Refining Search Tool?

[Anonymous]

Jeff,

I was just trying to search for an old thread in the General Parenting Discussion forum. I typed in a few key words I thought I recalled "foster" and "feed" and the results that came back were overwhelming...I think because every matching post is displayed (e.g. multiple posts for a single thread). I am wondering if you can enhance the search tool such that the user could choose to see EVERY match, or just unique threads. I could see how the results for every match might be helpful, but I think alot of the time, a single result for the unque thread would work even better. It would really narrow down the threads to review in the results. Is this possible, and if so, desirable by anyone other than me?

[jsteele]

I know the search tool needs improvements but it's one of the more complex components of the site and not easily modified. When I've had time, I've researched possible improvements, but it's difficult to implement changes quickly without making things worse.

[Anonymous]

Sometime it also fails to find threads I know are there. I only get a few results and none of them are right. But if I do a google search of the site I find it.

[Anonymous]

google search! that's a good idea. i have a terrible time with the search function. often i want to find a thread from the last week or two, and i remember some random weird phrase that was in it, but it won't turn up -- instead i get old posts on random topics. i try to narrow it down by selecting the forum it was in, but the results aren't from that forum. i try to narrow it down by putting the search term in quotes but that (1) doesn't seem to change the results and (2) creates the bug posted about in another thread, where you can't click past the first page of results. argh.

anyway. google search. good idea. thanks, PP.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:I know the search tool needs improvements but it's one of the more complex components of the site and not easily modified. When I've had time, I've researched possible improvements, but it's difficult to implement changes quickly without making things worse.

Thanks for looking into this Jeff, and know that I appreciate the work and time you devote to this enterprise.

I am pregnant again with my second child, and will surely seek guidance again on the Expecting Moms board. Instead of creating new posts, I really want to take advantage of the archive. (Also to shield me from the "This has been asked before! Do a search!")

Again, thanks for what you do. I agree with the previous poster that google works really well when mining this site for information.