The Straight Dope

Go Back   Straight Dope Message Board > Main > About This Message Board
Reload this Page HOWTO: Search the SDMB using Google
Register FAQ Calendar Mark Forums Read

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old 05-25-2009, 05:04 PM
alterego alterego is offline
Guest
  
Join Date: Jul 2003
HOWTO: Search the SDMB using Google
HOWTO: Search the SDMB using Google
Please post your own useful example searches in this thread. You may also be interested in my Doper RSS guide.

Searching the entire board or within a forum
Note that Google has not yet finished indexing the forums as of this writing.

This is the base query of all other queries. In order to restrict your search to a forum you must include a plus sign (+) before the name of the forum in quotes. Otherwise Google will interpret your quoted forum string as meaning "Give me all pages related to the forum". Google's relatedness algorithms are extremely fuzzy and return all possible results in the case of the SDMB. Including the plus sign tells Google to "do what I say, not what I mean." Keep in mind that Google does not know what a forum is so the results still contain some fuzz. If you are constructing a url parameter you must encode the plus sign as %2B since a literal plus sign is interpreted as a space by Google:
Searching within active threads

These active thread query constraints are only available as url parameters:
  • Past 24 hours: http://www.google.com/search?q=site:boards.straightdope.com&tbs=qdr:d
  • Past week: http://www.google.com/search?q=site:boards.straightdope.com&tbs=qdr:w
  • Past month: http://www.google.com/search?q=site:boards.straightdope.com&tbs=qdr:m
  • Past year: http://www.google.com/search?q=site:boards.straightdope.com&tbs=qdr:y
Searching within a date range using daterange

Google has a daterange:start-end parameter but it is difficult to use because it requires Julian dates. You can use this converter from the US Naval Observatory but be sure to hack off the decimal place and everything that follows it since Google only understands the integer portion. Here are a few to get you started. Google's date matching is good but sometimes a bit fuzzy. I'm using "board years" starting on 3-9-99 since thats the day before the first post (in vBulletin) and it was easiest for me:

 Searching within thread titles using intitle

There is also an allintitle field but you will probably find intitle sufficient:
Searching for posts written by a particular user

Google can see the "Find all posts by ..." text that is visible after you click on the username associated with a post:
A fuzzer variety of this search uses the inanchor field. Anchor text is simply the text that you see when you look at a hyperlink.
Fuzzier still is a site search for the username.
Example searches

Now that we've got all the pieces they are easy to put together. Here are some examples.
Reply With Quote
Advertisements  
  #2  
Old 01-12-2012, 10:06 PM
voltaire voltaire is offline
Guest
  
Join Date: Aug 1999
TIP: If you just use "site:straightdope.com" in your search instead of "site:boards.straightdope.com", it will search all of Cecil's columns and the Staff Reports, in addition to the forums, all at once.
Reply With Quote
  #3  
Old 05-20-2012, 12:55 PM
Jake Jake is offline
Charter Member
  
Join Date: Jul 1999
Location: NC, USA
Posts: 3,251
Thanks, Alterego. This is a great help.
Reply With Quote
  #4  
Old 10-29-2012, 03:42 AM
Monty Monty is offline
Straight Dope Science Advisory Board
  
Join Date: Feb 1999
Location: Maoming, China
Posts: 16,745
I'm having fun using the various search functions listed above, Alterego. Maybe I'm not all that quick on the uptake for certain tech functions; however, I would like to have the google search results come back in either date/time order or reverse date/time order. Is there a way to do that?
Reply With Quote
Reply

Bookmarks

« Previous Thread | Next Thread »
Thread Tools
Display Modes
Linear Mode Linear Mode

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts
BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off
Forum Jump


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 10:01 PM.

Contact Us - Straight Dope Homepage - Archive - Top

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.7.3
Copyright ©2000 - 2013, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.

Send questions for Cecil Adams to: cecil@chicagoreader.com

Send comments about this website to: webmaster@straightdope.com

Terms of Use / Privacy Policy

Advertise on the Straight Dope!
(Your direct line to thousands of the smartest, hippest people on the planet, plus a few total dipsticks.)

Publishers - interested in subscribing to the Straight Dope?
Write to: sdsubscriptions@chicagoreader.com.

Copyright © 2013 Sun-Times Media, LLC.