New search On The Student Room!
Hi everyone!
I’m delighted to update you all on a change to our search functionality on The Student Room. As many of you who have used this search would know, results were often very vague and not very useful, with user testing sessions showing that new users would really struggle to find conversations or support useful and specific to them.
We are now gradually releasing a new search experience sitting in the new designed and new technology “React” version of The Student Room (you will already see this on our guest thread experience and soon to be rolled out to members). A few things this new search does:
As this brings our content from The Uni Guide much closer to The Student Room users, we have also given The Uni Guide a new TSR flavoured logo.
This new experience allows us to be significantly quicker with changes on functionality and weighting on search results, so we will be making changes regularly and feedback will be listened to and factored in on this.
This search is currently out to 50% of Guests and Members, so it’s a 50/50 chance what search experience you will get when you jump in.
We would love to get your feedback on this so we can help improve in the future, so please do add yours below for the team to look at. We will also use this thread to update when we’ve made major changes to the experience, or we increase/decrease the size of the test.
EH
I’m delighted to update you all on a change to our search functionality on The Student Room. As many of you who have used this search would know, results were often very vague and not very useful, with user testing sessions showing that new users would really struggle to find conversations or support useful and specific to them.
We are now gradually releasing a new search experience sitting in the new designed and new technology “React” version of The Student Room (you will already see this on our guest thread experience and soon to be rolled out to members). A few things this new search does:
•
Instant search, so you get results as you type
•
Typo correction for sticky fingers!
•
Better matches, including use of TSR / education relevant synonyms
•
Less duplicate results by showing discussion threads, not individual posts
•
Integrated course and university results from our sister site - The Uni Guide
•
Articles included in the results from The Student Room
•
Separate tabs to search discussions, articles, courses or universities
As this brings our content from The Uni Guide much closer to The Student Room users, we have also given The Uni Guide a new TSR flavoured logo.
This new experience allows us to be significantly quicker with changes on functionality and weighting on search results, so we will be making changes regularly and feedback will be listened to and factored in on this.
This search is currently out to 50% of Guests and Members, so it’s a 50/50 chance what search experience you will get when you jump in.
We would love to get your feedback on this so we can help improve in the future, so please do add yours below for the team to look at. We will also use this thread to update when we’ve made major changes to the experience, or we increase/decrease the size of the test.
EH
(edited 12 months ago)
28/04/2023: We have now released this experience to 50% of our guests and members!
I guess Ive got the new search. It seems fairly poor at actually finding stuff, so searching for
ukraine
gave just about every other thread apart from the main one. As a related test I did
new search
on google (included "thestudentroom" in the search) and the new one here. This thread came out top on google, but I couldnt find this thread on the new search results? Even putting the full thread title in the new search didnt find it?
ukraine
gave just about every other thread apart from the main one. As a related test I did
new search
on google (included "thestudentroom" in the search) and the new one here. This thread came out top on google, but I couldnt find this thread on the new search results? Even putting the full thread title in the new search didnt find it?
Not liking the new format on TSR. I put in search box ''Lancaster'' which I do to see if theres any students that need help choosing etc, and it only brings up topics with Lancaster in the title of the thread ONLY. It no longer picks up threads where 'Lancaster' is mentioned in conversations which do not have Lancaster in the title. Can TSR please change it back?, this new version really sucks.
Original post by Ghostlady
Not liking the new format on TSR. I put in search box ''Lancaster'' which I do to see if theres any students that need help choosing etc, and it only brings up topics with Lancaster in the title of the thread ONLY. It no longer picks up threads where 'Lancaster' is mentioned in conversations which do not have Lancaster in the title. Can TSR please change it back?, this new version really sucks.
Just merging your thread with the main one so that the staff can see your feedback.
The old version is still accessible here:
https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/search.php?type=advanced
You might want to add this to bookmarks
You can also access the advanced search from any forum page currently:
Original post by 04MR17
Just merging your thread with the main one so that the staff can see your feedback.
The old version is still accessible here:
https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/search.php?type=advanced
You might want to add this to bookmarks
You can also access the advanced search from any forum page currently:
The old version is still accessible here:
https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/search.php?type=advanced
You might want to add this to bookmarks
You can also access the advanced search from any forum page currently:
Im on the home page and there is no search forum orange button with the advanced search. im on firefox on a laptop. in fact the whole bar where it says start new discussion is not up there.
also the bookmark with the advanced search does not work either. it just picks up the word lancaster if its got the word lancaster in the title only, which is not that great. If this is the way its going to be then im going to miss a whole ton of posts. The first page of search under lancaster goes back to february 2023, thats ages ago. (i clicked search entire posts too , not just titiles only)
(edited 12 months ago)
Original post by Evil Homer
Hi everyone!
I’m delighted to update you all on a change to our search functionality on The Student Room. As many of you who have used this search would know, results were often very vague and not very useful, with user testing sessions showing that new users would really struggle to find conversations or support useful and specific to them.
We are now gradually releasing a new search experience sitting in the new designed and new technology “React” version of The Student Room (you will already see this on our guest thread experience and soon to be rolled out to members). A few things this new search does:
EH
I’m delighted to update you all on a change to our search functionality on The Student Room. As many of you who have used this search would know, results were often very vague and not very useful, with user testing sessions showing that new users would really struggle to find conversations or support useful and specific to them.
