No "Search" link on the blue anymore?

March 7, 2008 11:12 PM

What happened to the "Search" link on the front page of the blue? I apologize if this has been covered in the recent threads about new search features in other areas (and please direct me there if this is the case), but I just noticed that the "Search" link in the blue - which I used frequently - is gone).
posted by amyms to MetaFilter-Related at 11:12 PM (15 comments total)

I still see it here.
posted by not_on_display at 11:26 PM on March 7, 2008

There's the old search box, and there's the word "search" at the bottom of the page, but the word "search" is not in the line of links at the top of the page.
posted by LobsterMitten at 11:31 PM on March 7, 2008

And there's no "search" (word as link) in the top bar of MeTa either, which I think there was before.
posted by LobsterMitten at 11:33 PM on March 7, 2008

We removed the Search link from the default theme because the search box at the top right made it redundant and real estate for links up there is limited. You can type your search term right into the box at the top of the page, or use the Search link in the footer.
posted by pb (staff) at 11:35 PM on March 7, 2008

Or at the top of Ask either. (Why did it only occur to me to check after posting the previous comment? Mysterious.)
posted by LobsterMitten at 11:35 PM on March 7, 2008

Thanks pb. That explains it.

And thanks LobsterMitten for clarifying what I was talking about.
posted by amyms at 11:45 PM on March 7, 2008

And the plain theme is the opposite way around (search link no search box)?
posted by elephantday at 2:38 AM on March 8, 2008

And the plain theme is the opposite way around (search link no search box)?

I had no idea what you were talking about but that explains it. What's the reason for not having the search box right there on the plain theme?
posted by sveskemus at 2:56 AM on March 8, 2008

Plain theme people have no need to search.
posted by disclaimer at 6:07 AM on March 8, 2008

Their lives are plain and temporally straightforward, unadorned by any need to examine the past.
posted by cortex (staff) at 6:42 AM on March 8, 2008

You're up to your time-travel shenanigans again, cortex?
posted by cgc373 at 7:35 AM on March 8, 2008

Actually, the Search box is not redundant with the Search link. The Search box only performs the search for the page you are on (Blue, Green, Gray), while the Search link takes you to a page where you have the option of searching across all the sites. Fortunately, the search link in the footer still takes you to the metasearch page. Unfortunately, it's kind of hard to find for such an important, new-and-improved feature.
posted by False Dichotomy at 9:21 AM on March 8, 2008

False Dichotomy, you can easily do a search from any subsite, then on the results page, change the dropdown from the specific site to "All sites" and get your search results instantly that way.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 10:49 AM on March 8, 2008

Yeah, I should have included that you can change the search parameters after you've made the search from the search box. I was just pointing out that from a UI perspective, the link and the box are not functionally identical, and that for long-time users, it can be pretty disorienting to have a default go underground. I almost made this same MetaTalk post last week, having spent several minutes trying to figure out how to get the old search results, and then searching for any MetaTalk discussions about the change. It's not that I have a problem with the decision, per se, it's just that I figured others might also have been thrown, too, and a heads-up might be nice. I never used to use the search box because the search link was right there and it made sense to me to set my search parameters before making the search. Now I'll search and then change the search parameters and search again. Not a big deal, the functionality is still there, same number of clicks away, even. But it's not functionally identical from a UI perspective, and it was rolled out without notice, so I thought it was worth mentioning here, since the subject had already been brought up.
posted by False Dichotomy at 12:22 PM on March 8, 2008

Well, we're not wed to doing a specific subsite search -- that was just an idea that we implemented but I think I would prefer a server-wide search in the box. If people want something specific to just Ask MeFi, it's easy to make it more specific, I agree it seems backwards to make people change it to less specific.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 1:43 PM on March 8, 2008