# Search has become amazingly fast **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [May 26, 2007, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/search-has-become-amazingly-fast/405560 "2007-05-26T00:13:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2007, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/search-has-become-amazingly-fast/405560/1 "2007-05-26T00:13:12Z")
Did y’all install something new? On three searches today, I got practically instantaneous results. ---
**Author:** ![bbs2k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e495f1/32.png) [@bbs2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bbs2k)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2007, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/search-has-become-amazingly-fast/405560/2 "2007-05-26T01:27:23Z")
Fourteen seconds to “Find all posts by Liberal.” ---
**Author:** ![Hung\_Mung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a88e4f/32.png) [@Hung\_Mung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hung_Mung)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2007, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/search-has-become-amazingly-fast/405560/3 "2007-05-30T02:36:25Z")
I’ve noticed it too. Of course, I also refined my preset search parameter to only go back one week. That probably helped a bit. I used to start a search and go heat up coffee or brush my teeth. I don’t know what to do with all this extra time! ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2007, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/search-has-become-amazingly-fast/405560/4 "2007-05-30T04:30:01Z")
Could have to do with the fact that the time between searches has been extended from 30 seconds to 2 minutes. Useful enough if you hit on the first try. Extremely annoying if your first search yields no results and you have to wait two minutes to do another. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2007, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/search-has-become-amazingly-fast/405560/5 "2007-05-30T06:08:51Z")
You think you got a fast search? You should get one of these beta SDMB-chips implanted in your skull. You don’t even have to type! The only side-effect is that I occasionally bark. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2007, 9:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/search-has-become-amazingly-fast/405560/6 "2007-05-30T09:15:21Z")
Could it be because it’s posting blank posts again? On edit: Aha! The problem’s gone! ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2007, 9:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/search-has-become-amazingly-fast/405560/7 "2007-05-30T09:20:59Z")
Hmmm…spoke too soon. It’s still doing the blank posting thing in GD. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2007, 9:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/search-has-become-amazingly-fast/405560/8 "2007-05-30T09:35:02Z")
[QUOTE=mhendo] Could have to do with the fact that the time between searches has been extended from 30 seconds to 2 minutes. Useful enough if you hit on the first try. Extremely annoying if your first search yields no results and you have to wait two minutes to do another. [/QUOTE] The timeout doesn’t happen at all after a completely fruitless search (i.e. those that result in ‘Sorry - no matches. Please try some different terms.’) - although I suppose by ‘no results’ you might mean ‘results, but not what you were looking for’. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2007, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/search-has-become-amazingly-fast/405560/9 "2007-05-30T14:35:24Z")
[QUOTE=Mangetout] The timeout doesn’t happen at all after a completely fruitless search (i.e. those that result in ‘Sorry - no matches. Please try some different terms.’) - although I suppose by ‘no results’ you might mean ‘results, but not what you were looking for’. [/QUOTE] Yep. sorry, should have been clearer. Sometimes you’ll get results, but the thread you’re looking for isn’t among them so you have to try again. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2007, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/search-has-become-amazingly-fast/405560/10 "2007-05-30T15:16:36Z")
Fair enough. One thing that really bugs me about the current timeout is how it affects automated searches; select ‘click here to find all threads started by SomeUser’ yields only the current thread, so you think, “OK”, click back and select ‘click here to find all posts by SomeUser’ and you have to wait two minutes. Grrr. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2007, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/search-has-become-amazingly-fast/405560/11 "2007-05-31T16:30:23Z")
Yes, I find it extremely annoying that they have to take their inability to deal with searches out on paying customers. More penny-ante, poor widdle Chicago Reader bull$hit. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2007, 10:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/search-has-become-amazingly-fast/405560/12 "2007-06-01T10:18:17Z")
Well, I wouldn’t choose to put it _quite_ like that, but I think the restrictions on searching are not a trivial matter, given that the ability to search is one of the explicitly listed benefits of subscription - one of the key things that the paying customers _pay for_. I’m sure they’ll be working on it. ---
**Author:** ![SlickRoenick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e68b1a/32.png) [@SlickRoenick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlickRoenick)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2007, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/search-has-become-amazingly-fast/405560/13 "2007-06-01T13:45:44Z")
I have noticed the searches are faster, but for me, they are proportionally fruitless. I get results for maybe 1 out of 10 searches. It doesn’t seem like the “Search Entire Post” option works very well. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2007, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/search-has-become-amazingly-fast/405560/14 "2007-06-01T14:58:19Z")
I’ve had a lot of trouble finding old posts or threads of mine that I KNOW are there. When looking for old posts, for some strange reason specifying “any date” as the time frame yields different results than “a year ago”+“and older”. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2007, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/search-has-become-amazingly-fast/405560/15 "2007-06-01T15:10:32Z")
[QUOTE=Lumpy] When looking for old posts, for some strange reason specifying “any date” as the time frame yields different results than “a year ago”+“and older”. [/QUOTE] I thought I’d noticed something like that before, but waved it away as being a figment of my imagination and never tested it further