# Showing search results without the search terms showing in red?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/showing-search-results-without-the-search-terms-showing-in-red/186842>\
**Category:** About This Message Board\
**Created:** [July 7, 2003, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/showing-search-results-without-the-search-terms-showing-in-red/186842 "2003-07-07T19:51:09Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![cowgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8c91f0/32.png) [@cowgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cowgirl)\
**Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/showing-search-results-without-the-search-terms-showing-in-red/186842/1 "2003-07-07T19:51:09Z")

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It seems many Dopers show links to old threads without any of the search words showing up in red. I can’t figure how they do this, unless they have bookmarked them in the past, or searched the names of people they remember posted to the thread.

For example, if I wanted to find that thread about “The Horror of Blimps”, this is how it would show up:

> [@](#):
>
> Some blimps are better off dead.

Apologies for not putting links to searches that don’t end up in red. The server is very slow today, and I don’t know an easy way to search for "search results from old threads that don’t show search terms in red.

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**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\
**Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/showing-search-results-without-the-search-terms-showing-in-red/186842/2 "2003-07-07T20:14:32Z")

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When you get the URL from search, it will have a parameter on the query string with the search terms listed, like this:

&highlight=horror+blimps

Simply delete that part, and the words “horror” and “blimps” will not show up in red.

[Blimps with highlight](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=160851&highlight=horror+blimps)

[Blimps without highlight](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=160851)

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**Author:** ![cowgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8c91f0/32.png) [@cowgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cowgirl)\
**Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/showing-search-results-without-the-search-terms-showing-in-red/186842/3 "2003-07-07T20:28:13Z")

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Hey, thanks ! That’s fantastic !

Again I leave the Straight Dope a wiser woman. It pays to ask questions.