Using search effectively?

[Tahoe Gator]

You see a lot of new threads that get criticized for not checking for similar prior posts. I am sure I have been guilty before, but I must say the search feature — at least on the mobile app — is pretty useless.

 

For example, I am trying to figure out how to change the combo ignition cover / case saver on my son’s KX100 (same tranny as a KX85) into separate parts so as to install a proper case saver. So I type this into the Search field...

 

“KX85 case saver”

 

...and get these hits...

 

 

...none of which (nor the many more below if I scroll) are remotely helpful. I suspect this is because the Search function operates on the boolean “OR” and returns any threads that have “any” of those terms instead of “AND” so the returned threads have “all” of those terms.

 

Any suggestions most welcome. Or maybe the developers need to improve the feature?

[Brian Wilson]

The app does use the "OR" operator, which as you mentioned does limit the quality of the results at times, especially when there's nothing.

However, in this particular case, using the "AND" operator returns only the topic you posted here for results.   

As a trick, when in the app if you start by first navigating to a forum that is most likely to contain the information (so for you, it would be Kawasaki 2 stroke)..then conducting the search at that forum will greatly improve the results by only including matches from within that forum. 

There's some limits to what can be done in the app since we don't directly make it. So we can pick a default operator for all searches (OR, AND)...that's really the only control we have over the app.  On the website, you can use any operators you like. 

[Tahoe Gator]

The app does use the "OR" operator, which as you mentioned does limit the quality of the results at times, especially when there's nothing.
However, in this particular case, using the "AND" operator returns only the topic you posted here for results.   
As a trick, when in the app if you start by first navigating to a forum that is most likely to contain the information (so for you, it would be Kawasaki 2 stroke)..then conducting the search at that forum will greatly improve the results by only including matches from within that forum. 
There's some limits to what can be done in the app since we don't directly make it. So we can pick a default operator for all searches (OR, AND)...that's really the only control we have over the app.  On the website, you can use any operators you like. 

Thanks.

I would strongly encourage switching to the AND operator. There really is no use for OR whatsoever. eBay is a good example of understanding how good search works and they use AND.

[Brian Wilson]

On 1/29/2019 at 6:03 PM, Tahoe Gator said:

Thanks for reply.

I strongly encourage you to switch the app operator to AND. There really is no practical use for OR whatsoever. eBay and Amazon define what effective search is and they both use AND.

I just switched it. We'll give it a try and see what kind of feedback we get from users.