BeerAdvocate Search now uses Google CSE

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

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  1. Sludgeman

    Sludgeman Grand Pooh-Bah (3,282) Aug 17, 2012 District of Columbia
    Pooh-Bah Society Trader

    From the homepage when I attempt a search I get nothing. Just a "search bar", but no results. Totally blank when I searched for "orval"
     
  2. fredmugs

    fredmugs Initiate (0) Aug 11, 2012 Indiana
    Deactivated

    Failed search = I can't type for shit. So far this looks like an improvement for me.
     
  3. APBTMarcel

    APBTMarcel Initiate (0) Oct 12, 2012 Missouri

    I don't like it at all. I used to use it all the damn time now it just is kind of annoying. Oh well though at least it was for a good reason. Can't win over everyone.
     
  4. zac16125

    zac16125 Grand Pooh-Bah (3,358) Jan 26, 2010 South Carolina
    Pooh-Bah Society Trader

    New search engine is painful. Please change back. Makes finding threads very difficult.
     
    RobertColianni likes this.
  5. RobertColianni

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

    Seriously.
    I can't imagine that a "failed search" means anything more than the searcher had a typographical error.
     
  6. dbrauneis

    dbrauneis Grand High Pooh-Bah (7,837) Dec 8, 2007 North Carolina
    Super Mod Pooh-Bah Society Trader

    That is not exactly true - it failed if you did not input the correct characters for diacriticals and it also removed a number of common words from the English language from searching so would result in making some beers/breweries much more difficult to find.
     
  7. 67couple

    67couple Zealot (651) Jan 31, 2006 South Carolina
    Trader

    Lost the ability to search in category; Beer, Place etc. Google search is intentionally broad. I liked the ability to search the BA content. I vote for the switch back. Thanks.
     
    Clonies720 likes this.
  8. Todd

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

    From the original post:
    ... simply click the tabs (under the large search bar) when viewing the search results.
     
  9. phishphorce

    phishphorce Pundit (999) Aug 4, 2011 Pennsylvania
    Trader

    The new search is freaking terrible. So inconvenient. Horrible change. That is all.
     
  10. backbaybrewer

    backbaybrewer Initiate (0) Feb 26, 2010 Massachusetts
    Trader


    Is there any way to set your preferred default results tab? For instance, 99% of my searching is to find a beer. It would be helpful if I could have my default search results be the "beer" tab rather than "all."

    So far I am not a big fan of this new search at all, but who knows, maybe it will grow on me. In the meantime, I think a default result preference would be a welcome option.
     
  11. Resuin

    Resuin Pooh-Bah (2,847) Jun 18, 2012 Massachusetts
    Pooh-Bah Society Trader

    Would it be possible to have the date listed for each post with the search results with the post title and brief summary of the post? (specifically, when I am searching by date). I like to know when these posts were made before I click them. If this is possible, I think it would help a lot. Cheers.
     
  12. jmichaelp

    jmichaelp Initiate (0) Jun 26, 2004 North Carolina

    I never had any problem with finding the beer review I wanted when using the previous search function. If I failed initially, no problem, the failure didn't bother me. Everything worked fine.

    My first reaction to this change is wow, I don't like this new search function at all. I might as well conduct my searches directly from Google, which is more convenient. If I search directly from Google, why go to the effort of putting in Beeradvocate and/or why limit myself to Beeradvocate reviews? I don't see this as a positive for users or the Beeradvocate site.
     
    BBThunderbolt and Sludgeman like this.
  13. rlcoffey

    rlcoffey Initiate (0) Apr 20, 2004 Kentucky

    If the result Im looking for is the first result, I dont need more results per page.

    I am not a trader, so maybe it matters then, but I think the large majority of searches arent done by traders. And this seems to bring up the beer/brewery Im looking for first more often than the old search, but Ive done little testing.

    And that is how I measure the success of a search engine. Is the first result (or even the second, Im not picky) what Im looking for?
     
  14. Prospero

    Prospero Pooh-Bah (2,606) Jul 27, 2010 Colorado
    Pooh-Bah Society Trader

    The search should default to the area of site you are in. If you are in /forum/ the default search should be of the forum area.

    Also, I lost the ability to just search a subforum, instead now I have to filter of ALL the threads of a said beer instead of being able to search the regional forum, or just search the ISO:FT forum...

    If I used to be in Mountain region and searched, it searched that subforum, that was great.

    Just some thoughts of what I'd change and why the old search is better.
     
    radical likes this.
  15. CassinoNorth

    CassinoNorth Initiate (0) Apr 5, 2013 New Jersey

    The only negative of this is trying to find beers in the trading forums. Other than that, makes it much more forgiving searching beers on the front page.
     
  16. Phaedra74

    Phaedra74 Initiate (0) Dec 4, 2010 Minnesota

    Doesn't work for me in Chrome. I checked, Java is enabled, and I have the latest version of it installed. I finally gave up and now I just go directly to Google and search "Beer Advocate [search term(s)]"
     
  17. Todd

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

    It doesn't use Java and is supported by the following browsers:

    http://support.google.com/customsearch/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=2451522

    You need to ensure that JavaScript is enabled.
     
  18. papaholmz

    papaholmz Initiate (0) Nov 7, 2012 South Carolina

    I hated it at first, but only because I had grown accustom to the old search feature and knew how to "navigate" it for my intended result.

    Learning something new for the first time is awlays a pain, but I'm starting to get use to the new search feature now and I'm finding that I like it more and more as I grow accustom to it.
     
    abraxel likes this.
  19. smheath

    smheath Initiate (0) May 23, 2010 California

    It certainly seems to be easier to find a specific beer with this new search but, (a) I didn't think the old search was at all broken and (b) there does not seem to be a way to easily scroll through all the beers from a specific brewery without going through an excessive number of pages.
     
    tscanlon51 likes this.
  20. smheath

    smheath Initiate (0) May 23, 2010 California

    Oops, I just realized it's very simple to see all beers from a brewery - just click the brewery name below "Brewed By"
     
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