PSA: How to use 2+2's search engine.

Pokey · #1 07-14-2006, 02:42 PM

Eager and dew-eyed, you stumble across the 2+2 Forums for the first time. Wow! The greatest repository of poker knowledge available on the web, and it's all at my fingertips! World champions post their thoughts here, and all I have to do is read it to unlock the mysteries of this great game.

...but first I have to find 'em. [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

Our search engine is horrible, but once you figure out how to use it, it's functional. Helpful advice:

1. Forum(s) to search: an "All Forums" search not only takes more time, but usually brings up much noise. If you have any idea where the post you're looking for might be, limit the search to that forum. To select multiple forums, hold down the CTRL key as you click.

2. Keyword search terms: don't type words here; it won't work. Always surround your terms (even single words) with quotation marks. To find advice on aces, try searching for

+" aces "

or

+" rockets "

or

+" AA "

Note the spaces before and after the term. If you only search for +"aces" you'll bring up any page that has words that CONTAIN the character string ACES, so "races," "braces," "faces," "places," etc., will also come up, and that's just noise. Note that a search on +" aces " will NOT bring up a page that contains the phrase "How should I play these aces?" because the character after "aces" is not a space, but a punctuation mark.

If you're looking for something a particular phrase, put it in quotes. If you wanted to find the voluntary statistics survey, for instance, you could search for:

+"voluntary statistics survey"

Phrases are usually specific enough that they don't need spaces before or after the words.

Another VERY handy thing to include in most of your keyword searches is the phrase

-"Re:"

This eliminates all responses, so that you only bring up a list of thread-initiating posts. For example, when I search for:

+"voluntary statistics survey"

I get 198 results. If instead I search for:

+"voluntary statistics survey" -"Re:"

the results are trimmed down to a much-more-manageable 7.

3. Username search: say that you wanted to see what Grunch had to say about going busto. So, you type +"busto" in the keyword area and Grunch in the username, and you get...zero hits. The username you include must be exact, so if you don't type the grunch it will be searching on a non-existent user. Take note of this if you can't remember a user's EXACT username.

4. Date range: this lets you specify how long ago a post could have been made to still be included in your search. You cannot specify a range longer than 4 years, but this is rarely a binding constraint. If you are desperate to find posts that are more than four years old, simply set the "older than" to 3 years and then the "newer than" can be as high as 7 years. It's only the RANGE that must be no larger than four years, not the final point.

I typically set the "newer than" to "1 year(s)" and it typically brings up everything I need. The default of "1 week(s)" is entirely too constraining most of the time, and you should change this every time you do a search.

5. Result format: if you're searching for a specific thread that you will remember when you see the title, I recommend leaving the "show preview" box unchecked; the resulting page will be MUCH more concise without it. However, if you're just browsing a topic, click this preview; that way, you'll get the first three lines of the post, which should give you some idea if it's truly what you're looking for.

The most posts you can see on a page is 99, so if you type a number larger than that, you'll only get 99 per page.

The most results you can get per search is 200, so if you're searching for a broad topic, you may have to limit your search, either chronologically (searching only one or two weeks at a time) or keyword-wise (adding +"pocket" to +"aces", or adding the -"Re:", as examples).

Good luck!

ridonkulous · #2 07-14-2006, 02:44 PM

Thanks for the post Pokey, the search has been driving me nuts.

mosuavea · #3 07-14-2006, 02:44 PM

Very nice. Im pretty 2+2 search savy but I know lots of people who cant use it for anything. Hopefully this gets stickied/FAQ linked so we can help the n00bs

BukNaked36 · #4 07-14-2006, 02:48 PM

Sweeet. This will help me a lot. I've been frustrated by search here a couple of times and after reading this it was apparently due to my own ignorance.

Very useful and thanks again.