# Now we can't search for four letter words either? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [June 21, 2008, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-we-cant-search-for-four-letter-words-either/453655 "2008-06-21T02:16:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2008, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-we-cant-search-for-four-letter-words-either/453655/1 "2008-06-21T02:16:15Z")
I just ran a search for _Last Comic Standing_. Actually I just searched for ‘last comic.’ The search, which took 51.48 seconds, told me, “The following words are either very common, too long, or too short and were not included in your search: last” I’m assuming the word is too short, because “very common” is a capability this board doesn’t have, right? I’ve asked in the past why we don’t allow three letter word searches and just omit the common ones like “the,” and was always told “too hard!” But now we omit common four letter words? Or what? ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2008, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-we-cant-search-for-four-letter-words-either/453655/2 "2008-06-21T02:30:14Z")
Common four letter words have been disallowed by the search engine for several years, at least. It’s possible that more words have recently been added to the “common” list. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2008, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-we-cant-search-for-four-letter-words-either/453655/3 "2008-06-21T12:15:33Z")
There is at least one five letter word that is disallowed for being too common: **itself** ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2008, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-we-cant-search-for-four-letter-words-either/453655/4 "2008-06-21T12:51:28Z")
One, two, three, four, five, SIX 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2008, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-we-cant-search-for-four-letter-words-either/453655/5 "2008-06-21T13:05:58Z")
:smack: ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2008, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-we-cant-search-for-four-letter-words-either/453655/6 "2008-06-21T13:13:31Z")
Fuck that! ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2008, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-we-cant-search-for-four-letter-words-either/453655/7 "2008-06-21T13:44:41Z")
who said the Board can’t rule out “very common” words? ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2008, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-we-cant-search-for-four-letter-words-either/453655/8 "2008-06-21T17:58:11Z")
[QUOTE=DSYoungEsq] who said the Board can’t rule out “very common” words? [/QUOTE] In the past I’ve wondered why we can’t search for three letter words and was told there are too many and you can’t just rule out the common ones. So, we can’t search for something like HIV. But now it seems they can, and do have a list of common words they can eliminate from searches. ---
**Author:** ![muttrox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a8b319/32.png) [@muttrox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muttrox)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2008, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-we-cant-search-for-four-letter-words-either/453655/9 "2008-06-24T14:07:21Z")
When your favorite band is “The Who” (both words short and common), the whole internet seems out to get you.