Search facilities.

I seem to have a problem with the search engine on this site.
If I type in "Blue Tit" for example it comes up with dozens of un related posts.
Others -like "Fieldfare" mainly bring up just those
"Jay " is another example-it brings up nothing on my gear.
Any ideas anyone.?
Cheers
JR

Hi John, I have never used the search engine before today so I gave it a go and can't get anything at all, either on this or other forums, so it isn't just a fault at your end.

Thanks Andy
I,ve used it a lot to look at old stuff and I'm sure it used to be ok

We'll see.
Cheers
John

I have just tried it John and it is not working for me either - I have used it before as well

Oscar

Nope, it don't work John.

Thanks. I've passed my post to Jim.
Glad its not just me being thick
Cheers
John

How are you typing it in John? If you type blue tit you get a different result to posting "blue tit".

Aye.

Ian

Ian
Good point . Its certainly better with the quotes on "Blue Tit " but makes no difference with "Jay "
Cheers
John

I think search words need to be longer than 3 letters.

John

Mmmm, can be a bit temperamental at time can the old search feature.

Generally, if you use two or more words, it'll pick up any results which contain one or more of the words you searched on. So, blue tit would pick up any posts with blue (eg Blue Jay) and also any with tit (eg Great Tit)... as well as any containing both. If you put quotes around the phrase, then it'll be more selective and only give you results containing all the words - ie 'Blue Tit', but not 'Blue Jay' or 'Great Tit'.

In general, most search systems also tend to exclude words of three or less letters to exclude searches for things like 'the', 'and' etc.

Sometimes you can also end up with a different set of results if you search from the screen with the results of your last search - always best to return to the main topic list and search again from there.

Hi John. Just tried it using Nick's suggestion with the inverted commas and it seems to work for me.

Thanks folks
Still no good.
Maggie did you try "Jay " ?
Never mind.
Cheers
JohnR
Single commas throws up a syntax fault message.
Jays - brings up a few but not all.

If you place blue tit in the search box, it will pull up every thread that has either blue or tit in either the original post or in a reply.

If you place "blue tit" (with quoation marks) in the box, it will bring up what you're looking for.

Search words need to be longer than three characters. Jay won't work but wolf will.

Thanks
Another that won't work for me is Little Owl, Little, or Owl- with or without the quote marks.
Cheers
JohnR

Agree, it needs look at Jim.

T

John just stick a star after any 3 letter word and it should do the trick for you

eg owl* tit*