Search Function Dysfunction

To elaborate, in the past a key word searched would find virtually all posts with that keyword included.

Now it appears that only keywords in titles are generating responses.

As an example, I just searched the Vietnam forum for the phrase

"Emergency Notification #9"

Our Vietnam expert Ciambella had just posted about this in a thread about daily life during the covid epidemic:

expat.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=890331&p=7#5181487

However, the search of the Vietnam forum does not give that as a result.

If admin wants I can certainly find many many many more examples, but hopefully a proactive response will be forthcoming from them

I know the dysfunctional search function has been brought up before.  I would link you to the proper thread but I would have to search for it.      At the time, I think admin response was along the lines of "we're working on it."  Don't hold your breath.

THIGV wrote:

I know the dysfunctional search function has been brought up before.  I would link you to the proper thread but I would have to search for it.      At the time, I think admin response was along the lines of "we're working on it."  Don't hold your breath.

I think it's usually been approached as us forum users being inconvenienced.

When Julien realizes this is an issue that is affecting his bottom line, then it will get the attention it needs.

One would hope...

OceanBeach92107 wrote:

When Julien realizes this is an issue that is affecting his bottom line, then it will get the attention it needs...........One would hope...

Sorry for being a bit thick     on this one but I fail to see how having the forum search work poorly affects the bottom line.      Isn't the revenue derived from the classifieds and other adverts?   The classifieds are usually scant enough that one can browse a section in just a few minutes. If searching the forum is rather fruitless, and we can't find a post from back in 2018 or 2019, I doubt that it hurts Julien much if at all.

Hello OceanBeach92107,

Note that i have moved your thread to the Help us improve the website forum.

Kindly note that we are taking note of this issue and we are aware that our search option needs to be reviewed and optimized.

I am sending this topic to our IT department. Please bear with us as the IT guys  are already working on a few projects at the same time.  Therefore, this optimization might take some time.

Thanks for your understanding and  for your help.

Priscilla
Expat.com Team

THIGV wrote:

OceanBeach92107 wrote:

When Julien realizes this is an issue that is affecting his bottom line, then it will get the attention it needs...........One would hope...

Sorry for being a bit thick     on this one but I fail to see how having the forum search work poorly affects the bottom line.      Isn't the revenue derived from the classifieds and other adverts?   The classifieds are usually scant enough that one can browse a section in just a few minutes. If searching the forum is rather fruitless, and we can't find a post from back in 2018 or 2019, I doubt that it hurts Julien much if at all.

I also tested some searches of this site using Google.

In the past I've actually been able to get some pretty good results that way.

This time, Google searches specifically including expat.com as a keyword were just as fruitless as searches using the forum search function.

We, the forum regulars, are not the ones who drive the revenue from the Google ads here on the forum.

New visitors to this site are the ones who do that, in large part in response to search results which include information from the expat.com database.

If potential expats searching Google for information cannot easily find this website, revenue from Google ads will almost certainly decline.

*In my opinion...*

Priscilla wrote:

Hello OceanBeach92107,

Note that i have moved your thread to the Help us improve the website forum.

Kindly note that we are taking note of this issue and we are aware that our search option needs to be reviewed and optimized.

I am sending this topic to our IT department. Please bear with us as the IT guys  are already working on a few projects at the same time.  Therefore, this optimization might take some time.

Thanks for your understanding and  for your help.

Priscilla
Expat.com Team

I can certainly be patient, Priscilla, as it's not a huge, pressing problem for me,

However, just to reiterate, this appears to be a new problem making the search function worse than before.

Based on the new search results interface, it appears someone recently upgraded that part of the website.

Maybe something the IT guys are doing related to a different issue is having unintended consequences with the search function.

Just a guess.

Cheers!

Gordy

And now it seems this problem has gotten worse.

Previously it was easy to find the sub-forums for individual cities.

No longer so.

I believe that the incessant tinkering with this site which has little to do with improving the user experience, and only seems to increase the ads which need to be navigated, has somehow hidden the option to switch to an individual City sub forum.

If I'm wrong I would love to have someone pointed out to me.

For instance it used to be easy in the Vietnam forum to navigate to the Danang forum or the Ho Chi Minh City forum.

I can't figure out how to do it anymore

I see what you mean but I found this circuitous route just for you my friend.

Look for the box in the title bar called Destinations just to the right of the expat.com logo.  If your desired target city is in the drop down you can go directly but if not, type it in.  Of course the sub-forum has to exist, but we are assuming you are going to a forum where you have been before.

This will take you to the "Living in XXXXX" page where XXXXX is the city name, along with classifieds for job offers, housing, etc.

Now go back to your upper left corner with the three bars and the word MENU.  The last item on the drop down is Forum.   Click and presto, you are in the city forum.