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BETTER SEARCHES! Here's some help...

post #1 of 37
4/4/07 at 7:48am
Thread Starter 
I know it can be difficult at times to search for information you know is out there, but you just can't seem to retrieve it when you run a search! Then to add to the agony, you ask a question and someone tells you to "RUN A SEARCH!"

Well, here's a quick tutorial on how to achieve more productive searches. Hope it helps!

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1. A Google AVS Site Search often brings up AVS hits if an AVS search does not work.

Go to the top of the forum and click on Search
Under Google AVS Site Search type in your keywords and click GO
This should bring up a Google listing of links to posts on AVS that include those words

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2. The sites uses FULL TEXT search, thus you can just use quotes.

Under Search, Search This Thread, Google Search, or Advanced Search - typing in "clean plasma" will find any post that has the phrase inside the quotes.

Example: Doing a search for "more productive searches" (with the quotes) will find this post.

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3. Go to Advanced Search<--- click here

Search by Keyword(s) - you can enter several keywords you know should be included by using + sign in front of each word and the * behind the word (i.e. +clean* +plasma* )
Search Entire Posts or Search Titles Only - choose which is best for you - Note that Search Titles Only also searches POST TITLES and not just THREAD TITLES (for you can title a post that is inside a thread)
Advanced Search Help - click on this for more search tips
Show Results as - click on Posts or Threads
Search in Forum(s) - choose which forum or forums you want to search (i.e. Plasma Flat Panel Displays)
Save Search Preferences - click on this at the bottom for a quicker search next time

When you are in a thread this works too...
Click on Search this Thread and use the + and * sign and 2-3 words that you know should be in the post

Example:
Run an Advanced Search just like above...
+clean* +plasma*
Search Titles Only
Show Results as Posts or Threads
Search in Forum(s) - Plasma Flat Panel Displays

You'll come up with several threads that talk about how to clean a plasma screen.
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Maybe this can help make it easier for you, I know it made my searches much more productive!

Good Luck
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post #2 of 37
4/4/07 at 8:16am
Thread Starter 
To other contributors here in the forum, if you'd like you can send people who are asking for help in searching to this link:

(copy/paste this code into your post for a clickable link)
PHP Code:
[url]http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=10209237&&#post10209237[/url] 
If we politely answer a newcomers questions who reports they are trying to search without success and offer this bit of info to them, maybe they will have a better chance of being successful in their future searches.

Thanks,
Jeff
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post #3 of 37
4/4/07 at 9:32am
The sites uses FULL TEXT search. Thus you can just use quotes. "clean plasma" will find any post that has the phrase inside the quotes.

Example...Doing a search for "chance of being successful" (with the quotes) will find your post above. (And this one as I just typed it again. )

Note also that search by title also searches POST TITLES and not just THREAD TITLES. (For you can title a post that is inside a thread.)

Thanks
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post #4 of 37
4/4/07 at 11:13am
Thread Starter 
Thanks David. I'm going to add your suggestions to my original post.
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post #5 of 37
5/22/07 at 2:19pm
Thread Starter 
I'm curious if this has helped anyone...
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post #6 of 37
6/21/07 at 2:47pm
Check out my new sig-
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post #7 of 37
6/21/07 at 2:56pm
Thread Starter 
Cool! Thanks for spreading the word...
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post #8 of 37
7/28/07 at 6:00pm
I added a link to this thread in my sig...
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post #9 of 37
8/13/07 at 7:34am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kr8z1 View Post

Search Titles Only also searches POST TITLES and not just THREAD TITLES (for you can title a post that is inside a thread)

is there any way to only search thread titles? because the way it is now is really, really awful.
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post #10 of 37
9/1/07 at 7:06am
I am not having luck with wildcard searches. I tried searching for something like "+remote +queu*", but I always get this message:

Quote:


The search term you specified (queu*) is under the minimum word length (2) and therefore will not be found. Please make this term longer.

If this term contains a wildcard, please make this term more specific.
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post #11 of 37
9/7/07 at 1:53pm
Hope I'm in the right place. I've looked everywhere but couldn't find the answer. I'm trying to search for all posts with "x-sub" but it keeps coming back with no matches found. I've tried just about every possible methods but no luck.
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post #12 of 37
9/7/07 at 2:37pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by taywu View Post

Hope I'm in the right place. I've looked everywhere but couldn't find the answer. I'm trying to search for all posts with "x-sub" but it keeps coming back with no matches found. I've tried just about every possible methods but no luck.

xsub gets a whole gob of threads or posts, whichever you choose to search. (Maybe the dash is being read as a minus sign?)
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post #13 of 37
9/7/07 at 4:58pm
Thanks. Yes, I did try "xsub" and returns some results but unfortunately will miss all references to "x-sub" which I've seen in lots of posts. You are right that the dash is being treated as a minus.
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post #14 of 37
9/7/07 at 10:11pm
Thread Starter 
Type x-sub and search under Search Google
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post #15 of 37
9/8/07 at 2:11pm
It is pathetic that a site with so much information doesn't have a decent search feature. I have had no luck with wildcard searches-it never accepts my queries.
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post #16 of 37
1/5/08 at 12:42pm
Not sure where to ask this, but since this sticky referred to "searches" I thought I'd try here??
If a person searches Google, from the outside world, what information in the AVS forums are searched?
Is it just thread titles, or text within individual posts?
I ask because I would like to start a thread, which would be search able on Google, and want to know how much info I would need to cram in the title, verses just in the body of the post.
Thanks
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post #17 of 37
1/7/08 at 6:53am
On the Google search page here's what's in the meta description line: "This is a discussion forum dediacted to Home Theater and the products used". Notice the misspelling.

