Bombadier
07-18-2005, 03:43 PM
Credits: Tahnka
How to search IFSJA more efficiently and effectively. Drop kick the forum search out the door.
I was just using this method to search ifsja forums and thought hey, perhaps someone else had not thought of this; so I thought I would post this just in case. These methods are, in my opinion, far superior to using the forum search and return far better results.
Instead of using the forum search, jump out to http://www.google.com
Type in your normal search times like "tfi upgrade" and then here's the trick, at the end of your search append: site:igfsja.org. So here's an example of what I would type in to Google:
"tfi upgrade" site:ifsja.org
And here's an example of what that search will return: example
This search returns over 4,000 pages that are ONLY on ifsja.org with the phrase "tfi upgrade" in it.
Of course, most of those results will not contain what you want, so let's talk about optimizing the search.
Surrounding multiple words with double quotes causes Google to search on it as a phrase. So searching on merely, tfi upgrade, will find any page with both of those words on the page in any order. But searching with "tfi upgrade" (note the double quotes) will return pages that have those two words in that exact order, IE a phrase.
Using the plus and minus symbols can really help trim down the results. I often work my search results from four thousand down to less than 20. When you add a plus symbol in front of a word or phrase, you're instructing Google to show preference to listings that contain that word. When you put a minus symbol in front of the word, you're telling Google to not show listings with that word.
You may notice that the search results from the example above return some weird results. The problem is that many people have put the words "tfi upgrade" in their signatures; so you're getting any post with their signature in it. In the first search result the post is titled "Tow Rig Needed". When you click into that result you'll see that the user "rustywag" put "tfi upgrade" in his signature. So you can remove any search results with the word "rustywag" in them by using the minus symbol in your search terms like this:
"tfi upgrade" -rustywag site:ifsja.org
That eliminates 220 search results!
So as you search on things you must continuously research and refine your results using those Google "operators" until you get down to a group of things that are close to what you're looking for. If you really want to know what plugs to use in your TFI upgrade, try adding "spark plugs" to your search:
"tfi upgrade" -rustywag +"spark plugs" site:ifsja.org
You can chain as many operators as you want so try:
"tfi upgrade" -rustywag +"spark plugs" -blazer -springs -icecreamtruckorwhatever site:ifsja.org
Now here's a trick for just searching the page titles. Because the discussion forums plug the post title into the page title; this trick works great. Google uses an operator named "intitle" that will allow you to limit your search results to the titles of pages. "Intitle" must prepend your search terms, for example:
intitle:"tfi upgrade" site:ifsja.org
That returns 36 pages, or so, and the search results ignore the body of the messages; so you strip out all of the signature lines and casual mentions of the topic that may not be the intent of the forum post.
You can even show only pages with the word "dizzy", anywhere on the page, that have titles with the phrase "tfi upgrade" it in using this:
dizzy intitle:"tfi upgrade" site:ifsja.org
If you only want to find forum posts with "these words" in the title, then using the "intitle:" operator is the BEST!
Here's a link to Googles cheat sheet on how to use their most common operators: http://www.google.com/help/cheatsheet.html
Don't forget that using the above methods, you're searching the ENTIRE ifsja.org website, not just the forums; so this method will return the tech-articles as well.
How to search IFSJA more efficiently and effectively. Drop kick the forum search out the door.
I was just using this method to search ifsja forums and thought hey, perhaps someone else had not thought of this; so I thought I would post this just in case. These methods are, in my opinion, far superior to using the forum search and return far better results.
Instead of using the forum search, jump out to http://www.google.com
Type in your normal search times like "tfi upgrade" and then here's the trick, at the end of your search append: site:igfsja.org. So here's an example of what I would type in to Google:
"tfi upgrade" site:ifsja.org
And here's an example of what that search will return: example
This search returns over 4,000 pages that are ONLY on ifsja.org with the phrase "tfi upgrade" in it.
Of course, most of those results will not contain what you want, so let's talk about optimizing the search.
Surrounding multiple words with double quotes causes Google to search on it as a phrase. So searching on merely, tfi upgrade, will find any page with both of those words on the page in any order. But searching with "tfi upgrade" (note the double quotes) will return pages that have those two words in that exact order, IE a phrase.
Using the plus and minus symbols can really help trim down the results. I often work my search results from four thousand down to less than 20. When you add a plus symbol in front of a word or phrase, you're instructing Google to show preference to listings that contain that word. When you put a minus symbol in front of the word, you're telling Google to not show listings with that word.
You may notice that the search results from the example above return some weird results. The problem is that many people have put the words "tfi upgrade" in their signatures; so you're getting any post with their signature in it. In the first search result the post is titled "Tow Rig Needed". When you click into that result you'll see that the user "rustywag" put "tfi upgrade" in his signature. So you can remove any search results with the word "rustywag" in them by using the minus symbol in your search terms like this:
"tfi upgrade" -rustywag site:ifsja.org
That eliminates 220 search results!
So as you search on things you must continuously research and refine your results using those Google "operators" until you get down to a group of things that are close to what you're looking for. If you really want to know what plugs to use in your TFI upgrade, try adding "spark plugs" to your search:
"tfi upgrade" -rustywag +"spark plugs" site:ifsja.org
You can chain as many operators as you want so try:
"tfi upgrade" -rustywag +"spark plugs" -blazer -springs -icecreamtruckorwhatever site:ifsja.org
Now here's a trick for just searching the page titles. Because the discussion forums plug the post title into the page title; this trick works great. Google uses an operator named "intitle" that will allow you to limit your search results to the titles of pages. "Intitle" must prepend your search terms, for example:
intitle:"tfi upgrade" site:ifsja.org
That returns 36 pages, or so, and the search results ignore the body of the messages; so you strip out all of the signature lines and casual mentions of the topic that may not be the intent of the forum post.
You can even show only pages with the word "dizzy", anywhere on the page, that have titles with the phrase "tfi upgrade" it in using this:
dizzy intitle:"tfi upgrade" site:ifsja.org
If you only want to find forum posts with "these words" in the title, then using the "intitle:" operator is the BEST!
Here's a link to Googles cheat sheet on how to use their most common operators: http://www.google.com/help/cheatsheet.html
Don't forget that using the above methods, you're searching the ENTIRE ifsja.org website, not just the forums; so this method will return the tech-articles as well.