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New Search Engine - Bad


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I miss the "Found By" option. It was useful to me when logging our caches to be sure I hadn't missed one. Also handy when a fellow cacher tells us of a really neat cache they found last week, but can't remember the name.

Oh well, at least I am not the only one having difficulties........

 

edit:- typo

Edited by popokiiti
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Why is the maximum distance allowed 30 miles in the advanced search and even less when searching from my home location? After you find a lot of the caches around your home the search returns can be sparse. I wish it would work like the old one and as you scrolled over the map the caches in that area appeared. I commonly used that feature. You can replicate the old way by choosing a geocache, opening the cache page and then search for caches close by. Why can’t the “advanced search” include the same functionality? At least it could include the feature included in the mobile app that allows to initiate a search from the center of the area on your screen. It would be nice if you could save search criteria to use again rather than having always specify, "I don’t want to see my caches, one that I have found, or one that are disabled." Letting this search criteria apply for subsequent searches until reset would be cool too.

 

Also maybe it’s me, but I find that most of the time when I do an advanced search and then map the results the map is opened in the same page and I can’t return to the search page—like the old search. However there have been random times that the “Map These Results” opens a new page and I can return to the original search results list and edit the search criteria and re-search. It would be nice if “Map These Results” always opened a new page, or gave you the option to do that.

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How in the heck do the search not find "MOGA" in a title?

Try entering "MOGA" in the "Geocache Name Contains..." filter and something like "United States: Missouri" in the "Search Only In..." filter.

 

Where are the new geocaches in a state option?

That no longer exists...at least not in this version of the new search page. You can still get that information using a Pocket Query, though.

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I miss the "Found By" option. It was useful to me when logging our caches to be sure I hadn't missed one. Also handy when a fellow cacher tells us of a really neat cache they found last week, but can't remember the name.

A workaround might be to go to your (or your fellow cacher's) Profile page, then the "Geocaches" tab, then the "All Cache Finds" link.

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Having a premium account I used to organize my searches with PQs. To me it's more convenient. On the other hand, users who have no access to PQs may be affected by changes to the search system.

 

- Non-registered users have very limited access to the search system. Actually, the only way for guests to access the search system seems to be the known field on the front page of the website. The menu item and other hyperlinks don't allow to start search, users are invited to register.

 

- Registered but non-premium members have no filter options except one by cache type. For example, they cannot search for a specific cache name. (Google search can).

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Why is the maximum distance allowed 30 miles in the advanced search and even less when searching from my home location? After you find a lot of the caches around your home the search returns can be sparse. I wish it would work like the old one and as you scrolled over the map the caches in that area appeared. I commonly used that feature. You can replicate the old way by choosing a geocache, opening the cache page and then search for caches close by. Why can’t the “advanced search” include the same functionality? At least it could include the feature included in the mobile app that allows to initiate a search from the center of the area on your screen. It would be nice if you could save search criteria to use again rather than having always specify, "I don’t want to see my caches, one that I have found, or one that are disabled." Letting this search criteria apply for subsequent searches until reset would be cool too.

 

Also maybe it’s me, but I find that most of the time when I do an advanced search and then map the results the map is opened in the same page and I can’t return to the search page—like the old search. However there have been random times that the “Map These Results” opens a new page and I can return to the original search results list and edit the search criteria and re-search. It would be nice if “Map These Results” always opened a new page, or gave you the option to do that.

 

You can still click play then veiw geocache map & scroll all over the place just like you would before, the new search is not the best I emailed them asking if once you had completed a search with filters if there was a way to send all or selected caches to your gps device I was told this might be something they will look at in the future, I feel this would make it so much more user friendly

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Where are the new geocaches in a state option?

That no longer exists...at least not in this version of the new search page. You can still get that information using a Pocket Query, though.

 

Yes, it does. The "Search only in" filter essentially does the same thing as the old search by state page. The only difference is that the results are ordered based on proximity to your home location (which wasn't available in the old search page). That can be quickly changed by clicking on the "placed on" column header.

 

 

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Where are the new geocaches in a state option?

That no longer exists...at least not in this version of the new search page. You can still get that information using a Pocket Query, though.

 

Yes, it does. The "Search only in" filter essentially does the same thing as the old search by state page. The only difference is that the results are ordered based on proximity to your home location (which wasn't available in the old search page). That can be quickly changed by clicking on the "placed on" column header.

 

No the "search only in" command does not do the same. The old search provided *all* caches in an area. You could thus get the newest and the oldest. Now the routine delivers a subset of somehow around 1000 results according to some posts in this forum (I cannot check it).

Edited by cezanne
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Where are the new geocaches in a state option?

Here is a link to the search results for the newest caches in Kentucky.

