Need to improve AZ Billiards Forum Search Engine

nineballman

nineballman

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I tried to find "Center of Cue Ball" on the search engine and the result omits the word "cue" and "of" as being to common. So all the results are based on "ball, center". This obviously is NOT what I wanted at all. Also I do not see a way to search for an extact string/phrase like above search. THe search engine parses the phrase and returns a result even on one word. I just find it very difficult to narrow my search like I need to.

Any ideas?
 
I agree! I get frustrated all the time trying to use the search. Any word 3 letters or less gets omitted from the search. That does not sound like that big of deal until you try to make a search like "cue Lee". The search returns nothing! WTF! I know for a fact there has to be at least one thread with the word cue or the word Lee in it!:)

ARRRRGH!

Kelly
 
I know it's frustrating, but if they do allow 3-letter (and under) words, then the search engine will become MASSIVE, resulting in slower loading times for everyone, because the server isn't going to be able to handle all of that as (I presume) it is now. You're asking for something that seems simple, but is actually a massive change.

Here are some things that maybe can help you;

If you add an "*" to a 3-letter word it acts as a wild card... so the search engine will pick up that word... the downside is if you're looking for "act*" it will find all words "ACT" and it will also find 'act' inside words... like "react", "acting", "tact"...

The best thing you can do is go to google.com, click "advanced search", type in your keywords (you can pick from with all the words, exact phrase, and other options)... and then under "domain" enter "forums.azbilliards.com"
You can also just type in your search words (at google.com) followed by "site:forums.azbilliards.com"... So a search would go "Center of cue ball site:forums.azbilliards.com"

You're doing a search of only AZbilliards forums, and it is a much more powerful search (1, 2, and 3 letter words accepted.. you can also look for exact phrases)


Hope this helps.
 
Last edited:
Well

since you know * serves as a wildcard, you should also know that the + sign between words serves to look for the phrase as 1 object.
 
Snapshot9 said:
since you know * serves as a wildcard, you should also know that the + sign between words serves to look for the phrase as 1 object.
Click to expand...

This does not work with AZ Billiards search engine.

I tried "center + ball" and got a 1000 messages with just ball.
 
nineballman said:
This does not work with AZ Billiards search engine.

I tried "center + ball" and got a 1000 messages with just ball.
Click to expand...

^^ It DOES work.... no spaces... "center+ball" not "center + ball"
Hope that helped.

Snap, I used to do a lot of work on/for VB's years ago, I've forgotten much - thanks for the reminder.
 
Thanks. It works to a certain extent, but still returns threads that only have "ball" OR threads that have only "center".
 
Just improving the 'search' etc, can be a 'coding' nightmare. If AZ is clean of any 'malware', leave it alone. Things are so bad. It is not just sites like 'myspace' but CNN, banks, top secret branches of our govt too.The feds first went to sans (top dc security). Then they (top guys in NSA,FBI,DOD,IRS etc) went to the 'blackhat' hacker group. Those folks are tops, yet technically 'break the law' in a benign way to find vulnerabilities before it happens.

The part we see may be front page(s) in HTML, with possibly a bit of javascript in the HTML to give it that cool look and easily to do cool things. The problem is 'the back end' where all the threads, member names etc are kept in a database. That may be programmed in PHP language in a database. I do not know who programmed AZ, but programs are complex. If the AZ program is keeping AZ safe, even changing a 'line' could introduce a risk that is not worth the 'convenience'.

Can't go into detail about the stuff I have seen, but it is like this:

You do not paint your boat pretty in the middle of a raging storm. You ride it out, paint it when the waters are calm and the sun is back out. So, I say, hang on, ride it out on the AZ boat which is holding up in a 'storm ripping up other boats'. Consider improvements when the 'water' is calm. JMO
 
Oops!

that is either or

Put quotes around the phrase, like this: "center of cue ball"

The Wikipedia has information pertaining to using Search Engines.
 
AZE said:
[...]

The best thing you can do is go to google.com, click "advanced search", type in your keywords (you can pick from with all the words, exact phrase, and other options)... and then under "domain" enter "forums.azbilliards.com" [...]
Click to expand...


The best piece of information I've picked up on this forum in a while.

Thank you.
 
I Don't Know What The Other Half Is, But It Tastes Like Chicken

nineballman said:
I tried to find "Center of Cue Ball" on the search engine and the result omits the word "cue" and "of" as being to common. So all the results are based on "ball, center". This obviously is NOT what I wanted at all. Also I do not see a way to search for an extact string/phrase like above search. THe search engine parses the phrase and returns a result even on one word. I just find it very difficult to narrow my search like I need to.

