Search engine suggestion

[JTFEST]

Would it be possible to change the site's search engine requirements so that we can run searches for words under 4 letters long? For example, we can no longer search for BP, BPT, B6, B6T, G5, G25, GT, GTX, GTR, XR2, etc. I would think those are pretty important search topics, and not being able to run a search for them might lead to a lot of unnecessary questions that have already been answered, simply because people can't run searches on them and may not want to sift through hundreds of posts to try and find specifically what they're looking for. I don't know if this can be changed or if it's even a major issue, but I thought I'd at least bring it up.

-Jason

[muscle_Car1]

Wow yeah that needs to be fixed.

[SimonTuffGuy]

Use the * as a wildcard for things under 4 letters...

ie: b6t* will give you the results you're looking for. I believe changing that takes a lot of coding and has a BIG impact on site performance.

[JTFEST]

Oh nice. I had no idea you could do that. That will help on other sites as well. Thanks Simon!

[SimonTuffGuy]

It may not work for BP.... But you might be able to try *bp* for that?.....

[skeeters_keeper]

For BP you will need to use another key word as well and put them in quotes so that it searches for the string instead of the individual key words (putting *BP* or " BP " will not work)
Examples:

"BP Swap"
"BP Rebuild"
"BP exhaust"
etc.
Same goes for B6 or any other 2-letter word that your trying to search for!

[JTFEST]

Now that we're talking about it, I think all VBulletin forums that I've been on are that way if I remember correctly. I wonder who's bright idea it was when creating VBulletin to make the search engine only work for words 4 or more letters long. Makes no sense. :scratch:

[SimonTuffGuy]

As I said above... Searching already takes a huge toll on the sites performance... Searching 140,000 posts every 2 letters? Then take that, by the number of members searching at the same time...

I'm on other forums where they actually disable the VB search option and use a Google code that utilizes the search feature on Google with the forum address.

I don't think it's unreasonable at this point in time... If we warrant the need to change it, I'll see what I can do.

[JTFEST]

Gotcha. Since you put it that way, it makes more sense. I thought you were just referring to changing coding as impacting performance, not the actual engine running the search. I see what you were saying now. Anyway, the options given for getting around it work just fine, so it's no big deal. I just wasn't aware of those work arounds until now. :thumbup: