it again when you have a chance. Once you enter your search word or phrase, just press "enter" to submit it. Dave is currently using Google's search engine for the forum searches (I think it's a little easier on the server than using an internal search engine, which is a tremendous resource drain ;o)

All the ads on google are distracting. You get page after page of the same vendors and finding the info (on the forums) you want takes lots of persistence.
I understand we've grown so much, though, the drain, etc...
So I won't give up.
Thanks!

I think it's ironic that some of the Google search ads are for garden suppliers who have received questionable ratings on the DG Watchdog!

It's about $$$, isn't it?

You may have noticed that the search engine has been redone again, and the google search is gone.

Dave

Are we ever going to go back to the way search was before when you could search even just a phrase by member and by forum? It was so great.

Well, I could put it back right now, but it would then cause the server to slow down to such a crawl that it wouldn't be useable. So, which is preferable: having a great search, or having a server that is fast enough to be used?

Dave

We want it all Dave and we want it now! LOL Take your time, I am just glad it will be back at some point. It is amazing how often I used search. I had no idea until it was gone. So of course my appreciation went up immediately! Thanks Dave!

Wow! I had no idea my wish would be granted. Thank you so much!
JenG

Yahoo search is acting buggy...Says there is one result to my query, but there's nothing there:

i get the same thing as GW

You can always search using Google by using the Google toolbar http://toolbar.google.com and doing a page search. Or, you can go to Google.com and type in site:davesgarden.com before your search term. That makes Google only look at DG for the search terms.

glad to know its just not me. i did one says three things and doesnt show any of them.

I fixed that bug - thanks. It was reporting there was one result when actually there were none.

dave

Is it not working again! I get results based on the forums and some letters, very weird, and frustrating!

J

This is a little different - regarding a search. I did a google search for an Alton Brown recipe for corned beef and cabbage and a Dave's Garden recipe forum thread was one of the results. I realize we're on the web but I was surprized that these threads were "open". Is that the case for all?

Jennifer, it's because you're logged in here. If you log out of DG, then try the same search, chances are you probably won't come up with the same information - some of it depends on where the matching word or phrase appears - in a DG subscribers-only forum (such as this one), or one that visitors and non-subscribers can see, but they can't read past the first post.

Actually, the recipe search I did was when I was not logged in here at all. The entire thread was visible. It surprized me. Surely google couldn't "tell" was a member?

Try not only logging out of DG, but also clearing your cookies, and then go back to Google and do your search again. I'm going to try, too.

I selectively cleared my cookies first, just deleting those from DG - the rest I left. I closed out my browser and tried DG to make sure I wasn't logged in, then went to Google and searched for the phrase you mentioned. Darius' thread at http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/474590/ was the third hit (yay!). When I went to it, I was only able to see the first post in the thread, which is how things should be if someone's not logged in.

http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/474590/ = 3rd hit, as you say, GW. However, I get the entire thread - including a recipe for holupchi's (Ukranian cabbage rolls) and a discussion about caraway seeds...I wasn't logged into Dave's. I checked my cookie log and my Pest Patrol had already deleted cookies. Beyond that I don't know how to delete them. Maybe that's why I got the whole thread.

When you were able to see everything in the thread, were you able to go to the DG homepage and see the "Welcome Home, JennferG!" at the top? If so, you were logged in still.

This should help: http://help.expedient.com/browsers/cookies.shtml#delete If you use a browser not mentioned, let us know which one. The main thing is, once you've logged out and deleted your cookies, close your browser and go to www.davesgarden.com -- see if you're logged in. If you're not, you shouldn't (theoretically!) be able to see anything except the first post.

This message was edited Mar 22, 2005 1:15 AM

Thanks, GW! I'll have to explore all that - soon.
JenG

Just a note on the forum search, I've found lately that the quickest way to find anything in a DG forum is to use Google's advanced search. Put "Dave's Garden" in the "exact phrase" block or in the "all of these words" block, and use the other blocks for key words from the forum name and the topic you're looking for. I turned to this when the DG search first started going wonky - think it was when the server went down - ? Anyway, it's turned up what I'd been looking for, every time. A good complement to DG, IMO - helps keep our content accessible.