When I view that link, I see 1,000 of 15,000+ caches in Kentucky, including 19 that were placed before 2002. So, I suspect the results don't display the 1,000 newest caches in Kentucky.

They are sorted with the newest caches first (the events). That's the "sort=PlaceDate" and "asc=False" components of the URL. Click on the Place Date column again to toggle between oldest caches and newest caches.

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Where are the new geocaches in a state option?

Here is a link to the search results for the newest caches in Kentucky.

When I view that link, I see 1,000 of 15,000+ caches in Kentucky, including 19 that were placed before 2002. So, I suspect the results don't display the 1,000 newest caches in Kentucky.

They are sorted with the newest caches first (the events). That's the "sort=PlaceDate" and "asc=False" components of the URL. Click on the Place Date column again to toggle between oldest caches and newest caches.

 

When you toggle between newest and oldest are you just sorting the 1000 of 15,000 that are reported or are you sorting ALL in Kentucky?

 

In other words, if it shows the newest 1000 in Kentucky, when toggling will you see the oldest in Kentucky or just the oldest of that 1000?

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Where are the new geocaches in a state option?

That no longer exists...at least not in this version of the new search page. You can still get that information using a Pocket Query, though.

 

Yes, it does. The "Search only in" filter essentially does the same thing as the old search by state page. The only difference is that the results are ordered based on proximity to your home location (which wasn't available in the old search page). That can be quickly changed by clicking on the "placed on" column header.

 

No the "search only in" command does not do the same. The old search provided *all* caches in an area. You could thus get the newest and the oldest. Now the routine delivers a subset of somehow around 1000 results according to some posts in this forum (I cannot check it).

 

I didn't say that they were exactly the same, but that they were essentially the same.

 

 

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Where are the new geocaches in a state option?

Here is a link to the search results for the newest caches in Kentucky.

When I view that link, I see 1,000 of 15,000+ caches in Kentucky, including 19 that were placed before 2002. So, I suspect the results don't display the 1,000 newest caches in Kentucky.

They are sorted with the newest caches first (the events). That's the "sort=PlaceDate" and "asc=False" components of the URL. Click on the Place Date column again to toggle between oldest caches and newest caches.

 

When you toggle between newest and oldest are you just sorting the 1000 of 15,000 that are reported or are you sorting ALL in Kentucky?

 

In other words, if it shows the newest 1000 in Kentucky, when toggling will you see the oldest in Kentucky or just the oldest of that 1000?

When I toggle to sort by oldest in several other states/provinces (where I know the oldest cache), the results always display the oldest cache. So it appears that sorting by oldest will return the oldest 1,000 caches in that jurisdiction. Presumably, therefore, sorting by newest will return the newest 1,000.

 

ETA: In Oregon, sorting by newest displays 1,000 caches, all placed on or after Dec. 17, 2014.

 

It certainly isn't intuitive, but it works.

Edited by CanadianRockies
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I didn't say that they were exactly the same, but that they were essentially the same.

 

It depends on what one is interested into. For me a search command that provides only 1000 results is not the same as one that delivers all.

Moreover judging from the experience with the search within 30 miles switching between pages is much slower - as the whole tool appears to be slower.

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I was doing a search in Washington State only, Not Found by me, Not Hidden by me. When I scroll to the bottom of the page (either it auto-loading more, or I click the Load More button) it loads more but no longer uses the correct filters. It gives me caches found by me and owned by me. So I end up with a list of 1000 caches, but not 1000 that fit the filters I put in place.

 

On another note, talking with one of the lackey's involved with the development (nice to live close to HQ and know many of them)there are already new, updated version of the search engine waiting for release...

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I think it's a good thing we are moving forward here with new search engines.

 

I've always wanted to sort caches by name and place, for instance, caches that begin with "welcome to" in the state of Washington. Before I had to sort through the entire planet to find the WA State ones.

 

I haven't used the new search engine much yet, but I'm really glad to see Groundspeak moving forward making the attempts to make a better search experience.

 

I would suggest anyone having input, put it in positive, constructive manner, and this new design can surely be improved.

 

I'm really glad to see the search engine being worked on. I'm sure soon it will be in great shape to suit more peoples needs.

 

This is a good step forward in creating a new one.

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I miss the "Found By" option. It was useful to me when logging our caches to be sure I hadn't missed one. Also handy when a fellow cacher tells us of a really neat cache they found last week, but can't remember the name.

A workaround might be to go to your (or your fellow cacher's) Profile page, then the "Geocaches" tab, then the "All Cache Finds" link.

 

Thanks for the hint. It'll work for now. I suppose "Found By" wasn't used very often. I like the look of the new page, getting used to it will take me time. And then there will be another improvement! :laughing:

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Gotta agree that the new system is not the best. I thought the old one was great. If it's not broke, don't fix it.

