Unhappy with HNSearch ... | Hacker News Reader

Unhappy with HNSearch ...

13 pointsColinWright8 comments

OK, I've really been trying to get along with HNSearch, but I've always felt the results are inferior to SearchYC. It didn't bother me so much, but now that SearchYC is going off-line, I thought I'd air at least one grievance.

It doesn't do what I ask.

Here's an example. I asked for "stories" with "billion" and "almost".

http://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/submissions&q=billion+almost&sortby=create_ts+desc&start=0

Six of the top ten hits results don't have either word in the title.

OK, so maybe when there isn't a link it considers the entire "Ask HN" text.

Two of the top ten hits are links, and still don't have either word in the title.

This is really annoying me, and I'm finding HNSearch pretty near useless.

Which is a shame.

</rant>

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I miss SearchYC mainly for the contextual filters, which also happens to be the single most powerful feature missing from most search engines.

So why don't you still use it if I may ask? :)

It's shutting down.

Oh, how come?

Thanks for taking the time to review HNSearch.

Your example search is sorted by date so it makes sense that the words "billion" and "almost" don't necessarily appear in the title. Here are the search results sorted by relevance:

http://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/submissions&q=bil...

If you'd like to filter on stories with those words in the title, you can use the "title:" operator:

http://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/submissions&q=tit...

Did you try sending us an email with your feature requests? Usually we respond very quickly to emails about feature requests.

I'm really pressed for time, so this will be less word-crafted than I usually try.

    If you'd like to filter on stories with those words
    in the title, you can use the "title:" operator:

This seems completely unobvious.

    Did you try sending us an email with your feature
    requests?

No, because I tried using several combinations of the obvious things to try, got frustrated, and honestly couldn't bring myself to care. I know that's going to be frustrating to you, because no doubt you do care and want me to care as well, but I'm finding that whereas with SearchYC I could find pretty much anything I wanted really quickly, with HNSearch I simply can't. It returns stuff that seems irrelevant, or not what I wanted, and doesn't find the stuff I think it should.

And I'm too old, too tired, and too grumpy to try to work out why. In particular:

    ... you can use the "title:" operator:

... just seems like too much hard work.

So good luck, hope it works, but I'm probably not going to provide much high-quality feedback.

When you have the time to provide feedback please send me an email (andres@thriftdb.com).

Clickable:

http://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/submissions&q=bil...

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