DeeperBlue & Google Searches are now rubbish

[Mr. X]

Hi,
DeeperBlue searches used to be almost perfect. Since the upgrade they have become rubbish -- completely unusable. (Google itself appears to have become less effective in the last 6 weeks -- others have also noticed).

Not only does it never find a relevant thread but, even worse, it return lots of irrelevant links. At least part of the problem appears to be that it is finding text in your "top 10 links" sections. Unfortunately, when you click the links, the top 10 links have always changed -- & so has our chance of finding the thread. Also, you do not display the view cached page option that in Google allows you to view the old version of the page (& find that old top 10 link).

Suggestion: fix the search & then add a search box (like eBay) to the header on each page.

[Pastor]

In what way? What are you searching for? It seems to be working fine for me, Ive just made a couple of random searches and the returns were spot on. Google is working fine too. Still not found the meaning of life though

[Mr. X]

Originally Posted by Pastor

In what way? What are you searching for? It seems to be working fine for me, Ive just made a couple of random searches and the returns were spot on. Google is working fine too. Still not found the meaning of life though

Everything recently. For example, trying to find the South Devon spearo thread using: "Devon, "South Devon" & even "South Devon Report 2006" ...just picks up a complete load of b*ll*cks.

Hang on, I take back part of that -- going to Google.com find "South Devon Report 2006" immediately - excellent. However, the above applies to searches done within DeeperBlue.net.

BTW I notice that DeeperBlue have added a search box in the header of some pages (per previous suggestion & in my earlier post)...but oddly not into the forum header (where it would be most use).

[Stephan Whelan]

Mr X

The new Google Search that we are using on the rest of the site is still being tested and tweaked. What i've noticed is that it only returns results from the www.deeperblue.net domain and not any of the others (such as forums.deeperblue.net) i'll work on that this morning.

We don't include the site search in the forum pages because the forums have their own search engine available. Although we are currently tendering for a new design which will include new searching elements as well.

[Mr. X]

Originally Posted by Stephan Whelan

We don't include the site search in the forum pages because the forums have their own search engine available. Although we are currently tendering for a new design which will include new searching elements as well.

..so it does, I totally missed that

[Stephan Whelan]

Mr X.

I've just applied the changes that make the search global on the site. It should now return results from the forums as well.

However you should also make sure you use the forum search functionality available at the top of the page as that is the best way of finding forum threads (the site search is likely to be several hours behind)

[Mr. X]

That was quick. Excellent - thanks .

[Mr. X]

Seems to be broken again -- just gets articles. (Would be usable if Google's "cached page" link were available).