# Does SDMB's native search actually cover what it claims?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-sdmbs-native-search-actually-cover-what-it-claims/564290
**Category:** About This Message Board
**Created:** [December 15, 2010, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-sdmbs-native-search-actually-cover-what-it-claims/564290 "2010-12-15T22:17:11Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2010, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-sdmbs-native-search-actually-cover-what-it-claims/564290/1 "2010-12-15T22:17:11Z")
The advanced search function allows a choice of 1,2…10 years ago as one of the options. But recently I wanted to find a post I made in 2003 and one on 2007. I was sure about the exact dates, exact phrase and exact user name, but the SDMB search came up with nothing (and a little too quick for such a big search, methinks).
Now I know about google’s search of our site, and both posts showed up there, but the address included “…archive…”, which makes me wonder. Are all very old SDMB posts stored in a separate database? And why does the SDMB search function offer options that cannot be fulfilled for that reason or another?
I’m grateful for google, but I don’t think we should mislead anyone into thinking that our native search function can be used beyond a certain date, but that’s what it looks like.
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### Author:  [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2010, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-sdmbs-native-search-actually-cover-what-it-claims/564290/2 "2010-12-15T23:41:09Z")
My impression is that some of the intermediate length date range searches simply do not work.
That’s been the case off and on for years.
“6 months ago” and “Any date” always seem good, but eg “two weeks ago” or “two years ago” have returned results so spottily, that I’ve given up even trying to use them.
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### Author:  [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)
#### Post date: [December 16, 2010, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-sdmbs-native-search-actually-cover-what-it-claims/564290/3 "2010-12-16T00:16:22Z")
> [@Musicat](#):
>
> The advanced search function allows a choice of 1,2…10 years ago as one of the options. But recently I wanted to find a post I made in 2003 and one on 2007. I was sure about the exact dates, exact phrase and exact user name, but the SDMB search came up with nothing (and a little too quick for such a big search, methinks)..
I think the search for your post in the timeframe of 2003-2007 should work.
You say you’re sure of the “exact dates, exact phrase” but my experience is that we misremember things over time. Of course your username is obvious(assuming you haven’t changed it?).
Send me a PM or an email with what you’re trying to find and I’ll have a look.
As far as the time required by the search engine to search–probably not a big thing.
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### Author:  [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)
#### Post date: [December 16, 2010, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-sdmbs-native-search-actually-cover-what-it-claims/564290/4 "2010-12-16T00:29:32Z")
Sent you a PM, samclem. I haven’t changed my user name in 11 years and I’m sure about the search terms and date ranges and can refer to them from data stored as PMs.
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### Author:  [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)
#### Post date: [December 16, 2010, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-sdmbs-native-search-actually-cover-what-it-claims/564290/5 "2010-12-16T01:09:59Z")
> [@Musicat](#):
>
> Sent you a PM, samclem. I haven’t changed my user name in 11 years and I’m sure about the search terms and date ranges and can refer to them from data stored as PMs.
Got it and checked it out. Pretty weird. I’m not sure what’s going on. I’ll try to do some more looking. It _might_ have to do with a period of board problems. I’m totally just speculating here.
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### Author:  [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)
#### Post date: [December 16, 2010, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-sdmbs-native-search-actually-cover-what-it-claims/564290/6 "2010-12-16T01:30:21Z")
One reason I would rather use the SDMB search function instead of google is I wanted to link to a specific post in a specific thread. The way google shows the data, I don’t think that is possible. In this case, linking to the google link would give the link-clicker much too much irrelevant data to page thru.
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### Author:  [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)
#### Post date: [December 16, 2010, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-sdmbs-native-search-actually-cover-what-it-claims/564290/7 "2010-12-16T02:35:10Z")
You can manually link to a specific post fairly easily. Right-click on the “#X” in the upper right corner of the post. Select “copy link location” or the equivalent. Paste it into your post and change “showpost” to “showthread”.
If the Google result is in the archive, first you have to bring up the original thread with the link at the top of the page and locate the post.
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### Author:  [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)
#### Post date: [December 16, 2010, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-sdmbs-native-search-actually-cover-what-it-claims/564290/8 "2010-12-16T03:45:59Z")
> [@Musicat](#):
>
> One reason I would rather use the SDMB search function instead of google is I wanted to link to a specific post in a specific thread. The way google shows the data, I don’t think that is possible. In this case, linking to the google link would give the link-clicker much too much irrelevant data to page thru.
I’m not sure what you’re saying here. When I search through Google and click on a link, I get a SDMB thread and nothing more.
Are you saying that you’re linking to a Google search? If so, why would you do that?
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### Author:  [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)
#### Post date: [December 16, 2010, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-sdmbs-native-search-actually-cover-what-it-claims/564290/9 "2010-12-16T12:30:37Z")
I think the site search engine will only return a limited number of results before it stops. It’s had some type of problem for years, and I think that’s it.
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### Author:  [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)
#### Post date: [December 16, 2010, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-sdmbs-native-search-actually-cover-what-it-claims/564290/10 "2010-12-16T14:25:23Z")
That “archive list” is generated by vB. It’s nothing we’ve done. We don’t “archive” threads, talked about it over the years but never implemented anything. Everything’s live.