As I'm still fairly new at this site, when I get the chance I search on fairly random words to see what comes up. However, I'm a bit baffled by the way the results are presented: they don't appear to be in any order so that various hits on the same discussion appear spread over many pages.
Is there anyway to specify the way the results of the search are presented (i.e. by date)? What is the default setting for how the results are sorted?
Thanks Jeremy. I'm still confused though, how does relevance work. If I put in the word 'melodeon' I would have thought that two adjacent posts in the same thread that contained the word 'melodeon' would have been displayed together, this doesn't seem to happen.
Google search works fine for me - you'll also have the advantage of using advanced operators like melodeon -bodhran (see the Google cheat sheet) etc. etc.
...and I don't have to use Google's "Advanced" search, I type it in as What!?? said.
The only problem is that Google takes a week to update their cache, so if you're looking for anything current, it's better to manually browse the discussions.
The results of searching there with "the session" checked are identical to going to Google and using "site:www.thesession.org". And you can use all the advanced operators you want.
But as Shrog points out, this won't be quite up to date with the current state of the site so if you're looking for something recent, you'll be better off using the search facility in the relevant area.
Searching Discussions
Searching Discussions
As I'm still fairly new at this site, when I get the chance I search on fairly random words to see what comes up. However, I'm a bit baffled by the way the results are presented: they don't appear to be in any order so that various hits on the same discussion appear spread over many pages.
Is there anyway to specify the way the results of the search are presented (i.e. by date)? What is the default setting for how the results are sorted?
# Posted on June 19th 2006 by Compo
Re: Searching Discussions
Results are sorted by relevance, which is the way most search results (like Google's) work.
# Posted on June 19th 2006 by Jeremy
Re: Searching Discussions
It is complicated.
I finally gave up trying to look for my topic and posted a new thread.
# Posted on June 19th 2006 by kate01581
Re: Searching Discussions
Thanks Jeremy. I'm still confused though, how does relevance work. If I put in the word 'melodeon' I would have thought that two adjacent posts in the same thread that contained the word 'melodeon' would have been displayed together, this doesn't seem to happen.
Just curious.
# Posted on June 19th 2006 by Compo
Re: Searching Discussions
Hmm. Out of curiosity I tried putting "melodeon site:thesession.org" into Google's search engine. It didn't work.
It didn't work either when I changed it to "melodeon site:http://www.thesession.org";.
# Posted on June 19th 2006 by Trevor Jennings
Re: Searching Discussions
lazyhound
Try using Google's "Advanced" search, entering melodeon in the "all of the words" field entering thesession.org in the "Domain" field.
# Posted on June 19th 2006 by ʎɹoʇısuɐɹʇ
Re: Searching Discussions
Google search works fine for me - you'll also have the advantage of using advanced operators like melodeon -bodhran (see the Google cheat sheet) etc. etc.
# Posted on June 19th 2006 by P&P
Re: Searching Discussions
Laitch, thanks for that explanation. It wasn't immediately obvious to me.
# Posted on June 20th 2006 by Trevor Jennings
Re: Searching Discussions
I always use Google instead of the "local" search. Best search engine ever.
# Posted on June 20th 2006 by Shrog
...and I don't have to use Google's "Advanced" search, I type it in as What!?? said.
The only problem is that Google takes a week to update their cache, so if you're looking for anything current, it's better to manually browse the discussions.
# Posted on June 20th 2006 by Shrog
Re: Searching Discussions
If you want to use Google to search The Session, you can do so from the front page of the site:
http://www.thesession.org/index.php/search
The results of searching there with "the session" checked are identical to going to Google and using "site:www.thesession.org". And you can use all the advanced operators you want.
But as Shrog points out, this won't be quite up to date with the current state of the site so if you're looking for something recent, you'll be better off using the search facility in the relevant area.
For the geeks amongst you, here's the info on using Google's search API:
http://www.google.com/apis/
And the way the search works in the discussion section is using MySQL's fulltext search:
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/fulltext-search.html
# Posted on June 20th 2006 by Jeremy