Search engine not precise enough.

[Bugatti Fan]

The search engine is not precise enough when looking for something specific.

For example I wanted to search for any Ferrari Daytona threads.  What did I get?  Every instance the word Ferrari was found and every instance the word Daytona was found.

Literally thousands of irrelevant posts put up to wade through.    Is there a way to refine this or not?     I just gave up in frustration.

[KWT]

This is what I do... and it's the best way

 

[JollySipper]

You have to go to the section that you want results from......... Say, under glass, for instance. Then type in "Ferrari Daytona" in quotes, so it will only search that phrase..... If you'd rather see WIPs, just go to that forum, instead.

 

Edit...... I just searched Under Glass for the Ferrari. Here's the results.....

https://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/search/?q="ferrari daytona"&quick=1&type=forums_topic&nodes=18

 

Edited March 31, 2024 by JollySipper

[peteski]

5 hours ago, Bugatti Fan said:

The search engine is not precise enough when looking for something specific.

For example I wanted to search for any Ferrari Daytona threads.  What did I get?  Every instance the word Ferrari was found and every instance the word Daytona was found.

Literally thousands of irrelevant posts put up to wade through.    Is there a way to refine this or not?     I just gave up in frustration.

This is not unexpected.  If you did a similar Google search, it would also result in matches which have both or either word in them.  What you typed in was Ferrari OR Daytona.  Like someone else mentioned, if you put that 2-word phrase in quotes, that will give you results of that exact quote.

This is what the default search criteria are: https://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/search/ . By default it searches entire forum for match to any of the words.  But even if you select "all words", it will show matches where either of the words Ferrari and Daytona are anywhere in the post (not just next to each other).

 

[Bugatti Fan]

Pretty much what I guessed Pete.

What I typed in was Ferrari Daytona  as a phrase. Not Ferrari or Daytona as separate individual searches.

Search engines appear to just randomly find each and every single instance of a word even when used within a phrase like Ferrari Daytona. What I would like to know is if there is a way of isolating the phrase for search purposes? Seems like search engines are a bit dumb in that respect.

Maybe some techie reading this might have an answer?

Edited April 1, 2024 by Bugatti Fan

[stitchdup]

click on advanced search for more options. i think it shows up with the search results. you can also click the box on the right just above the results to swap to search by date which brings up the most recent first. if you dont change this you get results for everything in order of most word matches. putting the ferrari daytona in quotes tells the search engine to only match ferrari daytona if they are together, and you might get more resuts if you leave out daytona and use the year instead. putting the words in quotes only really works with two words, any more and your chances of those words appearing in the order typed is negligable.

another method would be to use the google image search function. just type modelcarsmag ferrari daytona into it and it will bring up every pic tagged ferrari daytona, and when you click on the pic it should show all the others from the appropriate thread. Then it just right click and open in a new tab to read the thread

[Straightliner59]

23 hours ago, KWT said:

This is what I do... and it's the best way

 

This is easily the most effective method. Put your search term in quotes--"Ferrari

Daytona" to isolate the term.

[peteski]

On 4/1/2024 at 3:43 AM, Bugatti Fan said:

Pretty much what I guessed Pete.

What I typed in was Ferrari Daytona  as a phrase. Not Ferrari or Daytona as separate individual searches.

Search engines appear to just randomly find each and every single instance of a word even when used within a phrase like Ferrari Daytona. What I would like to know is if there is a way of isolating the phrase for search purposes? Seems like search engines are a bit dumb in that respect.

Maybe some techie reading this might have an answer?

Well, did you put those 2 word within quotes?  If not, as I mentioned the default behavior is to look for Any of my search term words, so it will show you matches of either single occurrence of those words and of course if both words appear in the same post (together or separately).

[Bugatti Fan]

Thanks for the further feed back Les and Pete.       I will try using quotes as suggested and other things to try.