Any ideas?
Click to expand...


Well, I'm certainly no authority on Search engines but, cueball is one word. I don't know if this will help at all, but i entered 'cueball center' in the AZB Search and this is what came up.
http://forums.azbilliards.com/search.php?searchid=1108966

Doug
( good luck...... the journey is half the fun ) :)
 
in addition to the quote trick (which is super handy, I used it a lot), you can do a lot of other stuff on google. One way to filter your google results to just AZB would be to do this:

"center of the cue ball" site:forums.azbilliards.com
 
CreeDo said:
in addition to the quote trick (which is super handy, I used it a lot), you can do a lot of other stuff on google. One way to filter your google results to just AZB would be to do this:

"center of the cue ball" site:forums.azbilliards.com
Click to expand...

^ That's what I said. But I like the way you think ;)
 
aze... oh yeah, it is the same isn't it? Well I like keyboarding it :)
They have a lot of nifty hidden stuff in google.

If you type "100 euros in dollars" it will give you a quick currency exchange.

There's a neat calculator - you can also do stuff like "liters in gallons" ... "1 gigabit in megabytes"... "128 in binary" "cosine 23" etc.

You can also do define: whatever and get a definition of a word.

Clever buggers, them
 
Snapshot9 said:
Put quotes around the phrase, like this: "center of cue ball"

The Wikipedia has information pertaining to using Search Engines.
Click to expand...

I just tried searching on "Center of Cue Ball" with quotes. The AZB search result incorrectly provided the following result:

Search: Key Word(s): "Center, Ball"
The following words are either very common, too long, or too short and were not included in your search: of, Cue
 
I'm In Florida And I LOVE To Vote

You know, I mentioned in post #11 and also PMed another poster in this thread that the word Cue Ball was one word (cueball). Looking it up revealed both usages, including these:

Cueball - Easy Pool Tutor
... definition ... Cueball. The white, unnumbered ball that is always struck by ... Controlling the cueball on the break. Pocketing a ball using inside english ...www.easypooltutor.com/glossary-term-121.html - 20k


Cueball (video game) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
... 'Whirlwind' Snooker were improved upon for Cueball, most notably the graphics. ... Wikipedia? is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. ...
Quick Links: Improvements - Trivia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cueball_(video_game)


Urban Dictionary: cueball
Urban Dictionary is a slang dictionary with your definitions. Define your world ... send me the word of the day (it's free) 2. CueBall. 64 up, 5 down. Bald ...www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=cueball&r=f - 22k -

Btw, I didn't even know about definition #3 the "Urban Dictionary", but if I did, that would explain my friend sixball and those fourball Canadians that come to Florida every winter....

Anyway, I don't think cueball should be spelled both ways and suggest a POLL, so that we (AZB Members) might be the deciding factor in this. We vote for:
1.) Cue Ball
2.) Cueball
3.) I Love Lamp
Doug
( I don't know how to set up a Poll (or I'd have posted 100 by now), so someone else will need to set this up. Please include the option that allows others to see who voted for what... ) :)
 
Smorgass Bored said:
Anyway, I don't think cueball should be spelled both ways and suggest a POLL, so that we (AZB Members) might be the deciding factor in this. We vote for:
1.) Cue Ball
2.) Cueball
3.) I Love Lamp
Doug
Click to expand...

How quickly you Floridians forget about the hanging chad dispute. :rolleyes: The last thing we need is a poll on how to spell "cue ball." :eek:

A good search engine should search on whatever text I enter into a string. The AZB search engine isn't getting the job done.
 
It's Like, "Let Them Eat Coke"

PoolSharkAllen said:
How quickly you Floridians forget about the hanging chad dispute. :rolleyes: The last thing we need is a poll on how to spell "cue ball." :eek:

A good search engine should search on whatever text I enter into a string. The AZB search engine isn't getting the job done.
Click to expand...



We're not talking Search engine, we're talking *Webster and the correct spelling of cueball vs. cue ball.
Doug
( Noah Webster, not Daniel Webster )

Someone put up the POLL....... dammit ! (where's Walt Frazier when you need him)
 
well it's definitely cue ball, "cueball" is like... "hotdog" or something.

Yeah, the AZB search and vBulletin search in general kinda blows chunks. A lot of sites get a google-sponsored search built in (like annoyances.org) and they never look back, and it works like a charm.

If you really wanna find something on azb you gotta fire google up in another tab and do e.g. "center of the cue ball" site:azbilliards.com

Important: no space between site: and azbilliards.com ...otherwise you get results from everywhere tho it might put azb results higher on the list.
 
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