Improving the search feature?

Question

Today, I really wanted to find a post that I swore I read.... it was a poke of "easy Spanish jokes" and had many many responses, but I couldn't find it in the search engine. Then, I wanted to find posts about Skype chats but was seeing them in all random order instead of most recent.

I think it would be great if you could sort the search results by number of responses and/or by date. Do you think this will ever be an option here at SpanishDict?

Answer 1

I definitely agree that there needs to be an advanced search option where you could insert search parameters like date, author of the question, or key words from the replies (not just the titles). There is a wealth of knowledge available in the previous threads, but as long as it is so much trouble to sort through it all, people will continue to refrain from using it.

Answer 2

I use Google to find SpanishDict threads, it seems to locate them better...

e.g.

second link

I was just going to suggest that :) - rabbitwho, Apr 7, 2011

Answer 3

Luciente, I myself was searching, unnsuccesfully for the thread, which was my own thread and could not find it!

"easy Spanish jokes"

I still can't actually. I saved it , otherwise I would have to look for it. geeeeeez

As pesta said, case sensitive, so who knows if I wrote that thread with some caps involved

I will see into this, let's see if I can get something done there. there should be some kind of advanced search.

I will look into this .... Heidi :) - ian-hill, Apr 7, 2011

Correction: The Phrasebook search is case-sensitive. I don't think the Answers search is done the same way! - pesta, Apr 10, 2011

You can find it with "very easy spanish children jokes" (and this is Not case-sensitive) - pesta, Apr 10, 2011

Answer 4

The search feature of the Phrasebook is another matter...

I've posted my discovery before, but I'll repeat it here: The Phrasebook search is Case-sensitive !!

If you type in multiple words, it matches any phrasebook entry (on both Spanish and English parts) which have any of your search terms in it. The word order is not important. But it will distinguish between "tener" and "Tener" so you have to search for both.

For example, if you want phrasebook entries using "tener", the right search entry would be, "tener Tener".

This feature's weakness has probably been the biggest reason that duplicate submissions go in, undiscovered. For example, search the phrasebook for "fin" and you'll see no less than 5 entries for "a fin de cuentas"

wow, it is???? - 00494d19, Apr 7, 2011

Answer 5

A very good idea !

Answer 6

Definitely!

Answer 7

Sorry, I am back. I had to go back to my answers to find this thread

But as it seems , this is not something that can be done soon. This was sent to me by the web owner:

Hi Heidi,

Thanks for sending in the suggestion! I don't think we'll get to this in the near term, but I will keep it on a list of things to do and perhaps over the next several months we can squeeze it in.

Thanks! Chris

The answers search is not case-sensitive. Only the Phrasebook search is case-sensitive. - pesta, Apr 10, 2011

Answer 8

Great idea, if they could just do a similar organization process as in the answers, like this...?

Answer 9

Yes, searching for prior threads can be very frustrating.