Why is the search functionality so poor?

[stwilson]

The VBulletin forum product is so sweet but man the search functionality is poor, at best. I have my new site setup for:

1. Full-text
2. Boolean set to yes

When you search for something...if the search term is not exactly as it was posted it does not find it. For example, I posted a topic about "Mother's day blah blah blah." If I search my forum for a single word "mother" it cannot find the thread. If I search for "mother's" then it finds it.

I noticed here on VB.org the same issue exists. As a test I searched for VBSEO in the thread title and low and behold a thread with that in the title does not come up until the 2nd page! I have searched for many threads here over the last few months and struggle to find what I am looking for.

I am asking you veterans of VB...what can I do to improve this one weak area of the VB forum? What have you done to improve the search?

[Dave Hawley]

I agree that both search types are quite poor. The best you can do is enure users use descriptive titles and adjust the search relevance in the Admin CP.

I have made great use of Google Custom Search and it's soooooooooooooooooo much better.

[stwilson]

Thanks for the post Dave. Have you replaced the search on your site with the Google custom search? Is there an existing MOD for this?

[Dave Hawley]

No Mod that I know of. I added the Google code to the header and replaced the one in the Search drop-down with the Google code also. You can see it here

[Finster]

I think the search feature here is worse.

When I make a post in this forum the search feature does not search and find it here.

[Dismounted]

It's a limitation of MySQL.

[The Geek]

Originally Posted by Dismounted

It's a limitation of MySQL.

That and server resources. If every site had a stand alone dedicated server to act as its search slave, then vB could have the best search facility around.

Saying that, it does seriously chug and some effort should be spent looking to improve it.

[stwilson]

I really am amazed that this topic does not come up more. Trying to search for posts on VB.org is very ineffective.

One of the most important features of any site is the ability for members to search for the information that brought them there. Remember, content is King but not if you can't find it. Educating the average user on what a boolean search is and how to format searches with quotes, plus signs, etc. is so 1990's.

This weakness of the VB solution should get some serious attention by the development staff. The rest of the product is rock solid and I am not a VB hater, just amazed at how ineffective the search is and that many more are not raising this issue.

[Dave Hawley]

I fully agree. However, the FullText search has nothing to do with vBullinten.

I find the single BIGGEST flaw is users not using descritive Titles. So, even if the standard search was better, users would still not use it as they would be forced to click though many useless Thread title like "help me" etc.

I have found that by forcing users to use mainly keywords only and modifying the standard search relevany in high favor of Thread Titles, it can be useful. However, "useful" is far from good enough in this day and age which is why Google Custom Search is a god-send IMO.

Perhaps vBullention developers could somehow intergrate Google Custom Search in future releases. It would also be nice if vBullention addressed the duplicate content issue most forums produce in search engines.