# Search keywords

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/search-keywords/427776>\
**Category:** About This Message Board\
**Created:** [November 26, 2007, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/search-keywords/427776 "2007-11-26T05:40:28Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Agent\_Foxtrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc29f/32.png) [@Agent\_Foxtrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agent_Foxtrot)\
**Post date:** [November 26, 2007, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/search-keywords/427776/1 "2007-11-26T05:40:28Z")

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I’m not exactly sure if this needs attention or not, but I did a search for **God of War II** because I wanted to start a thread on the video game. The response:

> [@](#):
>
> Sorry - no matches. Please try some different terms.
> 
> The following words are either very common, too long, or too short and were not included in your search : God, of, War, II

😕

I know that this is the SDMB and we talk about God and war a lot, but is there either a way to lessen the number of words the search engine considers “common”, or is there a different way I can word my search?

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**Author:** ![USCDiver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/uscdiver/32/354_2.png) [@USCDiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/USCDiver)\
**Post date:** [November 26, 2007, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/search-keywords/427776/2 "2007-11-26T06:34:37Z")

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Words of 3 letters or less are not included in the search. Since all of your words fall under that category, your search won’t work.

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**Author:** ![Agent\_Foxtrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc29f/32.png) [@Agent\_Foxtrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agent_Foxtrot)\
**Post date:** [November 26, 2007, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/search-keywords/427776/3 "2007-11-26T07:12:34Z")

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[QUOTE=USCDiver]  
Words of 3 letters or less are not included in the search. Since all of your words fall under that category, your search won’t work.  
[/QUOTE]  
Good point. Maybe decrease truncation to two-letter words?

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**Author:** ![TubaDiva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tubadiva/32/507_2.png) [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)\
**Post date:** [November 26, 2007, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/search-keywords/427776/4 "2007-11-26T15:42:47Z")

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You need to find a way to word your search so that it uses more than 3 letters. There’s just no way around that in our current circumstances.

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**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\
**Post date:** [November 26, 2007, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/search-keywords/427776/5 "2007-11-26T16:21:32Z")

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If we put the search terms in quotes – “God of War II” – would that still be considered three letter words?

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**Author:** ![RedSwinglineOne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a9adbd/32.png) [@RedSwinglineOne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RedSwinglineOne)\
**Post date:** [November 26, 2007, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/search-keywords/427776/6 "2007-11-26T16:47:31Z")

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[Here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=413102&highlight=Kratos) is the thread. I found it by searching for Kratos, the main character.