Direct link to Google site search

[Oren Grad]

The limitations of vBulletin's search function have long been a sore spot for Forum members. Many of us have taken to using Google with a "site:" specification to restrict the search to material posted here.

In another thread here (https://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?172782-Forum-improvements-(kind-request)&p=1677085&viewfull=1#post1677085), member sharktooth suggested we set up a direct link to a site-limited Google search. This is a great idea, something we should have done a long time ago. Thanks to sharktooth's nudge, we've done it now.

Look for "Google Site Search" at the right-hand end of the main menu bar at the top of the Forum page. This will take you to a Google page with the following string already entered:

####### site:largeformatphotography.info/forum

To use, simply delete the #######, replace it with whatever search terms you are trying to find, and then rerun the search.

[BrianShaw]

Very useful. Thank you!

[Ulophot]

Bravo!

[Lachlan 717]

An it be moved into the tab group, rather than on the end?

The “Today’s Posts” is an update new postings tab that I use every time I visit the site and it is very handy being on the end…

[sharktooth]

An it be moved into the tab group, rather than on the end?

The “Today’s Posts” is an update new postings tab that I use every time I visit the site and it is very handy being on the end…

You'd probably be better off going directly to Today's Posts in your web browser bookmark. To do that, just edit your bookmark to this:
https://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/search.php?do=getdaily&exclude=27,39
After doing that, when you click on your Large Format Photography bookmark, it will go directly to Today's Posts.

I do something similar, but go directly to Unified View. To go to Unified View, edit your bookmark to be:
https://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/search.php?do=getdaily&days=30&exclude=32,27,39,40,17,16

You'll have to edit your bookmark in this way, since if you save the bookmark AFTER you've gone to the link, it only references the condition at the time you clicked it, so it doesn't give you the latest result the next time.

[Oren Grad]

The “Today’s Posts” is an update new postings tab that I use every time I visit the site and it is very handy being on the end…

I've set up a poll in the Feedback subforum to give everyone a chance to weigh in. As mentioned there, we're going to leave the new setup as is for several days to give everyone a chance to try it and see what they think; we will consider rearranging if there is a strong consensus in favor.

[Vaidotas]

This is significant improvement at least to me.

[Tin Can]

I am unclear about how the B&H link works

Is it permanent after one click?

NOT a criticism, I buy most from B&H 40 years

[Oren Grad]

I am unclear about how the B&H link works

Is it permanent after one click?

In general, affiliate links like that are effective only within a single browsing session - they're not persistent.

[Tin Can]

In general, affiliate links like that are effective only within a single browsing session - they're not persistent.

Now I know

Thank you

[Oren Grad]

In response to a helpful comment by member lassethomas, we've replaced the ####### with empty brackets [ ], which should allow entry of the desired search term(s) without having to highlight/erase anything. Let us know if there are any problems with this version.

[Peter De Smidt]

Great job!

[B.S.Kumar]

Questions:
In Google Site Search, is it possible to limit the search to a particular sub-forum?
Are some sub-forums excluded from Google?

Kumar

[Oren Grad]

In Google Site Search, is it possible to limit the search to a particular sub-forum?
Are some sub-forums excluded from Google?

Second question first: presumably Google can't see any subforum that requires a Forum login.

Getting back to the first: You could experiment with modifying the "site:" string to limit it to a specific subforum. For example:

site:largeformatphotography.info/forum/forumdisplay.php?6-Cameras-amp-Camera-Accessories

...should work for the "Cameras & Camera Accessories" subforum.

[B.S.Kumar]

Second question first: presumably Google can't see any subforum that requires a Forum login.

Getting back to the first: You could experiment with modifying the "site:" string to limit it to a specific subforum. For example:

site:largeformatphotography.info/forum/forumdisplay.php?6-Cameras-amp-Camera-Accessories

...should work for the "Cameras & Camera Accessories" subforum.

Limiting the search to a sub-forum doesn't seem to work.
[Nikon] site:largeformatphotography.info/forum/forumdisplay.php?6-Cameras-amp-Camera-Accessories returns threads from all sub-forums, except those that need a login, as you noted.

The improvement is that words with less than four characters that couldn't be searched through the forum's own site search can be searched via Google:
[PS] site:largeformatphotography.info/forum or [Nik] site:largeformatphotography.info/forum

If someone can figure out how to limit Google Search to a specific sub-forum...

Kumar

[sharktooth]

I don't think you're going to be able to search specific sub-forums using Google. Anything after /forum/ in the web address is a php script. As I understand it, it's sort of a web site programming code that this web site executes in order to figure out what is to be displayed. It pulls the appropriate sections from the database to be displayed, so it's not a specific page, but rather a variable page display based on computed properties.

Google bots just click on various links at this site, and then sweep the results and record the site address which also has another php script. There's no specific reference to sub-forums there.

[B.S.Kumar]

In that case, the only advantage with Google Search is that one can search for 2 or 3 characters as shown above.
To search in a sub-forum, one must use Advanced Search and check the required forums, or go to the sub-forum and use the Search Forum tab, with the proviso that the keyword has at least 4 characters.

Kumar

[sharktooth]

In that case, the only advantage with Google Search is that one can search for 2 or 3 characters as shown above.
To search in a sub-forum, one must use Advanced Search and check the required forums, or go to the sub-forum and use the Search Forum tab, with the proviso that the keyword has at least 4 characters.

Kumar

You're giving the vBulletin search feature way too much credit. It truly is awful. Google is light years ahead of it in terms of usefulness.
The biggest problem is that it can't search for phrases, and that's a MAJOR problem. If you put more than one word in a vBulletin search, it will search for any instance of any of the words, and applies no algorithm to make use of the combination.
A good example of this is searching for a thread I started. I used a search for the words "easy bake". The vBulletin search gave me a complete list of useless links that made no sense. The Google search came up with the right link at the top, no problem.

Another good example is to search for "Linhof cams". Again, the vBulletin search comes up with useless nonsense links, while the Google search gives useful ones.