I agree with the previous posters on the search function, and will add my 2 cents worth... I find it frustrating that the search function requires words of more than 4 letters! If I enter "buy ticket", for instance, the function does not recognize "buy", and the search goes off in a completely different direction than I wanted. I don't have time to become a thesaurus for a simple search, so I try not to use search unless I have the time and absolutely have to do the search.

I just thought i didn't know how to search properly cause i was new...

I did figure out last night how to display the results by post (instead of the whole thread), but IMHO it's too hidden/complicated.

I also tried to search for a thread that i knew existed ('Citi Platinum Amex has been upgraded', or some wording to that effect). I typed in 'Citi platinum amex' and the thread i was looking for didn't even make it to the first page of results.

Thanks for taking feedback - i hope the search function can be improved soon.

Isn't the IB team working together with the Webflyer IT staff?

I thought Mikel at Webflyer had compiled a task list from the legend search problems thread and sent to IB a while ago already? I would also suggest you to check out the Technical Issue Forum and see what had been reported that may be related to beta search. One thread came to my mind that may have been intertwined with the new search bugs.

One very frustrating thing for those of us who pay attention to the system glitches and take time reporting them to the board is the lack of communication or timely responses from the IB. Of course it is nice to have you starting "collecting" feedback now. I guess better late than never. (Please don't take it personally.) If I may, even without you asking, we've been giving feedback for MONTHS. There is sort of a self-help group among those tech-savvy FTers in the above referenced threads. You should be able to see some work-around solutions imbedded in them.

It would be even nicer if IB could give us a headsup on the timetable of the "permanent solutions", preferrably sometimes soon. @:-)

Thank you for asking.

thanks for asking, even if belatedly.

it's unrelated, but perhaps you can explain why you guys didn't seem truly interested in feedback until now? i don't want to sound hostile, i'm genuinely curious as to what changed.

to the topic at hand: i mentioned this on the other thread, but will state it again here: one change that's really unpleasant is the unavailability of a search that can be saved. if i'm doing a search on a place i might like to visit, it's helpful to save the results so i can get the same information in the future without having to come up with the proper search string. if i try to save the search now, it defaults to the search page, but there's no information. there's a complicated work-around a helpful flyertalker suggested in the other thread, but it would be nice to have a functionality that involves being able to save search results.

my vote is with others who have posted, the new search seems inferior to the old one. GoingAway is correct, while it's entirely possible this new search is getting complete results, i don't trust it.
(with cause, i suppose, 'cause often i can't find a thread i know exists....somewhere.)

One of the top reasons for scrapping the old search and designing the new search is so that flyertalk members can search for 3 letter words - ie. "buy" and airport codes. So, please - do try your search again, I don't think your 4 letter complaint above is a valid one. (And as per the post beneath - no intention of sounding harsh, just pointing out that the 4 letter search was indeed a problem but has been addressed as one of the top priorities).

Agree w/ the others that feedback has been given for quite a while & it's unfortunate that it's taken this long. But as has also been mentioned, better late than never.

BTW - just as a matter of politeness, you might have ended your last sentence with 'any longer'. Saying that a complaint is not valid (when until recently it was) is a bit harsh. Just a thought.

Cheers.

I'd like to be able to search for all terms. I was for example searching for Johathan Miles to see if anybody posted the link to his free book.

Of course the search brought up a million posts, as miles is probably the most used term here.

There are other times it would be good to find only posts which include all the search terms.

Might I also suggest you take time to get feedback from the moderators in Phoenix this weekend?

When I go to the search, and type in "Jonathan Miles" with quotes to indicate that this is an exact phrase I am looking for - there are no results. The operators such as AND, OR, NOT are implemented in this search engine and you can always use ( + - ) signs to target the search further, for example

"Jonathan Miles" -delta -united +free +book

Same problem for me, only it also fails when I just do the general search with the specific phrase.

P.S., FTers could search for 3 letter words in the old search, all you had to do was add an * after them, which rarely created problems for me. E.g., to search for LAX, type in LAX*.

This is a reported problem in the ongoing Search Problems Thread in Technical Issue Forum.

The conclusion seems to be beta search fails to search the "key words" in the thread title and only search in the posts themselves. That is causing a major headache for our mods.

It appears that the upcoming Arizona moderator meeting will focus on all of these issues. As per "AZ Travels the World"; he will deliver an exact detailed list for the critical changes that are needed. We will amend some things according to that list in order to change the administration experience and the general user experience. And while I realize that there are other ongoing fix requests the moderator compiled list will be an important document indicating not only the current status of flyertalk forums but the steps that we need to take towards improving the community.

Just as a point of clarification, at the upcoming Moderator Workshop, we will be setting aside time to discuss the current problems with FT search functionality. Our objective will be come up with a list of problems and priorities, from the perspective of the moderator group.

While we moderators obviously have search experiences as users, we have a unique set of problems using the search function in our moderator roles. It's the latter that we'll be primarily focusing on in this discussion, in order to provide InternetBrands with a list of the top search-related problems we now face as mods.

We will also no doubt capture general search problems, and will also report those to IB. But folks, please don't rely exclusively upon this process to identify all the user problems with the search tool. Please continue reporting your problems and concerns directly via PM, or by posting in this thread, or one of the search-focused threads in the Technical Issues forum.

Thanks!

-AZ

Yes. Being a big forums guy myself I side with the issues and I am hoping that the moderators of this forum are a fairly good representation of a sizable portion of the majority on FlyerTalk and the list will therefore present concrete examples of things that we need to fix. On a slight sidenote, InternetBrands had a meeting today where "the flyertalk list" has been discussed and I am looking forward to it as we want to make sure everyone is happy with their flyertalk experience. Contact me directly in the meantime via PM or email if you have any other concerns; and don't hesitate to post in this thread as I checking this often.

Thanks again,

Mike / InternetBrands.com

I do not like the new search function at all. Especially the one "Find more posts of this user". The way it sorts those posts is horrible and not reliable. Also, if you do that for your own posts, it doesn't show me any more if there are replies to it which mean that I would like to go back to that thread. I don't have the time to go to each and every thread every time I log in. So this was really an easy way to check if anybody responded to me.
Please make sure that this will be fixed somehow.

thank you