Laptop GPS World

Mister · #1 March 24th, 2008, 12:02 PM

I find it limiting that one can't use a word less then 4 characters to run a forum search.

Tried searching "IG TTS"

And got this error message:

Quote:

"The search term you specified (IG) is under the minimum word length (4) and therefore will not be found. Please make this term longer.
If this term contains a wildcard, please make this term more specific."

Am I missing something?

Thanks.

Marvin Hlavac · #2 March 24th, 2008, 12:13 PM

Fixed! I lowered the limit down to two letters.

Thanks for pointing that out.

Marvin Hlavac · #3 March 24th, 2008, 03:42 PM

Hmm, I don't think I've fixed it yet. We no longer get the message, but the search still fails to find any results. The following is from the control panel of the forum software:

Quote:

Search Index Minimum Word Length

When using the vBulletin default search, this option limits the size of indexed words. The smaller this number is, the larger your search index, and conversely your database is going to be.

When using the Fulltext search, this option limits the size of words that may be searched for. Smaller words take longer to search for as they are more common. MySQL Fulltext has its own minimum word length as well that must be changed at the server level.

So it seems the change I did in my control panel didn't do the trick. I will still have to contact the host of the website to change settings on the server (I'm not sure if they are willing to do it, since this is a shared server).

In the meantime you can search this website with Google by typing for example ig site:laptopgpsworld.com - click for a sample result: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q...world.com&meta

Marvin Hlavac · #4 March 26th, 2008, 05:45 AM

I contacted the hosting company, and the following was their first reply:

Quote:

Marvin,

This configuration modification would impact the server performance (as you are on a shared hosting server), so we're a tad reluctant to adjust this to two, but after consulting with a few other techs and senior staff here, we'd be willing to adjust this to three if you'd like us to.

If you do need to go to 2, we would recommend researching a Virtual or Dedicated Server plan.

However, after I gave them go ahead to change it down to 3, they replied:

Quote:

Marvin,

After reviewing the exact operations involved in this, we've decided that this isn't something we can do. The reason for this is that, once these variables are changed (the easy part), ALL databases on the server must have a repair operation ran on them, which is what we cannot do.

So sorry about that, everyone. For the time being the built-in search feature of the forum will remain limited to searching for words that consist of four letters or more.

I will research the possibility of integrating Google Search into this website either as a replacement for the current search feature, or as another option. This may take me a bit of time because I'd rather not do more modifications to the forum templates at this time. A new version of forum software (v.3.7) is expected to be available within several weeks. After the forum is upgraded to v.3.7, I will very likely implement some form of Google Search on the site.

Marvin Hlavac · #5 March 28th, 2008, 08:28 AM

I've spent hours searching for some modifications to the forum software to allow for better searching experience. I've come across postings by people who have integrated Google Search into their forums. I'll try to integrate Google Search as well, but first I will have to figure out exactly how I want to do it. But I think at the end Google will do much better job of searching this website, than the built-in search feature.

For the time being I placed the Google search box in the top-left corner of all pages. This may change over the next few days. For now, please consider this just a test. Feedback will be appreciated.

Mister · #6 March 28th, 2008, 10:06 AM

I like the Google search:
- In the results page it highlights the relevant words found.
- It offers spelling correction for your search title

It would be good if you could embed the final search engine with the script you've used for the current search (drops down from the top bar)

Thanks.

S NIMO S · #7 March 28th, 2008, 01:26 PM

Marvin hope this help your forums too http://www.xml-sitemaps.com/

Marvin Hlavac · #8 March 28th, 2008, 05:57 PM

I bit disappointing is that now Google includes advertisements on the result page. I didn't notice it there at first. It must have been added a bit later after I set it up.

If I understand it correctly, to have the result page without ads, I would have to be a registered non-profit organization, or a school, or I would have to pay $100 a year for the search service

.

But I think if we can ignore the ads, the results may be helpful.

S NEMO S, great minds think alike

. A few weeks ago I installed an add-on which automatically generates sitemap once a day, and then it automatically pings Google and Yahoo.

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Laptop GPS World

Search engine limitations

Search engine limitations