BeerAdvocate Search now uses Google CSE

Blog Discussion in 'BeerAdvocate Talk' started by Todd, Jul 15, 2013.

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  1. Clonies720

    Clonies720 Initiate (0) Oct 24, 2012 Texas

    With the old search engine, I used to be able to delete my previous searches using the "Delete/Insert" key. Now all my old searches pop up and I cannot delete them. Anyone know if this is possible without wiping my cookies/cache/history/auto-fill?
     
  2. 1up

    1up Initiate (0) Mar 5, 2013 District of Columbia

    woohoo! now i can search for rubaeus without having to type those umlauts (æ/ü).
     
  3. Cascade77

    Cascade77 Initiate (0) May 14, 2009 Vermont

    Not a big fan but I'll give it a try. Seems like more work and less relevant results.
     
  4. RobertColianni

    RobertColianni Pooh-Bah (1,705) Nov 4, 2008 Pennsylvania
    Pooh-Bah Society Trader

    That's exactly what it is.
     
  5. LopeJuice

    LopeJuice Initiate (0) Aug 23, 2012 New York
    Trader

    from the standpoint of someone who has very little technical knowledge, the results of the new search format are confusing. Maybe I don't know how to use it to find exactly what I'm looking for just yet. Generally if there's a learning curve to use the search function you are really just discouraging anyone from using it that doesn't want to take the time to figure it out or are perhaps not so computer saavy. just my $.02 the old search was very straight forward and easy to use, this is a downgrade in user friendliness IMHO.
     
    Retail1LO, Fargrow, JulianC and 2 others like this.
  6. 1up

    1up Initiate (0) Mar 5, 2013 District of Columbia

    Type your query in the search bar and hit the "enter" key. It's the same as using Google if you're familiar with that. It's also the same as the old search technology as far as user friendliness goes. It may give different results but in my opinion the results are better.
     
  7. RobertColianni

    RobertColianni Pooh-Bah (1,705) Nov 4, 2008 Pennsylvania
    Pooh-Bah Society Trader

    Better how? Less results per page, less relevance initially, more work on our end to achieve relevance, still less results per page after relevance is achieved, more loading. I see no positives.
     
    Retail1LO likes this.
  8. 1up

    1up Initiate (0) Mar 5, 2013 District of Columbia

    I didn't do extensive testing yet but with the old search engine 'Rubaeus' did not find any results. Now it does.
     
  9. LopeJuice

    LopeJuice Initiate (0) Aug 23, 2012 New York
    Trader

    thanks for the snarky reply, but I was giving feedback to the site developers from a viewpoint I think is very relevant, not looking for a defense of the new search function. I'll have to check out this 'google' you speak of, sounds promising.
     
  10. 1up

    1up Initiate (0) Mar 5, 2013 District of Columbia

    It wasn't supposed to be snarky, you said you weren't technical. I agree that it's relevant but I was sharing my thoughts on the new one as well.
     
  11. RobertColianni

    RobertColianni Pooh-Bah (1,705) Nov 4, 2008 Pennsylvania
    Pooh-Bah Society Trader

    So our biggest gain is being able to find Rubaeus? Wonderful!
     
    duceswild likes this.
  12. 1up

    1up Initiate (0) Mar 5, 2013 District of Columbia

    You haven't given any concrete examples yet and your snarky response isn't useful. Look, sorry to break it to you but it's just a fact that Google does searching better than anyone else. That's why they are so successful. The BA search is impressive for a home grown solution but Google provides less maintenance and more efficient searching with better results- the choice is obvious. The only disadvantage is being subject to their decisions rather than being independent but the BA site devs obviously made the decision that it's worth it.
     
  13. RobertColianni

    RobertColianni Pooh-Bah (1,705) Nov 4, 2008 Pennsylvania
    Pooh-Bah Society Trader

    View the first page of this thread. Also, view the second page of this thread.
    I'm a big boy and can find Rubaeus on my own. I don't need a complete overhaul of a great on-site search to find a new release.
    Again, I've said it at least twice, now: less results per page, more loading of secondary pages, less appointed results, must go through the entire extensive process after each search to perform my next search instead of just flow freely while I'm in the Forum, Beer, or Members section.
     
    Retail1LO, JackHorzempa and Sludgeman like this.
  14. BBThunderbolt

    BBThunderbolt Grand High Pooh-Bah (7,282) Sep 24, 2007 Kiribati
    Pooh-Bah Society Trader

    Admittedly, I'm tech challenged, and not a big user of google in general, I just did a few test drives, and I don't think I like it. I'll wait til I try it on my phone from the store, but this seems like you've gotta be much more detailed in your input. We'll see though.
     
  15. brees6221

    brees6221 Initiate (0) Aug 4, 2009 Western Sahara

    My first impression isn't that great, and I use google for searches on a daily basis. Seems like lots of extra clicks and steps but I'll give it some time.
     
  16. tinypyramids

    tinypyramids Pundit (897) Jul 19, 2012 Illinois

    i really liked the pop up window that allowed me to quickly pare down what i wanted to search before i had to click on several other links to find what i want. appreciate the effort to try to unify search, but the extra clicking is kind of annoying.
     
  17. duceswild

    duceswild Pooh-Bah (2,046) Feb 8, 2010 Heard & McDonald Islands
    Pooh-Bah Trader

    Is there anyway to eliminate beer reviews from the results when you select beers. Typically when I'm searching for a beer I'm going by the name of the beer and not the content that a user wrote during their review.

    For example when you search Flying Dog Pineapple (http://beeradvocate.com/search?q=flying+dog+pineapple) you do not receive any links to the beer one would expect (http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/68/96567).

    Perhaps since it's a newly added beer Google hasn't crawled those pages...but it has been on the site since the 13th.
     
  18. Todd

    Todd Founder (13,254) Aug 23, 1996 Finland
    Staff Super Mod Pooh-Bah Society Trader

    It currently shows up as the first result/link, but not when looking at Beers. We'll look into/fine tuning this.
     
  19. cbeer88

    cbeer88 Initiate (0) Sep 5, 2007 Massachusetts

    What was wrong with the hybrid version? Didn't we try this like a year ago and thus the move to the hybrid version?

    The BA search had its issues, but it was super efficient for some things, and had a much more usable interface. Google is certainly better for misspellings and vague searches, but I really liked the BA search for precise things. Once you get past the learning curve on the BA search, it works very well.
     
  20. Sammy

    Sammy Grand High Pooh-Bah (7,330) Dec 1, 2003 Canada (ON)
    Pooh-Bah Society Trader

    its a solid improvement. Keep up the good work!
     
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