Google Search

[rastan saga]

Scaryfun,
I don't think this "Google Search Box" is a good idea.

I just wrote two game names, only two random game and neither of them appeared on Google. If you like, try it on the AL page, for example write these names - The Franz Kafka Video Game or Free D.C. - and see... Google search is not working very well, this should be only one alternative for the new visitors but we need back to old system again. I think that should be a powered in-site search but exactly not Google.

[BR4ZIL]

Gonna add my vote to this, i dunno why Google Search isnt working, but i had some trouble to find "Demise: Rise Of The Ku'Tan"

It seems Google only finds *some* games.

[Scaryfun]

I'm confused, guys. I tried all those and they all work for me, I get multiple results for whole and partial matches. The old search is still available in the A-Z Index pages though.

Maybe google is blocking gamez sites like ours in your countries?

[rastan saga]

"The old search is still available in the A-Z Index pages though"

OK, now it is good...

[bk1965]

I'm confused, guys. I tried all those and they all work for me, I get multiple results for whole and partial matches. The old search is still available in the A-Z Index pages though.

Maybe google is blocking gamez sites like ours in your countries?

I think the "problem" is that old search only spits back titles on legendsworld where new one searches the forum as well ?

Could that be it?

[rastan saga]

I am still using Windows XP. Therefore, I can not update the browser for a long time. That may be the problem, I don't know ...

All I know is that the majority here are the oldest gamers. No one can be as old-fashioned like me, but I don't think most of them love that changes. The new may not always be bad, but the old is always good... at least I think so.

Personally I can assure you that I will not be pleased with ANY changes to this site :lol: So I hope Scaryfun doesn't have any other update plans :wink:

[BR4ZIL]

I'm confused, guys. I tried all those and they all work for me, I get multiple results for whole and partial matches. The old search is still available in the A-Z Index pages though.

Maybe google is blocking gamez sites like ours in your countries?

Again, the same example with "Demise: Rise of Kui'Tan"

Here's the old search results:



And here's the Google search results:



As you can see, Google is probably giving out "more popular" results instead of actually being helpful, this means that the Halo 2's page is given priority because it contains "demise" on its description. Maybe thats your intent, but i find it to be a much worse solution than the original search engine.

[annoyment]

Google spews out country-based different results, plus they can't be any less precise (shown above), plus outright removes some hits, plus logs all it pleases (referral backdoor to PMs for a start) - in short, it's like inviting Lucifer for a cup of tea

[Scaryfun]

I had it set up so google search would use site "legendsworld.net". It could be older browsers wouldn't work without the "www" so I added that now.
Try again and let me know if it works for you guys.

I would suggest using the full game title with the google search box. It's good for finding mentions of games within game descriptions of other titles, plus forum discussions of that game. That's why I think it's useful for site visitors. Also, some game series have titles on both Adventure Legends and 3D Shooter Legends...for example, Star Trek. This way visitors could find all titles at once. It's also good for finding all games by one developer.

I now changed A-Z Index to "A-Z Search Index" so visitors will know better that there is another search there too.

[rastan saga]

"I had it set up so google search would use site "legendsworld.net". It could be older browsers wouldn't work without the "www" so I added that now.
Try again and let me know if it works for you guys"

No, there's no difference, it does not work. But It doesn't matter, I liked that A-Z index thing and using it. At least that's faster than old searcher, thank you...

[Molitor]

In order to be totally efficient, the search engine should return results for individual game entries (legendsworld.net/adventure/game/*) but all these pages are not indexed. Case in point, even if I look for a quite popular game (Runaway 3: A Twist of Fate), I get the following results:

• A forum post, mentioning the game (legendsworld.net/webroot/phpBB3...)
• Listing for year 2009, mentioning the game (legendsworld.net/adventure/year/2009)
• Several history pages (legendsworld.net/adventure/history/...)
• Several other listing pages, where only the word "Runaway" is mentioned - but no actual Runaway 3

But the link that would have been the most helpful to have (legendsworld.net/adventure/game/4877) is nowhere to be seen. Sure, you do get a link to the 2009 AL listing page, but then you have to search again on that page for the right section, so it partially defeats the purpose of a search engine.

I like the idea of a consolidated search, unfortunately I think Google search doesn't know our site well enough to provide clear results yet. From what I've been testing, DuckDuckGo does a better job - it returns the exact game entry page way more often than Google does - but it's still hit-or-miss. Unless you can force a search engine to index every page on your website, the javascript index we have is what works best for now. I'm afraid I can't offer any concrete solution on the matter; if my html/php/js skills were not so basic, I would be providing you with a working multi-site search engine instead of complaining.

[BR4ZIL]

Uhh... btw... wouldnt indexing it to Google be kinda counter-productive to what we *do* here in the site?

Just saying

[Scaryfun]

Yes, that's why I had some concern and I didn't add an official google search box code. Instead it just links to a generic site search url.
Although, I doubt the small number of visitors would give much notice and that we only have "demos".

[Smiling Spectre]

I found why google is so ineffective in it's search.

Unlike "internal" search, google indexed the page in general. It means that when search for Demise (for example), it takes in consideration the whole http://www.legendsworld.net/AdventureLegends/1995.htm - 1995th. It means a lot of parasite matches, and no relevant ones. Example:

- When I search Demise, I get a lot of false-positive and seems no relevant ones. Just because "Demise" is too prominent.

- When I search Demise: Rise Of The Ku'Tan, it's better. I have 4 results, and one of them is relevant. And if press "show all results", it became whole 5. But it's because we have _long_ and quite specific name.

- Also, as it seems, there _was_ relevant result in the first query. Invisible. Because it was the same "1995 page", and it's in the search results, only Google shows another fragment - "It features conversations with dialogue options - wrong choices may even lead to your demise."

Conclusion: it's more confusing than helping.

[hfric]

Change it back to normal Search ...