Searching on all terms

[Duane]

How does get the search results to return only what you enter?  For example, I wanted to search for (oak scale).    And not with quotes as it could have words between them.  So I entered those two words and didn't find anything with "oak" in the results.  I then put a "+" in front of each word with no better results.  It is like it's doing and OR between the words.  (And AND between them doesn't work, either!)  The advanced screen has Match all words selected and it doesn't help either.  If I wanted an OR, I would have went to extra trouble make it OR.  If I didn't want both words, I wouldn't have typed both words.  I notice this has started happening on the search engines like Yahoo and Google.  They used to not do that.  So the question is, how do I get results with only Oak AND Scale?

[amun-ra]

I just googled oak scale and got results about oak scale try again

[Moots]

How does get the search results to return only what you enter?  For example, I wanted to search for (oak scale).    And not with quotes as it could have words between them.  So I entered those two words and didn't find anything with "oak" in the results.  I then put a "+" in front of each word with no better results.  It is like it's doing and OR between the words.  (And AND between them doesn't work, either!)  The advanced screen has Match all words selected and it doesn't help either.  If I wanted an OR, I would have went to extra trouble make it OR.  If I didn't want both words, I wouldn't have typed both words.  I notice this has started happening on the search engines like Yahoo and Google.  They used to not do that.  So the question is, how do I get results with only Oak AND Scale?

If you're talking about Google, I think it handles it fine, but you can do an Advanced Google Search and control lots of variables of your search, including what you are trying to do.  If you're talking about the search here on the forum, I might be missing it, but I don't think it's robust enough to do handle your search criteria as described.

[gmcharlie]

usually Qoutation marks   "oak scale"

[Kathyp]

i think he's talking about on here.  the searches on here are not intuitive.  you'll have to play with it a bit and maybe do two, one for each word.  it can be a bit frustrating, but if you spend some time with it, you usually find what you want.  it's easier to find a post that you know exists especially if you can remember a specific title or phrase.

[Moots]

usually Qoutation marks   "oak scale"

gm,
that will find "oak scale", but if I'm not mistaken....He's wanting to find post with both the word "oak" anywhere within the post AND the world "scale" in the same post.

Example Post:

A) oak scale

B) oak blah blah blah scale

C) oak tree

D) kitchen scale

Searching oak scale will return A, B, C, and D.

Searching "oak scale" will return A but not B....He's looking for something that will return A and B, but not C and D!

It seems like searching "oak scale" WITHOUT the quotes and saying "match all words" should yield that result, but it doesn't.   :?

[Duane]

Yes, I was talking about on this forum.  I mentioned the issue with Google and Yahoo as I have had similar problems with them on certain words.  Sometimes, sites use them as an underlying search engine.  I would like to find oak and scale on this forum but not necessarily together nor in that order.  "match all words" should indeed yield that result!  Otherwise, what's the purpose of it?  One thought I had is maybe it didn't find both words and so, without telling me, it listed other things I might find of interest?

[buzzbee]

This is a quirk with a lot of search engines. I think the search feature is what  came standard with the forum software and as such not made to modify. As you said, it be be based on a standard algorithm used by many search engines.