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Forum search engine broken?

Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 3:36 am
by Bikedude
I would have searched for this answer, but I can't.

The following search strings yield identical results for me:
- SQL Anywhere
- "SQL Anywhere"
- SQL AND Anywhere

The "search for all terms" option makes no difference. I get about 400 hits for that search phrase no matter what. And most (if not all) do not contain the word "Anywhere" anywhere.

I also tried a similar search, trying to find any post mentioning ".Net Framework" and "3.5" as well as "2.0" in the same post. Again I was unable to limit the result to something that only contains all of these terms.

Which magical incantation is required to make the search engine work properly?

Here is what you do...

Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 12:49 pm
by DanStutzman
I have the same problem.

The query engine doesn't accept "%query%" as a string so you have to type AND between every word. That is the only way I have been able to find what I am looking for.

All Boolean all the time.

Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 12:50 pm
by Bikedude
But AND works for you?

I can't even get the boolean mojo going at all. :(

Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 1:12 pm
by DanStutzman
This is an error message I have searched for successfully:
Error Could not access network location \\workspace.

So I query:

Error AND Could AND not AND access AND network AND location


Maybe you need to be a bit more specific with your query. They seem a bit vauge.

Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 1:17 pm
by Bikedude
DanStutzman wrote:Error AND Could AND not AND access AND network AND location
That query yields 8 hits.

So does:
Error Could not access network location

(i.e. same query without "AND")

OK, I think part of the problem is that "anywhere" yields zero hits. It does not influence the search result at all, even though it is combined with another term.

I find it a bit hard to limit my search phrase, because the product is known as "SQL Anywhere". Maybe it is usually hyphenated, but I don't want to be _that_ specific, given "only" 700+ hits for "SQL".

Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 1:30 pm
by DanStutzman
That's odd. When I search with AND I get 8 hits... but without I get 724 hits.

Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 2:18 pm
by MichaelNesmith
If you use the "Ask" feature on the IDE toolbar, it uses Google, which we obviously cannot compete with as a search engine :) You will get a lot more relevant hits that way.