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Tags not showing up in search box

  1. lisahillschoolstuff
    Member

    Hello, I routinely write blog posts with the name of the book I'm reviewing and the author separated by a comma, (e.g. The Tall Man, by Chloe Hooper) and then I tag the post with the title and the author too. (I don't have any categories with the same name as book titles) .
    Most of the time I can find a blog post quickly by typing the title into the search box (i.e. the search box on my blog, not the wordpress search box or a search engine like google). But sometimes it doesn't work, and people who visit my blog looking for a review of a particular title go away disappointed because they think it's not there. (This happened today, and so my review wasn't included in a blog roundup of reviews about that book *sigh*)
    For example, if I type 'The Tall man' into the search box, the search http://anzlitlovers.wordpress.com/?s=the+Tall+Man brings up a blog post referring to this book i.e. http://anzlitlovers.wordpress.com/2009/05/19/tall-man-wins-nsw-premiers-prize/ but NOT the actual blog post reviewing that book i.e. http://anzlitlovers.wordpress.com/2008/11/29/the-tall-man-by-chloe-hooper/ It is tagged 'The Tall Man' and 'Chloe Hooper'
    A search for Chloe Hooper brings up the correct post. What am I doing wrong with the tag 'The Tall Man' ?
    My template is Ocean Mist.
    Thanks for your help,
    Lisa Hill, ANZ LitLovers

    The blog I need help with is anzlitlovers.wordpress.com.

  2. 1tess
    Moderator

    The tag itself (from the tag cloud) brings it up:
    http://anzlitlovers.wordpress.com/tag/the-tall-man/
    And if you search "The Tall Man" with the quotes it comes up:
    http://anzlitlovers.wordpress.com/?s=%22The+Tall+Man%22&x=0&y=0

    I think without the quotation marks, the search is for any article with 'tall man' on the page??? For example, your non-quote search brings up at least a couple of posts where 'tall man' is only in your tag cloud! I don't think it is anything you are doing wrong.

    http://anzlitlovers.wordpress.com/2009/05/18/tender-morsels-by-margo-lanagan/ has 'tall man' in the next post at the bottom of that article
    http://anzlitlovers.wordpress.com/2009/08/27/document-z-by-andrew-croome/
    http://anzlitlovers.wordpress.com/2009/09/13/my-crowded-solitude-by-jack-mclaren/ have 'tall man' in your tag cloud

  3. 1tess
    Moderator

    The word 'tall' appears in the last two articles, so it seems that the search function is not very precise.

    If I search "sushi" on my blog, the results come up in a similar way: if the word appears somewhere in a post, then that post will show at least 3 results: one on the word in the article, and two in my sidebar.
    If the word sushi doesn't appear in a post, then the search function ignores the 'sushi-s' in my sidebar.

  4. lisahillschoolstuff
    Member

    Hi Tess, thanks for responding:)
    It's curious, isn't it? Because, for example, if I type in The Slap, without any quotation marks, it brings up 10 results, no problem.
    Ice, on the other hand (a novel by Louis Nowra) doesn't show up in any search results, with or without quotation marks. (http://anzlitlovers.wordpress.com/2009/04/27/ice-by-louis-nowra/ )
    Very puzzling....
    Lisa

  5. husdal
    Member

    Puzzling perhaps, but suffice it to say that searches and tags are totally unrelated. The search looks for any post content on your blog that contains the exact search phrase (with quotation marks) or contains all words in the search phrase (without the quotation marks). Tagging a post does not help the search function on your blog, but tagging the post will make it easier for people to find your same-tagged posts by clicking the tags in your tag cloud, or on the wordpress.com global tag pages, e.g. http://en.wordpress.com/tag/the-tall-man/

  6. 1tess
    Moderator

    The Slap shows up in the first 10 because you have set your blog to display 10 posts on the blogging page. And it is a relatively recent post. There is a page 2 of results for 'the slap' with older posts containing the words.

    Search brings up Ice by Louis Nowra on page 13:
    http://anzlitlovers.wordpress.com/page/7/?s=Ice&x=9&y=13

    Search includes articles in which the word 'ice' is mentioned:
    http://anzlitlovers.wordpress.com/2009/05/20/the-captain-and-the-enemy-by-graham-greene-beware-spoilers/
    http://anzlitlovers.wordpress.com/2009/06/13/belonging-by-isabel-huggan/
    (note I only tried a couple, but they seem representative)

    In your sidebar, the blog search is picking up on ICE when it finds ICE in a post:
    "…body that administers it) has given a notICE … lICEnce for educational institutions contact: Copyright Agency Limited, Level 15, 233 Castlereagh St, Sydney NSW 2000 Ph 612 93947600 Fax 612 93947601 Email:… servICEs…"

  7. husdal
    Member

    Thanks, 1tess. My point exactly. Search has nothing to do with tags. And it shouldn't.

  8. 1tess
    Moderator

    husdal

    Actually, your post wasn't there when I replied to the OP!
    Very odd, but the other day my forum posts were not showing up!
    Here is the reply I got from Support:
    "Oups, sorry Tess, Akismet had a wobble there, your posts are showing up now.
    Hanni"

    Should I be paranoid?

  9. husdal
    Member

    No, you shouldn't. It has happened to me, too. Sometimes my forum posts show only when I am logged in, but not when I am logged out. I've never given it much thought, and just thought of it as a glitch.

  10. lisahillschoolstuff
    Member

    Hi Husdal, thanks for joining in. I hear what you say, but how does it happen that search doesn't find The Tall Man without " "? The first three words in the post are: The Tall Man (see http://anzlitlovers.wordpress.com/2008/11/29/the-tall-man-by-chloe-hooper) i.e. the post content contains the *exact search phrase (with quotation marks)* and *all words in the search phrase (without the quotation marks)* It only works if people know to use " and ". (I knew to use these in a google search, but it didn't occur to me to use them on my own blog because I knew the words were there as a phrase. Would it work better if I included the phrase more than once in the blog post, or doesn't that make any difference?
    Can you please tell me how to change the number of search results?
    Also, is there a way to limit search results so that it only searches for whole words (as in Ice) rather than including parts of words (as in notICE)
    Thanks
    Lisa

  11. 1tess
    Moderator

    @Lisa,

    The blog search function is not geared toward relevance. It is general and based on finding the search terms in any post, and the most recent posts with those terms on down to older posts. So older posts will show on page 2, 3, or 13…

    My point was that at least the blog search ignores the search in your sidebar. If it did not, then every one of your posts would show up in a blog search. If you set the number of pages seen on your post page to 130+, the book, "Ice by Louis Nowra" would be on the front page, but at the bottom.

    The blog-search widget/function is just not very precise. Nothing you can do.

    Using categories or/and tags would be more accurate, but no sure thing. See this from husdal:
    http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/tags-not-showing-up-in-search-box?replies=10#post-383019

    The number of tags in a tag cloud is limited.

  12. 1tess
    Moderator

    @husdal,

    Oh, yes. I'm not really concerned.

    It does, however, seem to be happening more often recently. Also the issue of seeing a question with "freshness" being '0' for a while even through refreshes. Or posts with answers but they don't show in the forum list. But click on the question and there are answers (usually only one new answer).

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