Big news Monday: New search is up and running!
Posted by Webmistress Laura on Oct 26, 2009 · Member since Jun 2009 · 831 posts
Hey All!
This morning we unveiled a fabulous new search that we've been working really hard on. You can now search recipes and forums separately or search the whole site. We think it's pretty fantastic! If you have any suggestions or feedback, please leave it here. Also, if you like it, we'd love to know that too. Because we love it. No more searching for cookie recipes and ending up in a forum discussion about face wash. Woohoo!
Anyway, please explore it and let us know what you think and happy Monday, VegWebbers!!
WebMistress Laura
I tried the search and its great, a big improvment. thanks
Big improvement, thank-you! I searched Kale and came up with 10 pages of recipes! It's great to have so many recipes on file. Looks like about 200 recipes that have kale in them. Then I searched Kale sald and came up with about 50 results.
I'll take you at your word and give suggestions, visualizing the perfect search engine:
When searching recipes, for example, you can check "just search titles" as on Craigslist. Ditto for forums. This really narrows down the search, and saves loads of time.
Something I love that's on my google taskbar. I can search for a specific word or phrase within a web page.
yay!!! so exciting! vegweb rulez
I haven't had anything to search for yet, but I trust you, and I know how much work it must have been. I'm sure it will be great. <3
I am so happy I can easily search for recipes now without all the forum posts popping up. Thank you so much!!! :D
Good job!
The search is wonderful! Thank you so much for putting the time and effort into revamping it for us. ;)b
I just searched coconut milk, and got 17 pages of recipes with coconut milk! Ranked by rating, labeled, and beautiful. YES.
I think I found an issue, or maybe I'm just not using it right.
Example: I searched for "boca egg free" in just forums. Great, it came up with all relevant threads. I know that the topic was discussed in aimless chitchat, and the thread came up, but the link is not to the post with the boca egg free discussion. The link is just to the first page of the aimless chitchat thread. I need a link to the actual boca egg free discussion within the aimless chitchat thread. You know what I mean?
This may have nothing to do with the new search feature but: I searched for scary authentic stroganoff (no quotes) in Recipes. It didn't find anything (though, frighteningly enough, it suggested that I might have meant scary authentic stroking). So I removed the word stroganoff, thinking maybe it wasn't spelled correctly. It then found Easiest (and Scary-Authentic) Vegan Stroganoff. So why didn't it find it with the first search?
I'm really impressed. Thank you!
I've also had issues with the search - I tried searching for compost broth, knowing there is a recipe called that but the recipe didn't come up.
Another example is searching 'jake's scrambled' and the recipe for jake's scrambled 'eggs' didn't come up.
So am I right in thinking that the sesarch does not search the titles and only the content? It's a bit annoying because I often know the title of something I want to try but not the content, hence me trying to search the title. (if that makes sense!)
Jake's has never come up in a search for me either.....before or now. I wonder what's up with that!
Thanks for all the feedback! We'll work on continuing to improve the search and your observations definitely help!
I've also had issues with the search - I tried searching for compost broth, knowing there is a recipe called that but the recipe didn't come up.
Another example is searching 'jake's scrambled' and the recipe for jake's scrambled 'eggs' didn't come up.
So am I right in thinking that the sesarch does not search the titles and only the content? It's a bit annoying because I often know the title of something I want to try but not the content, hence me trying to search the title. (if that makes sense!)
The Jake's is the hardest ever to find! I think it's under "egg substitutes" or some such.
yeah, luckily I know it off by heart now - I just use it as a way of testing how good the search function is as it never turned up with the previous search either.
But you're right, it's a tough one to find.
I'm sad to say that the search is still not working for me. I've had several problems with it not bringing certain things, not being able to search within threads, but "sandwich that got my brother to eat tomatoes" did not bring up the recipe of the same name. : (
I have decided to finally vent my frustration with the search function.
There is something wrong with it. An example is when I was looking for a recipe called "Pear Sauce". I knew that was the recipe title, I just didn't know which category the recipe was in, so I typed "pear sauce" in the recipe search bar. About 20 recipes came up, none of them were sauces and some of them didn't really involve pears. So, I tried searching "pear", lots of recipes came up, but none of them were the recipe I wanted.
I then remembered that -shea- had posted a picture of the recipe. So I went to her account and browsed her pictures until I found the picture of sauce. When I went to the recipe I had been searching for, sure enough, it was indeed titled "Pear Sauce".
Why didn't the search find this recipe when I typed its exact name in the search box?
(This ramble describes only one of the problems I've experienced with the search function...).
I used to solve the search problem by going to "recipes submitted by this person." But now, you get recipes interspersed with posts by whoever on all other VW boards. Sifting through everything is just impossible. So if I can find I recipe, I either save it on my hard disk or print it out, because I can never be sure I'll ever find it again on VW.
Thank you for this added feature. I've been using it and it works great.