Using Google to search FlyerTalk (merged threads)
 

John,

While the FT internal search function is down, please include in the sticky announcement about it that adding site:www.flyertalk.com as a google search term will restrict the returned results to flyertalk.

This has been mentioned in several fora but I think adding it to the sticky will help more people to find it.

I don't know how frequently Google crawls Flyertalk, but I've been happy using it to find the FT postings I need.

While search is down, please include in sticky how to use Google
 

John,

While the FT internal search function is down, please include in the sticky announcement about it that adding site:www.flyertalk.com as a google search term will restrict the returned results to flyertalk.

This has been mentioned in several fora but I think adding it to the sticky will help more people to find it.

I don't know how frequently Google crawls Flyertalk, but I've been happy using it to find the FT postings I need.

Better yet, you can use the following URL to automatically limit search results to FlyerTalk.com:

http://www.Google.com/search?sitesea...%3CKeywords%3E

BTW, Google seems to be approx. 1 week behind for FT posts...

The Sticky at the top of each forum has been updated and does include the link to Google for search. I even renamed the announcement title so it looked a little different. Thanks for the suggestion and assistance.

Google search is a joke
 

The google search is a joke. Twice recently I have tried to perform a google search. The first one came up empty even though I know that there was a thread which had the search word in the title. The second one came up with lots of obsolete threads (from the archive) but did not return the recent threads.

I've come up empty on the last six or so Google searches even though I know there are multiple threads on the topic.

I guess that's why there is a lot of new competition in the search area. If you'd like to take this up with Google, here's the link page for complaining to them:

http://www.google.com/intl/en/contact/index.html

Hope this helps.

Yup, the Google search alternative is proving to be pretty useless...

Complaining to Google for a patch-up solution which is attempting to replace something that should normally work on this board is not the best approach, IMO. Rather than complain to them, can we please have an update on when the regular search will be up again?

When the search function was up, even if somewhat defective (was it? It didn't appear to be), it appeared to work pretty well--certainly better than the Google alternative. Can't we have that up again until the new search is implemented, even if it does not work at 100%?

Without a reliable search function, the usefulness of FlyerTalk is reduced quite significantly. :td:

Our problem is that we'd never get anything done if we attempted to answer each question on each of the various threads started about this. We did answer your question on another thread about the search function. That answer and update is here:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...25#post3909625

We did not think of posting it here because this seemed to be complaint thread about Google.

As well, it seems some have missed various posts about the board that indeed search can be utilized during this period by simply asking a moderator for help. We enabled them for search to help members which is really the purpose for moderators anyway and quite a few members have been able to get help this way.

On the other thread, you'll see comments from some of the more tech inclined members of the board that other Web sites have had problems with search - some disabling it for good and others now charging to reduce the server drain. While i'm not in the league of those members, I am very willing to accept their comments that search problems are not unique to FT and that among the larger boards it has become very expensive and an ongoing challenge. As noted in the other thread, we are introducing tow new servers, one to handle just search and the other to off-load graphic drain of use of smilies and other static graphics of the board itself. Those two servers are running $15K with the install and RAID. But we think if a few of our members will allow us to focus on this solution over the next week or two, everyone will be happy.

And really, we have a lot in common with our thoughts... "[Google] is not the best approach." We never intended it to be, but it seemed better than nothing.

Thanks, Randy, that provided a lot of the information and the update on the search function that I was looking for. Hope you guys are able to make it work! :)

Google search feedback
 

Please post any feedback on the recent search change there, that is detailed at:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/annou...uncementid=165

Thank you,

It defaults to "web", is there any way to make it default to Flyertalk?

Is there anyway to maintain the FlyerTalk Header/Menu bar up top so we can navigate to Home, Forums, Members, Extras, My flyertalk, etc from the search results page?

Is it possible to restrict the search to non-archive pages (or perhaps show these at the bottom)?

Also without any date info (or even sorting by date) it is hard to tell which result is most relevant.

Yes, similar problem here. What I was searching for, it didn't catch at all (and I KNOW there are at least 2 threads from the last couple of years on ths topic). Instead I got something from 2000.

Under the old system I had my choice of either the F/T search or the Google search. Now I have only the Google search. It seems like a losing proposition to me.

It's still there. Pull the search menu down, then click "advanced search".

"Search this forum" is also not using google.

Thanks, Scott. I didn't see that. :o

Hi,
I used the standard forum search button, with less than impressive results. The inability to search by topic title is my main issue with the google search.

Can the functionality of this google search be improved, so that searching is ordered by most recent and/or most relevant results?

Instead of the google option, I'll use the advanced search, by topic titles. Thanks for the warning of the change. ^

Thank for the feedback all, we are limited as to what we can do with this, but I'll see where we can make changes on this. For things like searching by forum or topic titles the advanced search will certainly be the way to go, but I think the Google search is actually alot better than the forum search in some ways as you can be very specific about what you are looking for (lots of search terms and terms that would kill the vB search in a second. Thanks again,

I like it - but agree I would like it to default to the FlyerTalk site rather than the web

Quick search by last post date is very important and is a big loss.

You can still use it, just click on advanced search, only enter something in the keywords field and it will give you the same result as if you had used the quick search box. :) Thanks,

Is it possible to filter or restrict the Google Adsense results that come up, to eliminate adult sites?

I just did a search for "MISC MATURE" (which was a puzzling credit that showed on my SPG account), and the Ads by Google box at the top of the page was offering up "Hot Naked Mature Moms".

Terrible IMO

I always use the Advanced Search option to search.

Yes, there is a way to filter this, just visit the Google search preferences page at:

http://www.google.com/preferences?hl=en

and change your setting for "SafeSearch Filtering" to the level that is most appropriate for you. Thanks,

Google Search
 

Is this feature now gone or is it a matter of renewing the contract with Google? :)

I did try to search for a thread regarding this, but that became a Catch-22 -- if you know what I mean.

Thanks.

You can use the Google search at: http://www.flyertalk.com/google_search.php :)

Thanks for the link, Tim. Much appreciated.

Is there a reason it came off the top or is that a vBulletin thing?

It is dependent on if you are logged in or not, logged in users are able to use the vB search and other users get the Google search as an alternative.

Ahhh... Thanks! The Google Search yields much more accurate results -- so I've seen.

Much appreciated!

Using Google to search FlyerTalk
 

After many unsuccessful searches on FlyerTalk, I have resorted to searching past posts using Google - which I find to be much more accurate and thorough.

I just enter the subject matter or a FT handle and add "flyertalk" and presto - a bullseye every time.

Does anyone else search FT this way?

You can also search with this in the search box: site:flyertalk.com.

I use this.

Aha! I like that. Thanks.

Been discussed many, many times over the past several years in the proper forum -- Technical Issues. (Definitely not a CommunityBuzz topic.)

Also, if you look in that forum, you will find info that will aid you in searching FlyerTalk using the FT Search as well. Sometimes it's a matter of learning how to use it; other times, the folks at IB are tinkering with it and have temporarily broken it. You can keep tabs on these things over there. @:-)