Search Updates (August 10, 2020)

Blog Discussion in 'BeerAdvocate Talk' started by Todd, Aug 11, 2020.

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  1. Todd

    Todd Founder (13,518) Aug 23, 1996 Finland
    STAFF Mod Team Society Pooh-Bah

    I'm know that searching (that magnify glass icon in the upper right navigation) on BeerAdvocate can sometimes be a disjointed pain in the ass. And I know that many of you have read in several threads that I hope to one day give everyone a better way to search the site. But we're still not there yet.

    In the meantime, I've applied the following updates to help with searching and general discovery:

    https://www.beeradvocate.com/search/
    • Unified tabs (currently: Forums, Beers, Places, Articles) makes moving across our custom and forum search pages a bit more fluid. Where possible, your query is also passed across the tabs.
    • Forums no change.
    • Beers is back to using full-text search in boolean mode. Except for certain stop words and words less than three characters, which are ignored, whatever you type will be searched exactly as typed and using AND logic. It's strict and unforgiving, but quicker, more accurate, and less noisy. And results are once again ordered by number of ratings to bring more popular beers to the top. Basically, it's back to where it was before I started experimenting with different search types, but a bit better.
    • Places works similar to Beers.
    • Articles has been added just for fun. Explore over a decade of BeerAdvocate magazine and original content that's been archived for your reading pleasure.
    • Autofocus has been added to the search field, which means it gets the input focus when the page loads.
    Happy searching...
     
    #1 Todd, Aug 11, 2020
    robwired, EdHinPasadena, CHickman and 44 others like this.
  2. Snowcrash000

    Snowcrash000 Grand High Pooh-Bah (6,041) Oct 4, 2017 Germany
    Mod Team Society Pooh-Bah Trader

    Great changes, beer search is working much better again now.
     
    #2 Snowcrash000, Aug 11, 2020
    EdHinPasadena, Victory_Sabre1973, Electros and 2 others like this.
  3. Cubatobaco

    Cubatobaco Pooh-Bah (2,057) Jan 27, 2013 Virginia
    Pooh-Bah Trader

    Working better!

    Thanks, Todd!
     
    #3 Cubatobaco, Aug 11, 2020
    Todd likes this.
  4. Electros

    Electros Grand Pooh-Bah (3,998) Feb 20, 2007 Canada (ON)
    Mod Team Society Pooh-Bah Trader

    Fantastic.
     
    #4 Electros, Aug 11, 2020
    Todd likes this.
  5. bubseymour

    bubseymour Grand Pooh-Bah (4,800) Oct 30, 2010 Maryland
    Pooh-Bah Trader

    Thanks for fixing the beer search Todd. It seems to be finding the beers much easier again.
     
    #5 bubseymour, Aug 11, 2020
    Bitterbill and Todd like this.
  6. Zonian1

    Zonian1 Pooh-Bah (2,296) Sep 29, 2012 Ohio
    Society Pooh-Bah Trader

    Can you fix it so I can find actual beer?
     
    #6 Zonian1, Aug 13, 2020
  7. ovaltine

    ovaltine Grand High Pooh-Bah (6,787) Apr 6, 2010 Indiana
    BA4LYFE Society Pooh-Bah Trader

    I have been very bothered by the “Search” feature.

    I have been so bothered that I think someone should send me beer, preferably something really good so I can utilize the new and improved search feature to understand how really good the beer is.

    TIA.

     
    #7 ovaltine, Aug 13, 2020
  8. libeerguy23

    libeerguy23 Crusader (478) Feb 19, 2016 New York
    Trader

    Not being able to search three letter words basically kills search in the trade area.
     
    #8 libeerguy23, Aug 21, 2020
  9. Todd

    Todd Founder (13,518) Aug 23, 1996 Finland
    STAFF Mod Team Society Pooh-Bah

    I could look into updating this, but it's been this way for a while now.
     
    #9 Todd, Aug 21, 2020
  10. libeerguy23

    libeerguy23 Crusader (478) Feb 19, 2016 New York
    Trader

    Would definitely make it easier to find trade offers
     
    #10 libeerguy23, Aug 21, 2020
  11. jvgoor3786

    jvgoor3786 Grand Pooh-Bah (4,222) May 28, 2015 Arkansas
    Society Pooh-Bah Trader

    I've been having lots of issues finding beers since the update. For example, trying to find Phase Three Color Scheme. What am I doing wrong?

    [​IMG]
     
    #11 jvgoor3786, Aug 22, 2020
  12. Snowcrash000

    Snowcrash000 Grand High Pooh-Bah (6,041) Oct 4, 2017 Germany
    Mod Team Society Pooh-Bah Trader

    While it doesn't bring up the beer directly, if you scroll down you'll notice that a link to it does come up a little further down the page. This is something that the search function does sometimes, but I'm not sure what causes this.

    [​IMG]
     
    #12 Snowcrash000, Aug 22, 2020
    jvgoor3786 likes this.
  13. cavedave

    cavedave Grand Pooh-Bah (4,157) Mar 12, 2009 New York
    In Memoriam Pooh-Bah Trader

    #13 cavedave, Aug 22, 2020
    jvgoor3786 and beergoot like this.
  14. Todd

    Todd Founder (13,518) Aug 23, 1996 Finland
    STAFF Mod Team Society Pooh-Bah

    This is basically the same issue that was reported a while back; some beers aren't being found. To "fix" this I played around with several other search methods, only to get complaints on those, so we essentially reverted back with a few adjustments.

    Related:
    At this point, we have two options:
    1. Wait until I upgrade our search. I have no ETA as to when this might happen as there are other projects in the works.
    2. Use one o the other search methods that "fixed" this, but presented more results.
    In the meantime, there's no need to report any further search issues. I know they exist.

    Thanks for your patience. We'll get there!
     
    #14 Todd, Aug 22, 2020
    jvgoor3786 likes this.
  15. jvgoor3786

    jvgoor3786 Grand Pooh-Bah (4,222) May 28, 2015 Arkansas
    Society Pooh-Bah Trader

    Thanks for addressing this. I'm sure it's more frustrating for you than for us.
     
    #15 jvgoor3786, Aug 22, 2020
    Todd likes this.
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