Search isn't really working

October 6, 2007 6:19 PM

C'mon. Give us the search secret. When I plugged a link for a post I wanted to make into the search field, nada. But when I composed the post, I got a flag of the prior post. What gives?

What's up with that, anyway? Oh the link? http://www.hrheroblogs.com/?cat=2

Matt, can I please have my jabber pony you promised too?
<>

posted by filmgeek to Bugs at 6:19 PM (8 comments total)

If you go to the actual search page and put that url in the 'search posts' field, the prior post shows up. I don't think the search field in the upper right corner searches urls, but I could be wrong.
posted by iconomy at 6:38 PM on October 6, 2007

yeah the upper right is a google/yahoo search. I'll fix this soon so they're the same.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 6:41 PM on October 6, 2007

Same thing happened to me a couple days ago.
posted by puke & cry at 6:51 PM on October 6, 2007

Another oddity: www.metafilter.com/tags/con yields this; same thing on Ask.
posted by LobsterMitten at 7:18 PM on October 6, 2007

Huh. Didn't realize that. Would've helped me with doubles.
posted by sneakin at 8:41 PM on October 6, 2007

I thought it automagically checked prior posts to see if the same link has shown up before.
posted by spiderskull at 9:12 PM on October 6, 2007

I believe the reason for the discrepancy in search boxes (between the Search page, the search box at the top right of every page, and the New Post page) is due to past problems with server load. Having everyone who cares to query the database able to do so from the front page of MeFi was too much for the server, so that box is a site specific google search. For a while it was a site specific yahoo search. Apparently the search page is set up the same way. The only way to directly query the database is to plug your url into the New Post page and preview the post. That's the very first thing I do if I've found a link maybe worth posting. Make sure you drop the url in bare bones: http://cool-link.com. Nothing comes up? Try it again with the www. Anyway, I'm guessing based on mathowie's comment above that the MeFi backend is now able to handle a database query on the hood, which is rad.
posted by carsonb at 9:32 PM on October 6, 2007

lobstermitten: that's a weird thing to see, and looks like a side effect of running on windows. You'll get the same error for lpt1 or nul, amusingly enough. Oh, CP/M, when will we ever be rid of your foibles?
posted by boo_radley at 5:54 AM on October 8, 2007