# What's wrong with the Search function? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [March 2, 2009, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-the-search-function/487950 "2009-03-02T01:49:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2009, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-the-search-function/487950/1 "2009-03-02T01:49:08Z")
I’ve got a “Fatal Error” result three times today, just from trying to do a post search with three keywords. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2009, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-the-search-function/487950/2 "2009-03-02T03:07:02Z")
I’ve had that happen when the three (or however many) words are too common. I get this weird error message that I think means that too many results were returned or something. Maybe try to restrict the dates or forums of your search if possible. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2009, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-the-search-function/487950/3 "2009-03-02T22:18:18Z")
There it goes again – and I’ve tried restricting the forum – Admins, help me out here, **please.** How can I do a plain ol’ three-keyword post search? ---
**Author:** ![Ed\_Zotti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/fbc32d/32.png) [@Ed\_Zotti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ed_Zotti)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2009, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-the-search-function/487950/4 "2009-03-02T22:20:15Z")
Am inquiring with Jerry, will let you know. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2009, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-the-search-function/487950/5 "2009-03-05T05:16:11Z")
[http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=10895946&postcount=9](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=10895946&postcount=9) > [@Ed, how long until you will advise how long it will be until the search works?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ed-how-long-until-you-will-advise-how-long-it-will-be-until-the-search-works/488014/9): > > These fatal errors are due to searches which are so broad in scope they exhaust the 128M of memory allocated to a search process: > > I’m not sure I want to “fix” these errors since the fix is allocating even more memory to a search process. Doing so has downsides for the performance the rest of the board users will receive while these broad searches are running. > > I’ll weigh off the pros and cons of increasing the amount of memory allocated with the hardware host and then make a decision as to how to proceed. > > Jerry ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2009, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-the-search-function/487950/6 "2009-03-06T16:33:38Z")
Now when I try it I’m not even getting an error message; I just get a completely blank screen. ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2009, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-the-search-function/487950/7 "2009-03-06T23:59:42Z")
I think the hamsters must have left the SDMB for one of the new, uncensored message boards. Even rats leave a sinking ship. I guess it’s the same with all small rodents! ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2009, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-the-search-function/487950/8 "2009-03-07T19:21:51Z")
And now I get the error message when I try a **two** -keyword search. ---
**Author:** ![jdavis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f6c823/32.png) [@jdavis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jdavis)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2009, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-the-search-function/487950/9 "2009-03-08T15:34:54Z")
The more words you use in the search the greater the likelihood you’ll have a problem. Contrary to how you’d think search should work (the more words you search for the narrower the focus of the search) it’s the opposite. So while a search for say “World Health Organization” should be a narrower search than “Health Organization” it isn’t from vBulletin’s perspective. A search for “World Health Organization” takes the memory resources necessary for a “Health Organization” search and adds in the resources needed for a “World” search as well. That is why a search for “World Health Organization” can fail due to exhausting the memory resources of the search process while a search for “Health Organization” can succeed. That said I’ve temporarily increased the amount of memory that a search process can use. This is an experiment to see what impact such a change will have on the performance of the message boards. vBulletin places limits on how much memory any one process can consume in order to not unduly effect the whole. I’ve raised those limits and we’ll see what the net result is. If the additional resources allocated to search negatively effect reading and posting to the message boards then we’ll revert to the current situation as I look at other options. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2009, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-the-search-function/487950/10 "2009-03-08T17:48:28Z")
> [@jdavis](#): > > That said I’ve temporarily increased the amount of memory that a search process can use. This is an experiment to see what impact such a change will have on the performance of the message boards. vBulletin places limits on how much memory any one process can consume in order to not unduly effect the whole. I’ve raised those limits and we’ll see what the net result is. If the additional resources allocated to search negatively effect reading and posting to the message boards then we’ll revert to the current situation as I look at other options. Thanx! A three-keyword post search works now! 🙂 Don’t suppose you can do anything about that five-minutes-between-searches rule? (It applies even when your first search **fails** for any reason, including “Database Error.”)