Searching, searching, always searching...

1. 92

   DzyMsLizzyposted 6 years ago

   What has happened to the search function??!!
   
   It used to be easy, and intuitive to use; we could look up a category, title, or author by name or pen name, and it would be found, or come close enough to easily find.
   
   Now, the search function is totally useless!  No categories come up, unless you type one in; and then, it searches, searches, searches, and you cannot enter an authorl name in with it. 
   
   Plus, it gives a misleading "search on Hubpages.com or find your Maven."  Only the "Maven" symbols shows, and it never returns any result for a Hub Pages author I know to still be here.
   
   I'm more and more beginning to feel that, PR 'spin' to the contrary, this Maven "merger" looks more like a hostile takeover!

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   1. 80

      kenneth averyposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      @ DzyMsLizzy -- I have to agree with you because a week or so ago, I was searching for a particular hubber and although I used their name letter by letter, the search took me to a page that sold homemade wallets?! Stun City. Confused and not Dazed, but (and thanks to Led Zeppelin) I was put out with the lack of engineering in keeping search into the search app.
      Dzy, don't get any cute ideas. I am in no way healthy enough to help you storm the gates and take over HP. LOL.

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   2. 86

      Venkatachari Mposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      I agree. It is quite a lengthy and depressing game if you want to search using that search option there. Everything shows up there but not your anticipated result.
      It is better to search for a Hubber by browsing through the lists of your followers or those whom you are following. Or you can go to a certain other person's profile whom you know follows that one, and from his/her list also you can find your choice or result work out very quickly.

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   3. STAFF

      Matt Wellsposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      There was an issue with the new search function, but it was resolved yesterday. You should now easily find what you're looking for.

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2. 98

   Sustainable Sueposted 6 years ago

   I use the search function slightly differently and I, too, am frustrated. When I want to write a new hub, I first check to see how much has been written about it on HP (and related niche sites) and what the quality is. I can no longer do that. I just tried it again today. Will that direct search be reinstated at some point?

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   1. 87

      theraggededgeposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      If you know the site it's on, just look for it on Google. Type the name of the likely site and the keyword. So, 'Delishably avocado toast'

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   2. 97

      watergeekposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      I get that. Let me give you an example. Let's say I just took a tour of the San Francisco Delta water aqueduct. I have lots of photos. I want to write an article that helps people understand the situation up there, before California spends millions of dollars on building underground water tunnels. I could approach this article several ways:
      
      * Fishing in the delta. Why is the delta smelt a key species for fishing?
      * Water supply. How does the whole system work, from the mountains to the estuary, through pipes to Southern California?
      * Ecology and health of estuaries. The SF estuary is one of only three major estuaries in the U.S. Why is its health important?
      * Conflicts between reclamation & use. Which takes precedence? Who's influencing it and how?
      * Farming in the delta. How have island farmers helped shape the delta's current declining condition?
      
      I could get my point across with any of these topics, but I don't have time to write about them all. To help me choose, I want to find out what HP writers have written so far (and how well they were written). I also want to find out how readers have responded and what more they seem to be asking for. It used to be I could just search on "San Francisco Delta" and related articles of all sorts would pop up. How do I do that now, given HP's current search procedures?

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      1. 98

         DrMark1961posted 6 years agoin reply to this

         I assume you are writing so that the article will be moved to a niche site. Decide which one. When you do, you can type "San Francisco Delta Dengarden" into your search engine. The first articles will contain all of those words.

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         1. 86

            Venkatachari Mposted 6 years agoin reply to this

            But, why Dengarden only. I may like to know about all the top articles dealing with the same topic on the whole niche sites. Is it workable with the search engine at HP?

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            1. 92

               DzyMsLizzyposted 6 years agoin reply to this

               It was never possible to search for articles on specific niche sites before, because the whole "niche site" concept is new within about the last year, I'd say.  (Anyone can correct me if my time frame is wrong)
               
               So, I wouldn't try to search by niche site, because it probably wouldn't give you the results you wanted, (and because it probably isn't possible--at least not yet).
               
               You might have better luck with starting a search outside of Hub Pages; on Google, or any other large search engine, and see what comes up.  If any of the articles found that way happen to be on Hub Pages, you'll find that out right then and there as well, and can easily click on and read the article to see what that author has covered.
               
               Best wishes.

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               1. 86

                  Venkatachari Mposted 6 years agoin reply to this

                  Yes, I agree with your suggestion. It is better to search from the default browser that you use for the internet browsing. Searchin from HP does not help unless you know the author's name, the title of a certain hub, etc.

