# "Search" icon on individual postings doesn't work! **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [May 5, 2000, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/search-icon-on-individual-postings-doesnt-work/18717 "2000-05-05T23:50:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2000, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/search-icon-on-individual-postings-doesnt-work/18717/1 "2000-05-05T23:50:20Z")
I’ve clicked on this icon, to find postings under my name for X number of days. I just get a message on the screen that ‘no matches were found.’ Why doesn’t this work? ---
**Author:** ![tshirtz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8baadc/32.png) [@tshirtz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tshirtz)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2000, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/search-icon-on-individual-postings-doesnt-work/18717/2 "2000-05-06T00:28:53Z")
The search has a lower limit on the number of letters. It won’t even try a 2-letter search, such as TV. The same problem affects some names that are short pieces separated by - or \_ or space. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecccb3/32.png) [@Lord\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Jim)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2000, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/search-icon-on-individual-postings-doesnt-work/18717/3 "2000-05-06T01:11:46Z")
**Da Ace** has a list of several names over in [This Thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=23196) that don’t search right. Seems like spaces, short names, underscores, dashes and periods, all cause the search to fail. Using the regular _Search_ function, you could probably find a work-around, but the button at the bottom of the post doesn’t give those options. I imagine that since it has been reported before, the team of experts are working on things like this. Jim ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2000, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/search-icon-on-individual-postings-doesnt-work/18717/4 "2000-05-27T23:22:10Z")
I stand corrected. All I need to do is substitute a space for the underline, make the other settings I want, and the search engine finds the postings. Thanks. 🙂