BeerAdvocate Search now uses Google CSE

Todd, thanks for your reply.

I don’t think I am experiencing any browser issues I think that I am experiencing human issues.

As I posted above I just did not understand the new search function. Just like Robert Colianni, I thought there was something broken. From a user perspective I still think that something is ‘broken’. I recognize that change can be an adjustment for users (including me) but I really thought the old search function was better in that I was able to select filters pre-search, etc. IMHO, the old search function was a better function but I will be a dutiful BA member and do my best with this ‘upgrade’.

I fully understand that you, Jason and others often have a thankless job but permit me to say “Thank You” for all that you do.

Cheers!

Jack

 

I just fired up I.E. and did 1/2 dozen random searches and it's working fine on my end.

 

I'm probably unusual, but 95% of my searches are trying to find user profiles. Previously when you searched a string of text that matched usernames, those names would populate the sidebar and you could go right to their profile. (I believe this worked from anywhere but I know for sure it worked from the forums.) It seems that this no longer happens, and you have to either scan for the person's profile page in the results (sometimes it's the first result, but sometimes it's not) or click on their reviews and then click again to get to their profile.

It's not the biggest deal, but I definitely liked that older feature and used it with some frequency.

 

The thing is, before if I were in the beer section I could run dozens of searches in succession, move back to a base page, and repeat the process. Now, I have to search, change search function, find my result, go back three pages, and begin again. It's not possible to just fire-off from where you are and stay on topic. It's like having to re-explain the topic to a crowd before speaking your next sentence instead of just know that everyone is still talking about the same thing. More process means less functionality to me. When I'm in the forums, I typically search topics. When I'm in the beers, I search beers. If I want to change that up beforehand, I could. I just don't agree with this as an upgrade, especially if the main case and point are failed searches (which haven't occurred for me in five years).

 

Do you mind giving us an overall figure of how many searches are typically run on this site per year versus the number of failed searches per year?

 

I didn't see the tabs before, thanks. Although it's still more clicks than before I guess that's not a big deal.

 

I certainly have had failed searches. Under the old search, it was useless to search for "Indeed" (which is the name of a local brewery). That is fixed.

I would like to see some more refinement in the area of synonyms -- right now, there are 790 beers that match "gueuze" and only 339 that match "geuze", and it looks like the 339 are a proper subset of the 790.

 

+1,000

Is there a way just to limit the search to the ISO forum? If I want to set up a potential trade - say for some Mexican Cake - all I had to do before was go to the ISO:FT forum, type in "Mexican Cake", and the site would return all trade requests with Mexican Cake included. I do the same thing now, and I get "Mexican Cake" results for the entire site - only a fraction of which are ISO posts. This change alone will seriously hamper my trading efforts.

 

Doesn't this work?

 

That works if you then click on sort by date instead of relevance. Otherwise, that's putting emphasis on returning ISO posts with Mexican Cake in the title and not in the body (i.e. ISO List postings).

I don't want to be a naysayer - and I really appreciate the effort - but it would be really helpful to somehow institute a "search of current forum" capability at some point.

 

One function I miss - I would look up a brewery with a single brew name unique to that brewery. Then, click the brewery. It would provide a heading for the brewery, and then a very compact list of their offerings, along with ratings and some statistics, such as number of reviews. Plus a cool blue check mark indicating I've reviewed the offering. This was my favorite part of the site, and it did set my standard on what I would like an enthusiast site to offer.

I will continue to try various methods assuming I am just missing something, but thus far I'm not getting the "BeerAdvocate" cut of the data, I'm getting the generic dump a google search provides.

 

I was missing something. The google search list does in fact provide the great BA listing - all you need to do is drill in with a simple click!

Sorry for clogging this up with needless posts, for those in my shoes, just do some more clicking and there it is!

 

I don't like it, but I'm not used to it. I'll let you know in about a month.

 

So in the homebrewing forum I did a search for "Octoberfest" and got hits for trips to Germany.

Nice.