Search facility

[Bat & Frog]

Could someone please explain how the search works, as I either seem to get one thread or 15+ pages ! when I know the thread is out there.

Thanks

[bottle]

The search facility on here is known to be a little temperamental.

 

There are two sites, set-up by members, that use the 'google custom search', these can be better but as with all search facilities you need to know exactly what you are searching for.

 

http://www.retailandmarine.co.uk/CWFSearch/index.html

 

http://www.greenferret.net/cwfsearch/

[Keeping Up]

The basic search facility is pretty pathetic, but careful choices on the "more search options" page can make it a lot lot better. For example, opting to display the results as posts or topics, with filtering by date and poster, gives fairly reliable results.

[alan_fincher]

Two important things to know, that can help......

 

1) You cannot search for anything 3 characters or less - if you must do that use one of the Google based alternatives already mentioned.

 

2) Putting a "plus" sign in front of any word means it must be present.

 

So searching for

 

+solid +fuel +stove

 

will restrict what is found to only posts containing all of those three words

 

If you search for

 

solid fuel stove

 

you will get many, many more hits, as if any of those words is present it will get selected, (e.g. irrelevant posts talking about diesel fuel or a solid impact....)

[Québec]

I know people complain about it a lot, but I don't think the CWDF search facility is that bad...as long as you use it properly and use the 'more search options' page, because the basic search facility IS pretty crap, but the two so called 'Google' based search sites mentioned are also rubbish. A search, just as an example, for "battery charger" on both those sites turned up the sum total of TWO posts on the Forum. Using the CWDF search turned up 44 posts with "battery charger" in the title, and 420 with 'battery charger' somewhere in the post.

 

If you're looking for something specific, the chances are that the whatever you're looking for will be in the title of the post.

 

Use the 'more search options' facility (first making sure, if you've come in via a particular forum e.g Equipment, that the 'search this forum only' box is UNCHECKED - this will allow a search across all the forums).

 

In the 'Search by Keywords' box, if you want an exact phrase, then use quotation marks e.g."battery charger" , otherwise, as others have said, use +battery +charger which will give every mention of battery and/or charger.

 

Then in the 'Seach Where' box, select the 'Search titles only' button.

 

That should produce every post with the phrase "battery charger" somewhere in the title.

 

Usefully, you can also combine exact phrases with other keywords. So "battery charger" +problem turns up 2 posts.

 

Hope this helps...at least a bit.

[paulcatchpole]

... but the two so called 'Google' based search sites mentioned are also rubbish. ...

 

Ours didn't used to be rubbish, but has gone rubbish recently, honest!

 

Oddly, using google directly using "site:canalworld.net <search terms>" works fine, but our google-engine one doesn't.

 

It's odd, and I need to look at it, but haven't found enough momentum recently to do so. It's not like I get paid for it!

 

PC

 

Edited to add, quick example using google directly for "battery charger" gives 760 results:

 

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=site%3Aca...lient=firefox-a

Edited June 6, 2010 by paulcatchpole