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Parallax/Google search anomaly — Parallax Forums

Parallax/Google search anomaly

RickBRickB Posts: 395
edited 2007-06-02 06:24 in General Discussion
When using the search string: "lcd sx -propeller site[noparse]:http:[/noparse]//forums.parallax.com/forums/default.aspx?f=7", I get zero results.
If I eliminate "-propeller" I get lots of results. Does this imply that I cannot search just 1 particular forum or eliminate a common word from the search? Is there a way to search just 1 forum?

Rick

Post Edited (RickB) : 4/29/2007 10:30:54 PM GMT

Comments

  • Chris SavageChris Savage Parallax Engineering Posts: 14,406
    edited 2007-04-29 05:05
    Rick,

    You're only supposed to specify the domain name but you specifying a specific path. Use only forums.parallax.com for the site. Take care.

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    Chris Savage
    Parallax Tech Support
  • PARPAR Posts: 285
    edited 2007-04-29 06:02
    Chris Savage (Parallax) said...
    Rick,

    You're only supposed to specify the domain name but you specifying a specific path. Use only forums.parallax.com for the site. Take care.

    Maybe I'm missing the same point, but "propeller" in the advanced search's "without the words ..." doesn't seem to work. Equivalently, neither does a plain search that contains "-propeller", as Rick found (irrespective of his having the "site" parameter incorrectly overspecified).

    What is it about "propeller" (or Google search) that causes the search to balk on "not" propeller?

    BTW, excluding·"prop", "propel" do work (but probably not in the word-stemming sense since Google says it doesn't do stemming or wildcards), just not excluding "propeller"???

    PAR
  • RickBRickB Posts: 395
    edited 2007-04-29 06:03
    Chris: using just the site address "forums.parallax.com" dose not change the result. Still no results if I exclude the word propeller from the search.

    Rick
  • Chris SavageChris Savage Parallax Engineering Posts: 14,406
    edited 2007-04-29 16:35
    I will let our IT guy know...It is a little strange. Thanks for the information.

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    Chris Savage
    Parallax Tech Support
  • RickBRickB Posts: 395
    edited 2007-05-25 16:14
    Any progress on this issue?

    Rick
  • Peter JakackiPeter Jakacki Posts: 10,193
    edited 2007-05-30 22:21
    I though the google syntax used the site parameter first, like this "site: forums.parallax.com lcd sx -propeller".
    Doing this returned a page of results.

    Just in case, here is the address used:-
    www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&q=site%3A+forums.parallax.com++lcd+sx+-propeller&btnG=Google+Search&meta=

    *Peter*
  • Jeremie Urieff(Parallax)Jeremie Urieff(Parallax) Posts: 10
    edited 2007-05-31 18:52
    Hi
    You’ve found a feature that Dot Net Bulletin Board(Parallax forums) uses that’s throwing off the Google crawls.·
    If you look in the upper right hand corner of any forum or topic, you’ll see a Forum Quick Jump drop down menu.· Any of the words used to name a forum topic are in that drop down, and are embedded throughout the site.· So a crawl taking place on the forums will include these words, even though the forum topic doesn’t.
    If you look at the source code of the site, and search for propeller or sandbox, you’ll see what I’m talking about(if using Internet Explorer simple right click an area on your screen, and select view source, it’ll bring up a notepad with html on it.
    Searches performed with an exclusion of any word used in the forum topics are going to be washed out unfortunately because of this feature.
    Jeremie
  • RickBRickB Posts: 395
    edited 2007-06-01 14:55
    So, what does it take to get a search function that actually works the way it is supposed to? Much of the usefulness of ANY forum depends on being able to search for past subjects without having to wade through to many posts. A good search function helps to avoid the same questions being asked over and over.

    Could the words in the quick jump menu be turned into graphic objects?

    Rick
  • PARPAR Posts: 285
    edited 2007-06-02 06:24
    Jeremie Urieff(Parallax) said...
    Hi
    You’ve found a feature that Dot Net Bulletin Board(Parallax forums) uses that’s throwing off the Google crawls.·
    If you look in the upper right hand corner of any forum or topic, you’ll see a Forum Quick Jump drop down menu.· Any of the words used to name a forum topic are in that drop down, and are embedded throughout the site.· So a crawl taking place on the forums will include these words, even though the forum topic doesn’t.
    If you look at the source code of the site, and search for propeller or sandbox, you’ll see what I’m talking about(if using Internet Explorer simple right click an area on your screen, and select view source, it’ll bring up a notepad with html on it.
    Searches performed with an exclusion of any word used in the forum topics are going to be washed out unfortunately because of this feature.
    Jeremie
    Jeremie,

    Great detective work on this one !!

    Thanks for pursuing the question.

    PAR
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