Searching by Keyword

[+TinSparrow]

Among the recent changes, it seems that searching by Keyword now requires a keyword of more than 4 characters. I just spent about 10 minutes trying to locate a cache page whose title only contains words of four letters and less, and while I could do this yesterday it could not be done today.

 

That 4 character limit seems perhaps too restrictive. Do others have thoughts on this?

 

Thanks.

[+Sissy-n-CR]

Knowing TinSparrow the word was probably "code!"

 

I, too, think the 5 letters or better restriction not desirable.

 

CR

 

[SlackMeister]

I have been trying to find the page for a cache entitled "1942 B-18"

 

There is no single word in that title that is more than 4 characters, therefore I could never find it by typing in common search patterns like "1942" or "B-18". Since the keyword search apparantly doesn't extend to the text description etc. it leaves me in a quandary as to how to find some caches.

 

What I ended up doing was going out to the USPS website, finding the zip code of the town I remembered as being nearby the cache and then doing a zipcode search. I don't think a lot of people would think of that, have the savvy to go out and do it, etc.

 

I think the change to require 4 character keywords wasn't a great idea. If you need a restriction for some reason, I suggest two chars.

 

"The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself" -FDR

[+Mopar]

quote:

---

Originally posted by SlackMeister:

I have been trying to find the page for a cache entitled "1942 B-18"

 

There is no single word in that title that is more than 4 characters, therefore I could never find it by typing in common search patterns like "1942" or "B-18". Since the keyword search apparantly doesn't extend to the text description etc. it leaves me in a quandary as to how to find some caches.

---

No, but if you remembered the full name of the cache, then a search for "1942 B-18" would still get you there. As does a search for just "1942 B" so it seems that spaces are counted as a letter. Might wanna keep that in mind next time searching for a 4 letter multi-word cache.

[EDIT] I could have sworn I tried searching "1942 " before posting that last line, and it worked. I just tried a different cache and it didn't, so I went back and tried searching for "1942 " again, and it didn't work this time. I guess I need more coffee, BRB.

 

Tae-Kwon-Leap is not a path to a door, but a road leading forever towards the horizon.

[+Allen_L]

I think I will start naming all my caches with one word of 4 characters.

[+TinSparrow]

I just played around with adding a trailing space to the name of a cache with a four character cache in my area, and the space does satisfy the search engine. Unfortunately this cache cannot be found that way since the cache name itself has no trailing space.

 

I know of quite a few caches whose names are four letters or less, and I know of some which are single letters. Being forced to search by keywords that are at least 5 characters in length typically forces me to perform multiple location based searches until I can find what I'm looking for (if I'm searching for one of these).

 

Another use: it might also be that I have an idea for a cache, and I'm curious if anyone else has had a similar thought and therefore I want to search for caches with the word BLUE in the title. While this was once possible, this functionality is now no longer there.

 

If the powers that be chance upon this thread, I'm curious to know your thoughts on this matter. Any chance for a 3 character restriction instead of 5?

[+CacheUsOut]

I have also had difficulties finding caches with the new limitation. The use of multiple small words within double quotes works when you know more than one word. I've had to find nearby caches and scroll for the one I was looking for or in another case scroll the entire state list.

 

One fix may be to add a keyword search for the text of a cache page instead of just the title? Such a search would be inherently slow and cachers would have to be patient.

 

While on this topic, is the keyword search case specific? It seems that I remember it is. If so, I would like to remove that constraint.

 

Just my $0.02

 

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If I want to see a sunrise, I'll STAY up for it!

[+Eswau]

I was trying to do a search for caches that had an Interstate number in their name. Anyone know of a way to do this since I can't do a keyword search for I-77 or simply 77?

 

E

[+Woof!]

you can add a "_" at the end of the short word to satisfy the requirements. For example to search for "luck" you would type "luck_". You can add two for three letter words etc. So "dog" would be "_dog_" or "__dog" or "dog__". Hope this helps.

 

Happy Halloween