New TSR search: have your say

i like the one now

this ones yucky and just too google! :s-smilie:

maybe make the current one faster and add a filtery thing

idk! i dont like this new one though!

EDIT:

just did 2 searches.

one on the yucky new one and one on the old

prefer the old!

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 41

Fullofsurprises

20

Original post by greeneyedgirl

I need the filtering tbh, and I feel the TSR one is better organised. What would be nice to have on the current search is an option to search members without us having to go to the Find Members bit in the footer of the site.

Oh wow, until you mentioned that Find Members thing, I had no idea it even existed! I guess I never look in the bottom bit of web pages. :blush:

Switching to Google Site Search will cause a lot of old threads to resurface, as Google typically doesn't care if something is a year old, the algorithm just places stuff at the top according to the famed link ranker, etc. This will confuse users and we will see old threads being treated as current. That in turn will cause the site admins to eventually lock all old threads or even block them out to google, which would also be a shame.

Reply 42

greeneyedgirl

19

Original post by Fullofsurprises

Oh wow, until you mentioned that Find Members thing, I had no idea it even existed! I guess I never look in the bottom bit of web pages. :blush:

Switching to Google Site Search will cause a lot of old threads to resurface, as Google typically doesn't care if something is a year old, the algorithm just places stuff at the top according to the famed link ranker, etc. This will confuse users and we will see old threads being treated as current. That in turn will cause the site admins to eventually lock all old threads or even block them out to google, which would also be a shame.

Glad I could help :yep:

And actually yes that's a very good call with old threads, we don't really need an extra reason for people to bump old threads!

Reply 43

happysmile

18

I think the new one runs faster though, which is good (:

Reply 44

Fullofsurprises

20

Original post by greeneyedgirl

Glad I could help :yep:

And actually yes that's a very good call with old threads, we don't really need an extra reason for people to bump old threads!

You can make the standard Advanced Search / Site Search part of Google only find pages revised within a given time frame, like this one for the last month only.
https://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&as_q=fullofsurprises&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=&as_nlo=&as_nhi=&lr=&cr=&as_qdr=m&as_sitesearch=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thestudentroom.co.uk%2F&as_occt=any&safe=images&tbs=&as_filetype=&as_rights=

I don't know if that level of control is do-able when you are using it in your own web platform.

Reply 45

WhiteyBread101

21

I prefer the old one, there's nothing wrong with it and the google based one doesn't do as much :nah:

There's a new one?!

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 47

Tanqueray91

22

Works all good for me, and is much faster than the previous one. However, I dont like it having google search, I think having on site search with the new format would be cool

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 48

xXxBaby-BooxXx

19

I absolutely hate google searches within websites, please keep as is, as I actually use it a fair bit and would be annoyed if it got changed to the above :frown:

Reply 49

Chlorophile

20

Maybe it's just me being inflexible but I really much prefer the old system. I'll admit that the new search is faster but I think the old search interface is much nicer and much more informative. Google search is fine for Google, but I'm very happy with the old TSR search.

Reply 50

Mad Vlad

19

Original post by shooks

Do you ever use the little search box at the top-right of the page? We're looking at ways to make this on-site search much better and more useful - and one of the things we're considering is replacing it with Google Custom Search.

You can get an idea of how that would look on this test search page. Next time you need to search TSR, please try using this search page and then add a post here to let us know what you think. If lots of people like it, we'll look into properly integrating it into the site.

What we're using here is a simple embed of Google that is targeted specifically at TSR. That means you can use all the usual Google functionality (such as search modifiers) and it also means that the results that are returned are exactly the same as you would get from Google. We do block some of our pages from Google - including member profiles and any content that is only for subscribers (such as learning tools). So you wouldn't be able to find those using this search.

Try the TSR search beta test

quote list

I think a problem you're going to have are indexed posts that are in the bin and showing those in the results.

Reply 51

PQ

Clearing and Applications Advisor

21

Original post by shooks

Well, I'd turn that question round to you. Are you happy with the current search? If so, that's great news - but we've had a fair bit of feedback from people who would like to see it improved.

The only thing lacking from the current search is the option to display results as threads (so if you're looking for a thread you can find it without trawling through hundreds of posts using your search terms on a different thread).

This doesn't seem a useful alternative to the current search tool. It removes useful functionality like filtering by forum or user (quite often I search my own posts to find something I need to refer back to)

Can I suggest restricting searching to logged in members and offering this google search option to non-logged in visitors? That would reduce some of the impact on the servers, offer an incentive for visitors to sign up and not remove functionality for members.

Reply 52

Slowbro93

20

Original post by Mad Vlad

I think a problem you're going to have are indexed posts that are in the bin and showing those in the results.

Out of curiosity would it also show stuff from the moderation section too? :erm:

Reply 53

Illusionary

19

Original post by Slowbro93

Out of curiosity would it also show stuff from the moderation section too? :erm:

Only if they've ever been on the public site - AFAIK, Google essentially sees what a guest has permission to view.

In terms of the functionality of the search, I'd suggest that for a site with the diversity of topics that TSR does, the ability to narrow search results by forum (i.e., by topic) is very important - something that I don't think would be achievable with the search options that Google allows. There will also be issues from Google's results including words that appear on TSR pages (e.g., in the header, footer, postbit, etc.), whereas what people will generally be looking for is going to be the content just in posts.

The way that Google returns results is also likely to be problematic for those with non-standard settings for posts per page - if you want to find a specific post, Google is going to take you to the page that it sees it as being on, but when you're logged in, the page numbering is different.

Reply 54

Black Rose

21

I think the current one is fine as it is. I like it. I prefer it :yep:

It's more TSRy, the google custom search is dull :tongue:

The current search also shows more results and is more organised.

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 55

Andy98

20

Original post by shooks

Do you ever use the little search box at the top-right of the page? We're looking at ways to make this on-site search much better and more useful - and one of the things we're considering is replacing it with Google Custom Search.

You can get an idea of how that would look on this test search page. Next time you need to search TSR, please try using this search page and then add a post here to let us know what you think. If lots of people like it, we'll look into properly integrating it into the site.

What we're using here is a simple embed of Google that is targeted specifically at TSR. That means you can use all the usual Google functionality (such as search modifiers) and it also means that the results that are returned are exactly the same as you would get from Google. We do block some of our pages from Google - including member profiles and any content that is only for subscribers (such as learning tools). So you wouldn't be able to find those using this search.

Try the TSR search beta test

quote list

Looks good. Only thing I can think that may be an issue is crawl speed due to the rate of posting on here but that can't really be helped

Reply 56

MsFahima

20

No to Google. Because with the current one we can filter through to a section whereas it won't be possible with the Google search bar.

OP

Thanks for all the feedback so far - it's really useful to get an insight into how you all use the search feature.

So here's a follow-on question. Presuming we keep the existing search function in place, how would you like to see it improved?

Reply 58

Andy98

20

Original post by shooks

Thanks for all the feedback so far - it's really useful to get an insight into how you all use the search feature.

So here's a follow-on question. Presuming we keep the existing search function in place, how would you like to see it improved?