 

The old one had a LOT of limitations, actually, and was very outdated in that you could only use one of the many search criteria. You couldn't tell it to find all caches with "challenge" in the name in Minnesota, for instance. You could find all caches in Minnesota, or all caches with "challenge" in the name but you couldn't group them. This version is *attempting* do be more sophisticated, but it has some obvious useability issues that need to be ironed out. You can probably do everything they intended it to, but if you don't understand the inner workings, it may not perform as expected.

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I much prefer the old system, the only plus to this new one is that it has a modern look. I can't search by country anymore, which is disappointing.

 

Searching can be done for an entire country outside of US/Germany. Within US/Germany, the largest area that can be searched is State. The image below shows an example for New Zealand. The main thing is to leave the main search and distance boxes empty.

 

You can click =diosma1&c=7"]here for caches in Ireland that diosma1 hasn't found. If this works for you, then you can click on "Change Filters" and adjust the filters as desired. For example, if you want to also limit by word(s) in the cache name, then put the text in 'Geocache Name Contains...' (blue box in image).

 

newzealand.png

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I'm happy that GS is trying to update and improve the search, but I'm with the majority here - I prefer the old search engine. The new one looks a lot sharper but is more challenging to navigate and doesn't yield the results the way I would like. I'd like to be able to search more than just thirty miles out of my area. The overall readability leaves something to be desired, too. I know it seems minor, but with all the spacing used, and no highlighting of every other cache to help line them up, it's just a bit less legible than the old search.

 

To be fair, though, I didn't take advantage of the option to try out the new search when they were offering the sneak peek to premium members, so I feel a little hypocritical complaining about it now :(

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Here is the link that you all have been looking for:

 

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/nearest.aspx?country_id=0

 

That will bring up the old Advanced Search page. From there you can select any country and get a list of caches. For the larger countries it will populate the state/province select list so you can find caches in any of the U.S. States, Canadian provinces, German states, and in any of the regions in any of the countries that have been broken down into smaller regions (Italy, France, ...)

 

It will also give you a select list for searching by keyword, found or hidden by username, gc code, or postal code.

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Here is the link that you all have been looking for:

 

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/nearest.aspx?country_id=0

 

That will bring up the old Advanced Search page. From there you can select any country and get a list of caches. For the larger countries it will populate the state/province select list so you can find caches in any of the U.S. States, Canadian provinces, German states, and in any of the regions in any of the countries that have been broken down into smaller regions (Italy, France, ...)

 

It will also give you a select list for searching by keyword, found or hidden by username, gc code, or postal code.

 

Thank you for this link. Is this something I can browse to via the website or do I have to manually browse to the URL? I sometimes want a list of EVERY geocache in a given state. Was there an explanation of why the search engine changed?

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Here is the link that you all have been looking for:

 

http://www.geocachin...px?country_id=0

 

That will bring up the old Advanced Search page. From there you can select any country and get a list of caches. For the larger countries it will populate the state/province select list so you can find caches in any of the U.S. States, Canadian provinces, German states, and in any of the regions in any of the countries that have been broken down into smaller regions (Italy, France, ...)

 

It will also give you a select list for searching by keyword, found or hidden by username, gc code, or postal code.

 

Thank you for this link. Is this something I can browse to via the website or do I have to manually browse to the URL? I sometimes want a list of EVERY geocache in a given state. Was there an explanation of why the search engine changed?

 

I don't think that there is a direct link on the site to that page any more. Bookmark it in your browser.

 

I don't know that a reason for the change has been posted any where but there are several features that implement things that people have specfically asked for such as the ability to find cache listings based on the number of favorite points, caches which have corrected coordinates or personal notes, the ability to sort/view caches in a locationless search by distance from ones home coordinates.

 

Note that when searching by country/state on the old advanced page it would order the results with the newest first. The new search gives you the ability to easily discover which caches are closest.

 

I know some people might want to see EVERY cache in a given state, but how is that really practical. There are a few countries with only a handful of caches where seeing them all might be useful, but what someone going to do with a list which contains every cache in California?

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Here is the link that you all have been looking for:

 

http://www.geocachin...px?country_id=0

 

That will bring up the old Advanced Search page. From there you can select any country and get a list of caches. For the larger countries it will populate the state/province select list so you can find caches in any of the U.S. States, Canadian provinces, German states, and in any of the regions in any of the countries that have been broken down into smaller regions (Italy, France, ...)

 

It will also give you a select list for searching by keyword, found or hidden by username, gc code, or postal code.

 

Thank you for this link. Is this something I can browse to via the website or do I have to manually browse to the URL? I sometimes want a list of EVERY geocache in a given state. Was there an explanation of why the search engine changed?

