# Wimpy Search Engine **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [July 20, 2007, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wimpy-search-engine/412524 "2007-07-20T11:25:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2007, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wimpy-search-engine/412524/1 "2007-07-20T11:25:31Z")
Your search engine needs an overhaul, folks! After a first search found no results, I subtly changed the search criteria to broaden\* my search. I waited more than a minute (in case consecutive searches need a minute between searches), and the dang thing instantly claimed “no results”. \*broadened in such as fashion where the old search was not a subset of the new search. Now, you cannot tell me it took my inputs and performed a true search! C’mon! WTF? You need some crackerjack database programmers in Chicago, Uncle Cecil, and not Mickey Mouse! - Jinx 😃 ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2007, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wimpy-search-engine/412524/2 "2007-07-20T12:32:46Z")
[QUOTE=Jinx] Your search engine needs an overhaul, folks! After a first search found no results, I subtly changed the search criteria to broaden\* my search. I waited more than a minute (in case consecutive searches need a minute between searches), and the dang thing instantly claimed “no results”. Now, you cannot tell me it took my inputs and performed a true search! [/QUOTE] I’m not sure how we can deduce anything from your experiment. What were the exact terms you used both times? ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2007, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wimpy-search-engine/412524/3 "2007-07-20T15:37:22Z")
Before a search comes validation code. It runs fast. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2007, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wimpy-search-engine/412524/4 "2007-07-20T16:34:00Z")
[QUOTE=Jinx] Now, you cannot tell me it took my inputs and performed a true search! C’mon! [/QUOTE] Without knowing the search terms, I see nothing indicating a malfunction or deficiency in the search engine. It is entirely conceivable that both searches were still too restrictive. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2007, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wimpy-search-engine/412524/5 "2007-07-20T19:26:02Z")
Try doing a search on ‘estimating electricity’ and see if [this thread appears](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=228092). Doesn’t for me. In my experience, the search engine works almost flawlessly if you have a member name to search for whom you remember from the thread. But keywords are dicey. Just because you don’t get any hits, doesn’t mean that there aren’t threads still on the board that match it. (And that’s not the only one that I didn’t get a hit with keywords, but did with a member name–but it’s the quickest one I can remember.) ---
**Author:** ![Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hypnagogic_jerk/32/4252_2.png) [@Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypnagogic_Jerk)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2007, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wimpy-search-engine/412524/6 "2007-07-20T19:29:35Z")
[QUOTE=Earl Snake-Hips Tucker] Try doing a search on ‘estimating electricity’ and see if [this thread appears](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=228092). Doesn’t for me. [/QUOTE] Understandable. No post in this thread contains the words “estimating” and “electricity”. Post 28 contains “underestimating” and “electricity”, though, so I suppose that the search phrase ‘\*estimating electricity’ would find it. I will try it. ETA: D’oh, it doesn’t work! I must confess I’m not sure what the problem is. ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2007, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wimpy-search-engine/412524/7 "2007-07-20T21:01:15Z")
The search engine is obviously not working correctly. I just searched for the words **electricity happened Jackson** without any specific Boolean operator and without encasing quote marks. This should have returned the thread linked by **Earl Snake-Hips Tucker** , but it got one totally unrelated thread only. underestimating electricity didn’t get the thread linked by Earl, either. So something is wrong with the search engine. QED ---
**Author:** ![essell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/34f0e0/32.png) [@essell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/essell)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2007, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wimpy-search-engine/412524/8 "2007-07-20T21:51:07Z")
[QUOTE=DSYoungEsq] So something is wrong with the search engine. QED [/QUOTE] That kind of implies it wasn’t meant to work like this. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2007, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wimpy-search-engine/412524/9 "2007-07-20T21:57:35Z")
I think it is not so much the search engine programming, so much as it is the absence of that thread from whatever database the engine searches. I searched on the word “booooy”, a unique word that appears in the OP, and that thread is not returned in the results. I would bet there is no search that will return that thread, because the entire thread is missing from the database. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2007, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wimpy-search-engine/412524/10 "2007-07-20T22:03:35Z")
[QUOTE=DSYoungEsq] So something is wrong with the search engine. QED [/QUOTE] While I think he’s a generally pretty bright guy, I doubt telling him about it will produce results. 🙂