# The Straight Dope Search Engine

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-straight-dope-search-engine/579724>\
**Category:** About This Message Board\
**Created:** [April 26, 2011, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-straight-dope-search-engine/579724 "2011-04-26T01:03:17Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Harrogate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/97f17d/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Harrogate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Harrogate)\
**Post date:** [April 26, 2011, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-straight-dope-search-engine/579724/1 "2011-04-26T01:03:17Z")

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The Straight Dope Search Engine is interesting. I put in “jane austen,” and the top result is,“Why do phone numbers in TV shows and movies all start with 555?” To be fair, I should have looked at the article to see if Jane Austen’s phone number was in it.

Question: how does the Straight Dope Search Engine work?

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**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\
**Post date:** [April 26, 2011, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-straight-dope-search-engine/579724/2 "2011-04-26T01:11:24Z")

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Strangely.  
Reported for forum change.

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**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\
**Post date:** [April 26, 2011, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-straight-dope-search-engine/579724/3 "2011-04-26T01:15:19Z")

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Since the OP is a questions about this message board, I"ve moved it to ATMB.

**samclem** , Moderator

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**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\
**Post date:** [April 26, 2011, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-straight-dope-search-engine/579724/4 "2011-04-26T01:28:20Z")

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If you move the A in Austen to the left one space, and then assign the space itself a value of 5, you get a letter count of 555. A blind man could see it with a cane.

Now if you’ll excuse me I must get back to my hobby of decyphering Nostradamus quatrains.

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**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\
**Post date:** [April 26, 2011, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-straight-dope-search-engine/579724/5 "2011-04-26T01:42:01Z")

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> [@Paul\_in\_Harrogate](#):
>
> The Straight Dope Search Engine is interesting. I put in “jane austen,” and the top result is,“Why do phone numbers in TV shows and movies all start with 555?” To be fair, I should have looked at the article to see if Jane Austen’s phone number was in it.
> 
> Question: how does the Straight Dope Search Engine work?

That article answered a question by a “Mary Jane,” the next result also answered a question by a “Jane,” and so did the third. I tried searching for “Austen Kirk” and the first choice was the article about Kirk Douglas’ dimple. When I searched only for “Austen” I actually got 3 results mentioning “Austen”. Therefore I suspect that the search engine looks for the search words separately and favors the word that shows up most often.

ETA: If you put “Jane Austen” in quotes, you get the “Jane Austen”-mentioning articles and nothing else.