Shannon

Shannon, my hat off to you -
I just don't have that kind of patience aymore and miss our old DG Search very much.
)~:

I miss it too, Ulrich.

In my case, I think it's impatience....lol....just don't want to wade through all the irrelevant (though interesting!) results on the DG search, now that it's for the whole site and not forum-specific anymore. Don't mind having google open in a separate window while I'm DG-ing - I figure DG won't mind the competition, as DG's business is plants, not forum searches, and it keeps the info accessible to me. But correct me if I'm wrong, Dave! :-)

You don't even need to go to advanced options -- just type site:davesgarden.com and a space, then your search term(s).

Yep, whichever you prefer.

The hit rate with this Search is poor to say the least but then again I prefer DG running at a decent speed and not loosing bandwidth to the search queries.
Ahhh the good old days when I actually could find stuff from the past in the forums :)

My goodness, the search here is horrendous. Is it truly going through yahoo, as it says?

Dave, can you switch it to re-direct to google automatically or include a link to google with directions to put in "site:davesgarden.com" or something? It just seems like a farce being here when it does not even work. I searched for "frontline" here and got 1 result. Then I went to Google and searched "site:davesgarden.com frontline" and got 60! Other members who don't visit this forum probably deserve an explanation on the search page that it does not really work so they don't get so frustrated when they don't get results.

I've given up all together using the 'search' feature here.....just doesn't work right. If I want broad info I search using Google, but if I wanted to search the old threads and forums here on DG I am now out of luck. :-(

Can you give a couple examples of specific info you're looking for? Maybe some of us can try different search engines and see if any work better than others. If you know the year the post was done, that can be included in a search, because the date is included on each new post. Specific terms work better than general, too. If you remember a specific person posted about something in 2004, let's say, you could try year/member/words.

For example, if you were looking for a thread regarding using the Frontline product on cats, you would be better off searching for frontline cats: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=site%3Adavesgarden.com+frontline+cats&btnG=Search It brings up about 31 hits

2004 Frontline brings up about 52 results: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=site%3Adavesgarden.com+2004+frontline&btnG=Search

2004 Frontline cats brings up about 26 results: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=site%3Adavesgarden.com+2004+frontline+cats&btnG=Search

If you remember the post was by, say Angelsong, and it was about Frontline use on dogs, here are four results: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=site%3Adavesgarden.com+2004+angelsong+frontline+dogs&btnG=Search

Does that help any?

This message was edited Mar 29, 2005 1:21 PM

It would be good to note on the search page that the search feature is currently very limited, and suggest alternatives and the best ways to use them.

Okay here an example:
The following is what I'm searching for: Dave's Garden Forums: Hoyas: PanamonCreel
I used the following search term: "site:davesgarden.com Dave's Garden Forums: Hoyas: PanamonCreel"
Now this should bring up all my posts within the Hoya forum first.

MSN Search: 5 Hits, 3 from the Hoya forum (boooooooo)
Yahoo and AltaVista Search: 28 hits but only 3 from the Hoya forum (Muhahahaha)
Google: 238 hits, 31 from the Hoya forum (that's much better)

So now Ohhh mighty Dave
Google shows to be still the superior search (at least with the terms I use.), can the search engine within DG be set up to use Google again but also include a drop down menu with the specific DG Forums which will be automatically added to the search term send out so that members do not have to enter them manually?
Also a box for username maybe?

Milan

I'll add a very quiet "ditto". hiding behind Milan the Brave One

I finally broke down and spent a few minutes doing a DG site search via Google just now and was finally able to locate a couple of the threads re:Echium that I've been searching for.

I think Dave switched to Yahoo because it doesn't have the advertising clutter that Google does. But I also tend to rely on Google for better results (and even with them, I know there are newer threads that aren't coming up.)

I'd love to see us be able to bring back full-text searching, but I know it's a huge bandwidth drain problem. (Hiding behind Milan and Happenstance, even though I know Dave can find my shins to give me a swift kick ;o)