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               2. 99

                  Shesabutterflyposted 6 years agoin reply to this

                  You can search individual sites now. That's the only way I have found the new search function works. They have updated it so it reads "search Owlcation.com or find your Maven". So for Drmark's example he wouldn't need to add pethelpful to his keywords, because nothing will come up in the results if he's looking on a different niche site or hp. If you want to search for something, you now have to go to that individual niche site or hp and the results will only display results for the specific site you are on.
                  
                  For example if you want to find something on Dengarden or find out what has been written on a certain subject you can type in Dengarden if you are on that niche site, but it is no longer necessary. If you are on HP and type in Dengarden with your keywords it will only bring up articles on HP or authors who have articles with those keywords on Dengarden. So you would either need to search their personal page or type their name into the search function at Dengarden. That will bring up their articles at the top of the search with related articles (from other authors) beneath that. The author search however, will also bring up any articles they have commented on as well whether they are related to the search terms or not.
                  
                  As far as I can tell it is no longer possible to search across the entire platform.

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                  1. 98

                     Sustainable Sueposted 6 years agoin reply to this

                     That's the problem.

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                     1. 99

                        Shesabutterflyposted 6 years agoin reply to this

                        I completely agree. I use Google now unless I know for a fact what I'm looking for is on a specific site. I like to do research before I write and see what competition there is. If nothing appears in Google though it doesn't rule it out of Hp or other niche sites, it simply means it doesn't rank high enough for me to see it. Which is not entirely helpful.
                        
                        With all the different sites it's impossible to know where some subjects will be. I have to search several just to cover one topic I'm interested in writing on. It's tedious and way to time consuming now.

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                        1. 92

                           DzyMsLizzyposted 6 years agoin reply to this

                           Yes, but none of this assesses how to search for a specific AUTHOR!

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                           1. 99

                              Shesabutterflyposted 6 years agoin reply to this

                              I answered that in my previous comment. It works in the exact same way as if you were searching for keywords. You can only search through the specific site you are on. If you do not know the exact name however, the search may or may not work which is very unhelpful. If an author has changed their name recently like lobobrandon you will get different results depending on if you type in lobobrandon or Brandon Lobo. Being able to search for authors has become even harder than searching for content in my opinion unless you know the exact name and site they are on.
                              
                              For example, if I know DrMark1961 is on Pethelpful I would simply go there and type his name into the search (he shows up if you simply type DrMark as well, however the results are in a different order). Everything written by him or that he's commented on will show up. None of his other content on any of the other sites will appear. The search is now site specific, which makes it much harder to use. If you type the author's name into the hp search you will get their profile page (if you have the exact name or something very close) otherwise you will only see their content that is still on hp or the comments they have made either on articles or different forums.
                              
                              You cannot search by first or last name unless it's an uncommon name as any article containing "Helen" for example will show up and no authors will appear. If you are trying to search for an author by first name you would have to type Helen on hubpages into the hp search and any author with the name Helen will appear in the results. There is no way to search across the entire hp/network site platform at one time as far as I can tell for authors or keywords.

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                              1. 92

                                 DzyMsLizzyposted 6 years agoin reply to this

                                 And THAT is my point, exactly!
                                 It is even more useless if you have no idea on which sites they appear!
                                 
                                 That is the point I was trying to make! HP team has made the search function much too complicated and user-UNfriendly at best, and nigh well useless at worst. I implore them to fix it, back to the way it was to begin with!

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         2. 98

            DrMark1961posted 6 years agoin reply to this

            I just used Dengarden as an example.
            If I am looking to see what articles have been published about vomiting in dogs, for example, I would type in "vomiting dogs pethelpful". I would not bother to type in any other niche sites.
            I just used Dengarden because I am not familiar with all of the niche sites and do not know where her article would go.
            It would not do you any good to search for articles about cars on pethelpful. Why would you want to search all of the niche sites if you know what you are looking for?

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3. 97

   watergeekposted 6 years ago

   OK, so it doesn't matter what's on other niche sites––I just choose the approach that I know most about and is most interesting to me, then look on that one niche site to see what's there. And if there's stuff already there, I look for the next topic/niche site and on and on until I find one that's available??? Maybe I'd just better start with the most unusual topic or approach I can find, based on my own experience . . . hell, that's a good idea anyway.
   
   I do wish we could search HP the way we used to. All of these niche site articles are stored on HP anyway, aren't they? (Mine are.)

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