Problems searching the AO site

[MaryEllen]

I'm not 100% sure if the original post meant the search wasn't functioning here on the forum or over on the main site, but I wanted to add my experience here since I was just having (perhaps) similar difficulties.

From the main site I was searching for specific book titles that I was *certain* were on the site, and was getting 0 results. I was typing into the search box on the top of the site and was getting zero results. I thought I had mistyped, and then when and looked in the year I thought it was in which took a little longer that a search would have but since I had an idea of where to look wasn't a big deal. I really thought I had mistyped something and then didn't give it another thought when I manually when to what I was looking for. Today I was looking for The Gift of the Magi by O Henry. I thought it had been mentioned somewhere, but it didn't come up. That's when I noticed that the search engine automatically used in this case was different than what I usually use. So I tested it with ones I knew it should find. Search terms like "livingston" and "polo" weren't coming up with anything. Not a single result. I remember the search feature on the site being much more effective when I last used it (who knows when that was though...) so I decided to try some same searches but on different search engines.

Here are some of my exact searches and their results:

polo site:amblesideonline.org
0 results from duckduckgo, 46 from google, 0 from bing

livingston site:amblesideonline.org
0 results from duckduckgo, 35 from google, 0 from bing

o henry site:amblesideonline.org
0 results from duckduckgo, 178 from google, 0 from bing

churchill site:amblesideonline.org
5 results from duckduckgo, 166 from google, 5 from bing

just added one more, from the previous post:

washington site:amblesideonline.org
0 results from duckduckgo, 209 from google, 0 from bing

I'm sure that the search engine was chosen for specific reasons, but it seems like the current one is not working (and that Bing wouldn't be any better). Finding 0 results could be very frustrating or lead someone to believe various books are not included only to find out later that their results lead them to the wrong conclusion and they passed on a book they would have otherwise purchased. (Because my guess is that many times people are searching the website to quickly see if a book they have come across is needed for a future year). It is very possible I have a setting that is preventing results from appearing, but I can't think of what it might be (if you know, please tell me!)

I have had the same experience with the search, for quite some time now. I don't know if it is because it uses duckduckgo, or some other reason, but I get no results when searching a book title or a term that I know for certain is on the website.

[lklivingston]

I just put Livingston in the search box, and DuckDuckGo returned two pages of results, which is what I would have expected.
"polo" also returned many results for me in DuckDuckGo.

I will mention this in our tech area to see if anyone has an idea why some are not getting good results. I don't think it's specifically because of the search engine, since the same engine produces fine results for some (as my test just now indicates). But we do need to understand it. Thank you for alerting us!

[lklivingston]

Could you tell me what browser you were using and on what type of device?

[Katie Rose]

My above results were all on Firefox on a pc desktop (Lenovo, if that matters). I just tried again on the same PC using Chrome instead:

polo site:amblesideonline.org
0 results from duckduckgo, 47 from google, 0 from bing (1 additional google result on Chrome, others same)

livingston site:amblesideonline.org
0 results from duckduckgo, 38 from google, 0 from bing (3 additional google results on Chrome, others same)

o henry site:amblesideonline.org
0 results from duckduckgo, 178 from google, 0 from bing (52 additional google results on Chrome, others same)

churchill site:amblesideonline.org
5 results from duckduckgo, 144 from google, 4 from bing (same DDG results, 22 fewer google, 1 fewer bing)

washington site:amblesideonline.org
0 results from duckduckgo, 236 from google, 0 from bing (27 additional google results on Chrome, others same)


I really don't know what's different from my computer to yours. Just to see if there was any difference I tried the same searches all over again from my iphone using the safari browser and starting on the AO main site. All of my results on duckduck go were the same as my initial test, meaning 0 results for all of them except Churchill which had 5. I then tried on Bing and had the same experience. Finally, I tested on google and I'm presuming had the same results (or similar), but since they apparently don't post how many results they have found on the mobile site I'm not sitting and counting them all and there were a bunch (I also did one search from my husband's iphone since it's newer than mine and had the same: 0 livingston results on it).

Since I also have the edge browser on my computer I tried that. I don't know if I've ever used it before so I'm guessing it would have factory settings still. Doing a quick test (only on duckduckgo this time) with the above searches I got identical results as the first time.

I'm testing everything I can think of! lol I just want to know why mine isn't getting the same results as yours! If my kids' kindle were charged I'd check that too because I want to know! I'll plug it in when I head to bed. This way if I think of it again tomorrow I can check that. I don't know if all this is helpful, but if it's not useful just ignore it.

[lklivingston]

No, it's all helpful! Thank you.

[lklivingston]

Something else to try:
clear cookies before you search.
What happens?

[MaryEllen]

On my iPad, v15.5, Safari browser. Zero results for "Polo"
On my computer at work, an HP, Chrome browser, 2 pages of results for Polo.

[Katie Rose]

I searched for polo and livingston on my kindle fire, silk browser. 0 results each on Duckduckgo and Bing, didn't count them on google but there were lots. (I hate typing on it so I only did those two search terms)

I cleared the cookies on each of the three browsers on my pc (1st edge, then chrome, then firefox.) After clearing each of the browsers I went in the same order to search for the previous searches. On all three browsers I got identical results this time as opposed to the slight variations last time:

(number of results listed are in order from DDG, Bing, then google)

Polo 0, 0, 64 (several more than before clearing cookies)
Livingston 0, 0, 52 (again, more than the previous two time
Washington 0, 0, 212 (in between the previous two searches)
O Henry 0, 0, 176 (2 fewer than the previous searches)
Churchill 5, 5, 218 (quite a few more than the previous searches)


Now I'm over here wondering what browser and device you are using that you're getting results that I can't duplicate on any device I've tried lol

[Katie Rose]

On my iPad, v15.5, Safari browser. Zero results for "Polo"
On my computer at work, an HP, Chrome browser, 2 pages of results for Polo.

Was this from the ambleside search bar on the main page (or, alternatively, just on duckduckgo since that is what the search bar uses) ?

[MaryEllen]

Was this from the ambleside search bar on the main page (or, alternatively, just on duckduckgo since that is what the search bar uses) ?

The search bar on the AO website.