 

I know some people might want to see EVERY cache in a given state, but how is that really practical. There are a few countries with only a handful of caches where seeing them all might be useful, but what someone going to do with a list which contains every cache in California?

 

I've added the URL to my browser favorites so no longer an issue. I specifically want to run the search for every cache in a given state to know the exact number of published geocaches in the state at that moment. I can't do that in the new search unless I am mistaken.

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Here is the link that you all have been looking for:

 

http://www.geocachin...px?country_id=0

 

That will bring up the old Advanced Search page. From there you can select any country and get a list of caches. For the larger countries it will populate the state/province select list so you can find caches in any of the U.S. States, Canadian provinces, German states, and in any of the regions in any of the countries that have been broken down into smaller regions (Italy, France, ...)

 

It will also give you a select list for searching by keyword, found or hidden by username, gc code, or postal code.

 

Thank you for this link. Is this something I can browse to via the website or do I have to manually browse to the URL? I sometimes want a list of EVERY geocache in a given state. Was there an explanation of why the search engine changed?

 

I know some people might want to see EVERY cache in a given state, but how is that really practical. There are a few countries with only a handful of caches where seeing them all might be useful, but what someone going to do with a list which contains every cache in California?

 

I've added the URL to my browser favorites so no longer an issue. I specifically want to run the search for every cache in a given state to know the exact number of published geocaches in the state at that moment. I can't do that in the new search unless I am mistaken.

 

It seems to me that the primary purpose of the search interface is to provide a mechanism for geocachers to discover cache listings for caches near ones home or current location or some location that someone may be visiting in the near future for the purpose of going out and finding some geocaches. You want to use it as a statistical gathering tool.

 

For geocaching statistics, project-gc is a much better tool than a search interface.

 

For example, this page will show a complete list of all 50 U.S. States and the number of caches in each state.

 

http://project-gc.com/Statistics/CachesPerArea?country=United+States

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So, do I have this right? If I click on "Find a Cache", one input window comes up with a filter button underneath. If I click on that, none of it is accessible to me...it says it's a Premium Member Feature. ??? Seriously??? Is that right? All the search features available to me before are no longer there??! Please tell me this isn't the case.

 

I USED to be a Premium member. But since that time I've lost my job, been unemployed, in school, broke, taking care of elderly parents. I don't have the money to be a Premium member! Sometimes opting not to be a PM is not by choice but circumstance. I always felt like supporting GC/GS and did when I could. I also used to have a GPSr but that broke I can't afford to fix it. And people hear criticize cachers who use phones all the time. I use a phone because that's all I have to use.

 

So please don't tell me as a GM I no longer get search privileges. Life is really tough and caching is one of the few, fun things I can do that doesn't cost money.

 

Hopefully I am wrong and there is something I'm not understanding about the new search engine. :(:unsure:

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I think the search engine is broken here. I tried searching my town by zip code, town name, and even another town name, Saluda SC, all come back with zero results.

 

Never mind, it's working okay now. Maybe just a hiccup in the system

Edited by gpsblake
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Arthur & Trillian are correct. For finding the caches in a state, from newest to oldest, use http://www.geocaching.com/seek/nearest.aspx?state_id=18 where the = 18 is for Kentucky, 30 is New Hampshire, etc.. Once you figure out your state's number you can bookmark the search and forget about the new confusing search mess at least for finding the newest in your state.

 

There are other work arounds to do other searches but for the life of me I can't see why Groundspeak screwed a working system up so completely. I really like the geocaching app I have on my Samsung Galaxy S3 so I'm not against everything Groundspeak does, only the truly dumb things.

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Arthur & Trillian are correct. For finding the caches in a state, from newest to oldest, use http://www.geocachin...spx?state_id=18 where the = 18 is for Kentucky, 30 is New Hampshire, etc.. Once you figure out your state's number you can bookmark the search and forget about the new confusing search mess at least for finding the newest in your state.

 

There are other work arounds to do other searches but for the life of me I can't see why Groundspeak screwed a working system up so completely. I really like the geocaching app I have on my Samsung Galaxy S3 so I'm not against everything Groundspeak does, only the truly dumb things.

 

As I posted in response #28 in this thread in a couple of other places you can use the following URL:

 

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/nearest.aspx?country_id=0

 

And you won't need to remember the state/province/country id for any location. That's a link to the old Advanced Search page.

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Although it took getting used to the new search offers so much more and once I figured it out I have used it to check areas I am going to. I travel a lot so that is helpful. The only two issues for me are that it doesn't have the pq feature yet. But when it does get that the pq will still not indicate that corrected coordinates are in it. For that I still have to go to api.

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