I love what wordpress can do for me. However, the search engine on wordpress.org is lame. Search for anything by name: "Add From Server". It may or may not appear. Most of the time the main thing you're looking for doesn't appear on the first page. I use google to search for plugins more efficiently. Please please please - fix this. Right now, it's not worth the form space in the site header to even keep the search function.
Lame Search Features for Site: WordPress.org (8 posts)
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gr33nman
Posted 4 years ago # -
I must have been in a cave, when did WordPress became a search engine?
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Posted 4 years ago #Hi haochi,
There's a search form in the top right corner of the header of wordpress.org. If I type in the name of the plugin or theme, I'd expect it to be amongst the first items to show up in the resulting search page. Why should I have to go to a search engine to find something on a site I'm already at if it provides me with a search function? For that matter, why can't wordpress's search capabilities be more useful?
If WP can't provide a decent search, why even provide the form?
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apparantly, you missed this small detail:
Search powered by Yahoo! Web Search.
so a poor return on your search results ought to be blamed on yahoo, or your search terms.
To that end, "Add From Server" is a perfect example of crappy search terms. I wonder how many 1000's of posts on this domain contain the word "server".
Add and from == those are generic, and dont add anything.
Lastly, you ought to be using google to search for plugins. Are you put off by having to do that? Like was just pointed out -- this is not a search engine.
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Posted 4 years ago #whooami
There is a search form specifically for plugins here. These are the results when I search for "Add From Server", (quotes included). The page shows nothing about yahoo being the search engine used to display the results. I even checked the page source.
At the bottom of the page, there is a link that says, 'You may also try your search at Google'. This brings up the plugin as the first item on the list.
When I type "Add From Server" in the search form in the main wordpress.org header, it replies 'We Couldn't find anything.' Yes, this search says it's powered by Yahoo, but when I go to the link on that page for 'Yahoo Web Search' and type in "Add from server" again it shows the plugin as the first result.
If I go to Yahoo.com directly and similarly type in "Add From Server", I get the plugin again as the first item.
Code view for the general search form:
<form action="http://wordpress.org/search/do-search.php" method="get" id="head-search">Code view for the plugin-specific search form:
<form action="http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/search.php" method="get" id="plugins-search">Neither of these forms goes to Yahoo's search api. There is no way the plugin search function or the general search function on wordpress.org is really using Yahoo web search. Either that, or both forms are malformed.
My suggestion has been from the start - either fix the wordpress.org plugin search so that it actually functions, or just use google's api. The current search is a waste of space in the header and the plugin page. Period.
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its not looking at the plugin names. Its looking at content:
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/search.php?q=WordPress+2.5+includes+a+new+Media+manager
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/search.php?q=Better+Comments+Manager
Is that your plugin? If it is, adding the name of the plugin somewhere within the content seems to "fix" that issue.
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Posted 4 years ago #whooami
I haven't made any plugins, but I sure like to use them. Searching by part of what exists in the entry proves your point, but it seems more likely that I'm going to remember the name of the plugin before I remember strings from the description. And definitions by nature are rarely self-inclusive.
Try almost any plugin by name. I get the same result. The field(s) being searched are insufficient. Why not include the field that has the title of the plugin among fields being searched? Why not include the name of the plugin zip file? My verdict still stands - wordpress.org has a lame search function.
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sven7777
Posted 3 years ago #http://www.google.com/coop/cse?cx=006835583451239722573:15duy8wtjos
this is a pretty neat tool for searching for WP plugins. hopefully it helps.
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