# Search is broken

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/search-is-broken/566859>\
**Category:** About This Message Board\
**Created:** [January 8, 2011, 9:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/search-is-broken/566859 "2011-01-08T09:36:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**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:** [January 8, 2011, 9:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/search-is-broken/566859/1 "2011-01-08T09:36:20Z")

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The board search function isn’t working for me; I get:

> [@](#):
>
> Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 536870912 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 71 bytes) in /home/straightdope/boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/search.php on line 1151

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**Author:** ![fubbleskag](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@fubbleskag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fubbleskag)\
**Post date:** [January 8, 2011, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/search-is-broken/566859/2 "2011-01-08T15:03:07Z")

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Try shortening your search terms?

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**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:** [January 9, 2011, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/search-is-broken/566859/3 "2011-01-09T01:14:10Z")

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I was only trying to search on a couple of words (I don’t think all of those 71 bytes were my entered search term). Seems to be working again now, in any case.

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**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:** [January 9, 2011, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/search-is-broken/566859/4 "2011-01-09T01:19:06Z")

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Oops. I spoke too soon. Searching for two words works. Three words breaks.

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**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\
**Post date:** [January 9, 2011, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/search-is-broken/566859/5 "2011-01-09T02:22:31Z")

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Won’t let me search because “The token is expired.”

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**Author:** ![SanibelMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e4f/32.png) [@SanibelMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanibelMan)\
**Post date:** [January 9, 2011, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/search-is-broken/566859/6 "2011-01-09T05:45:04Z")

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I’m getting a similar message to the OP when trying to search:

“Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 536870912 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 9 bytes) in /home/straightdope/boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/search.php on line 1007”