-Mike
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post #18 of 37
6/10/08 at 1:29pm
Using the + and * method does not work, also the quote method also does not work. Can we get some better instructions or a better search?
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post #19 of 37
6/28/08 at 4:20pm
Same here the " xxxx xxxx" quote method is not deploying the apropiate inside quote results. It treats the search as if there were no quotes.

J
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post #20 of 37
6/29/08 at 6:21am
Hello...

I just did a search for "apropiate inside quote" and it found your above post just fine. (I told it to show POSTS and not THREADS"

It seems to be working.
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post #21 of 37
1/1/09 at 3:35pm
This post should be front and center for newbee's. I am sure glad I found this right away because it's an extremely useful resource that has already helped me. Gr8 ya'll.

Bob
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post #22 of 37
2/3/09 at 6:22am
I've been using Google Images search for years, but it's very limited for searching AVS forums. Using the search word 'projector' gives 30 hits. "Low ceiling" gives none.

I wonder why this is so. Can it be fixed?

BTW, I use 'site:http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/' and 'site:http://www.avsforum.com'.

I just tried searching the whole AVS forum (site:http//www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/) for ANY images (no keyword), and it only returned 173 total images.

What gives?

Edit - Safe Search is off, if you were wondering.

Edit 2: Of those 173 images, it seems they are all from the Classified subforum, none from any other subforum.
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post #23 of 37
2/3/09 at 9:48am
That could be because gallery.avsforum.com would be the domain for the image gallery. It also is only good if people put in the descriptions that Google reads.

Here is the results for "projector" using site:gallery.avsforum.com projector...

Results 1 - 10 of about 34,400 from gallery.avsforum.com for projector
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post #24 of 37
2/5/09 at 6:21am
Ahaaaaaaaaa.

All the images uploaded to AVSforum.com are stored in a separate area of the website, the 'gallery' area. Correct?

Thanks!

Although "low ceiling" with site:gallery.avsforum.com still gave me 0 hits.

And only 100 hits for "ceiling".
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post #25 of 37
2/19/09 at 2:23pm
I did a search on a member name looking for all the replies and it brought up the entire threads, not just his/her posts.

Am I missing something? Is ther a way to narrow the result to just his/her stuff?

Thanks,
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post #26 of 37
3/7/09 at 11:27am
Quote:
Originally Posted by ROSSO Z View Post

I did a search on a member name looking for all the replies and it brought up the entire threads, not just his/her posts.

Am I missing something? Is ther a way to narrow the result to just his/her stuff?

Thanks,

For that specific type of search, there's a far easier way than using any normal type of search: click on the Members tab near the top of the page, track down the user you want to find all the posts from, click on their username to go to their profile page, then click on the Statistics tab and then click on either Find All Posts By ___ or Find All Threads Started By ___.

More generally, though, when searching, to specify posts instead of threads, if searching from within a thread, use Search this Thread near the top of the page, and results will be posts (just click on the first blue line inside each box to link directly to that post). If searching from elsewhere, like within a forum, then use either Search This Forum or Advanced Search (select it from the Search pull-down near the top of the page), and specify Show Posts instead of Show Threads.
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post #27 of 37
3/17/09 at 10:17am
I post pretty regularly, so it seems rather odd that doing 'Search By User Name' in advanced search today, doesn't bring up any posts of mine later than October 08.

Also returns zero results for user names I *know* have posted recently (e.g., gedlee)

So, does anyone know exactly WTF is wrong with the Vbulletin search function here, and if there is any hope of it ever working correctly? (Yes, I know the Google search is a good alternative, as is the Members tab search -- which, btw , does bring up the correct results).
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post #28 of 37
3/17/09 at 11:58am
Not sure what you are putting in, but when I do a search for your user name and have it return the POSTS I see them all including the one above. Even the other user name you mention does this without issue.

All I did was click ADVANCED SEARCH and put in your user name in the user name field and made sure it was selected to show POSTS vs THREADS at the bottom left of the search box in "Show Results as" area.
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post #29 of 37
3/17/09 at 1:30pm
Tried again, it was still not working for me. I made sure all forums were being searched, and tried showing results as Threads or Posts. Actually things got worse...I was being shown posts f3om 2007

Then I hit 'Reset Search Fields' and for good measure I cleared 'saved search preferences' (I didn't think I had any).

And now it works.
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post #30 of 37
10/2/09 at 12:11pm
Phrase searching is not working for me. I just tried "Dolby Digital Live" (in double quotes) , after resetting searches and clearing search preferences (which I've found to screw things up before) and it still returns all sorts of posts with those words in it but not necessarily the *whole phrase*.

I'm using Firefox on a Win XP platform if that makes any difference.
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