Search is messed up

In a nutshell...the new search bar there is just an integration of regular Google search into the top of the pages here, returning results back into another page (or pages) here on the site.

It'll return whatever their bots crawled here and elsewhere that meets your search criteria, just like any other Google search. Takes the heat off of our web/db server, but returns only what Google has crawled and cached, so scores of records are missing compared to what you'd get if you used the "Advanced Search" page that is linked under the SEARCH menu in the top nav.

The "Advanced Search" on the other hand...that searches *just* within this site, posting queries directly to the database here. It contains all records and returns (by far...) the best and most comprehensive and relevant results.

Careful, though...don't want everybody using it, as that will overheat the database and cause the site in general to lag if too many people are searching that way all the time.

So what's a decent compromise, for everyday simple searches?

Try entering site:brooklynian.com and then your search terms into the big [Google] search box. That will limit the search to only those records the Googlebots crawled and indexed on the Brooklynian.com site and avoid all the other search results from elsewhere on the web.

Example search:

site:brooklynian.com "LOCK YOU DOORS"

...returns the following:

click here to see 'dem results

Have fun stormin' the SQL... (ha, kidding...)

It'll take some adjustment, definitely.

I'd almost prefer to have the page formatting of the results match the page formatting of the old "Advanced Search" results.

No quoted text, just much more useful (IMO) information showing what forum etc each result came from instead of just a headline link and some blurb text that the Google custom search pipes in. The blurb text usually just contributes dead vertical space (filled mostly with repetitive filler text like "View user's profile · Send private message." and other junk and not showing much actual quoted content, which becomes a big waste that creates massive clutter and spreads the search results to multiple pages.

The old "Advanced Search," (phBB) search, on the other hand, gives no quoted text, just more terse and useful info for each record on one line like what forum, what topic, and who posted it. Nice and simple, just what's needed.

Perhaps the Google custom search has format settings for its results.

Might be worth ditching the [mostly garbage-laden] quoted text blurbs altogether, and just give the title links. Fit many more to a page. Happy-happy.

you can set up a site-limited google search via Adsense for Search.

dailyheights wrote: I screwed up. It was supposed to search Brooklynian only.

I can set up both if there is interest?

my vote: brooklynian only (or both)

ok, done. the search is fixed...

I don't know if we can specify how many entries to return. will check it out...