# Why some searches don't go through
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-some-searches-dont-go-through/805674
**Category:** About This Message Board
**Created:** [January 1, 2018, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-some-searches-dont-go-through/805674 "2018-01-01T04:50:56Z")
**Posts on this page:** 2
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)
#### Post date: [January 1, 2018, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-some-searches-dont-go-through/805674/1 "2018-01-01T04:50:56Z")
I have tried to search for posts on the SDMB with keywords such as “water” and “time.” Every time I try these searches, which include my Username, the screen shows a message that the search has failed. This happens only with certain specific keywords. Why?
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### Author:  [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)
#### Post date: [January 1, 2018, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-some-searches-dont-go-through/805674/2 "2018-01-01T05:36:14Z")
I don’t know specifically why it fails on particular words, but it is pretty well known that our buggy little search engine has this “feature”. If you are searching for multiple terms, sometimes just rearranging the terms will get it to stop failing. Then again, sometimes not.
If you just can’t get it to work with certain terms, you can use google to search for those terms instead.
Details here: HOWTO: Search the SDMB using Google
[https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=638051](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=638051)
Since the search engine is built into the version of vBulletin that we are using, it’s not going to get fixed, at least not for as long as we continue to use this version of the software.