We are now gradually releasing a new search experience sitting in the new designed and new technology “React” version of The Student Room (you will already see this on our guest thread experience and soon to be rolled out to members). A few things this new search does:
•
Less duplicate results by showing discussion threads, not individual posts
'Fewer' ....
Original post by Ghostlady
also the bookmark with the advanced search does not work either. it just picks up the word lancaster if its got the word lancaster in the title only, which is not that great. If this is the way its going to be then im going to miss a whole ton of posts. The first page of search under lancaster goes back to february 2023, thats ages ago. (i clicked search entire posts too , not just titiles only)
I had the same issue when I first used the advanced search - when the search results come up, change the 'Order by' from 'Relevancy' to 'Date'.
Original post by Ghostlady
Im on the home page and there is no search forum orange button with the advanced search. im on firefox on a laptop. in fact the whole bar where it says start new discussion is not up there.
also the bookmark with the advanced search does not work either. it just picks up the word lancaster if its got the word lancaster in the title only, which is not that great. If this is the way its going to be then im going to miss a whole ton of posts. The first page of search under lancaster goes back to february 2023, thats ages ago. (i clicked search entire posts too , not just titiles only)
also the bookmark with the advanced search does not work either. it just picks up the word lancaster if its got the word lancaster in the title only, which is not that great. If this is the way its going to be then im going to miss a whole ton of posts. The first page of search under lancaster goes back to february 2023, thats ages ago. (i clicked search entire posts too , not just titiles only)
There is no orange button on the home page, this is available on any forum page. My screenshot was from the help and announcements forum, for example.
The advanced search does work, there are settings to select "title only" or "search entire posts", this option is under "search criteria" on the left. There's also settings to sort the posts by date so that the newest comes first, and also time windows you can search by. These are on the left under Additional options:
Original post by mqb2766
I guess Ive got the new search. It seems fairly poor at actually finding stuff, so searching for
ukraine
gave just about every other thread apart from the main one. As a related test I did
new search
on google (included "thestudentroom" in the search) and the new one here. This thread came out top on google, but I couldnt find this thread on the new search results? Even putting the full thread title in the new search didnt find it?
ukraine
gave just about every other thread apart from the main one. As a related test I did
new search
on google (included "thestudentroom" in the search) and the new one here. This thread came out top on google, but I couldnt find this thread on the new search results? Even putting the full thread title in the new search didnt find it?
Thanks for the feedback. Could I ask which thread you are referring to specifically? I've just tried entering 'Russian Invasion of Ukraine' and the first thread that comes up is the one I presume you meant?
Original post by Muttley79
'Fewer' ....
Thanks for helping me make lesser grammatical errors!
Original post by leaf123
hate the new search feature. shall be trying to use the old format for as long as possible.
Could I ask why you hate it? Specifics help us listen to feedback and make changes
Original post by Evil Homer
Thanks for the feedback. Could I ask which thread you are referring to specifically? I've just tried entering 'Russian Invasion of Ukraine' and the first thread that comes up is the one I presume you meant?
Simply
ukraine
it worked on the old search. Similarly on google
thestudentroom ukraine
puts that one first.
(edited 12 months ago)
Original post by Evil Homer
Thanks for helping me make lesser grammatical errors!
Could I ask why you hate it? Specifics help us listen to feedback and make changes
Could I ask why you hate it? Specifics help us listen to feedback and make changes
sorry if my message came across as rude. basically I like to use the search feature to find specific words or phrases in recent threads. now when I search up those words I don't get any recent threads and the ones that do appear are like 2 months+ old and are completely irrelevant.
Original post by leaf123
sorry if my message came across as rude. basically I like to use the search feature to find specific words or phrases in recent threads. now when I search up those words I don't get any recent threads and the ones that do appear are like 2 months+ old and are completely irrelevant.
Didn't come across rude at all
Just want to get as much feedback as we possibly can, thank you!
Original post by Ghostlady
Im on the home page and there is no search forum orange button with the advanced search. im on firefox on a laptop. in fact the whole bar where it says start new discussion is not up there.
also the bookmark with the advanced search does not work either. it just picks up the word lancaster if its got the word lancaster in the title only, which is not that great. If this is the way its going to be then im going to miss a whole ton of posts. The first page of search under lancaster goes back to february 2023, thats ages ago. (i clicked search entire posts too , not just titiles only)
also the bookmark with the advanced search does not work either. it just picks up the word lancaster if its got the word lancaster in the title only, which is not that great. If this is the way its going to be then im going to miss a whole ton of posts. The first page of search under lancaster goes back to february 2023, thats ages ago. (i clicked search entire posts too , not just titiles only)
can still access the old search here it seems: https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/search.php?query=
This has probably already been mentioned, but it would be great if we could search for a user using the new search!
Original post by CatusStarbright
This has probably already been mentioned, but it would be great if we could search for a user using the new search!
As I understand it the new search is aimed at the majority of users who just want to type in a word or two and get relevant results quickly. For anything non-standard (searching for posts by a given user and/or in a given forum and/or within a given date range) the old advanced search will remain the appropriate tool to use.
Original post by DataVenia
As I understand it the new search is aimed at the majority of users who just want to type in a word or two and get relevant results quickly. For anything non-standard (searching for posts by a given user and/or in a given forum and/or within a given date range) the old advanced search will remain the appropriate tool to use.
Thanks for the link - I was struggling to find the old advanced search the other day.
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