What do Fluther users search for on the site?

I search for other users – which works quite well – and I search for questions I want to revisit, which is usually pretty abysmal. For example, if you search for the progress thread using the keywords “some progress’ it will bring up some but now all of the iterations of the thread. You can have the exact words that are in the question and sometimes it will bring it up and sometimes not.

I search before I ask a question to see if it’s been asked recently. I haven’t had any problems with it. I’ve also used it to search for another user.

I search mostly users and questions. I echo @janbb‘s point: works great for users, for questions, not so much.

When a question looks familiar, I look for similar threads so I can point the new questioner to a thread which already has a bunch of answers.

Obviously the threads I remember best are ones where I participated. So usually it’s something like ‘jaytkay “New York”’.

The Fluther search usually has too few results on a page and too many un-related ones.

So 90% of the time I search in regular Google instead (site:fluther.com jaytkay “New York”), the results are a lot better for my taste.

Yea fluther search iz teh brokeness.
Google searching fluther works far better sadly

I utilise it about as often as I apply lip gloss. Very rarely & then only on special occasions. :¬x

- Before I ask a question, I search to see if it has already been asked, especially if it has been asked recently. The search function usually works well in that regard.

- If a discussion triggers a memory of a relevant past comment/question, I try to search for it and link it in the current discussion. This often takes a bit of trial and error to find the exact question I was looking for.

- If I’m looking for a user that is not in my fluther, I’ll search for them.

- Sometimes I’ll search for questions regarding a specific topic. The recent improvements to the topics functionality have made this much easier, especially the people tab.

I mostly use the search option to look up user’s names when i want to write their name in my reply and the ”@” function does not work and i forgot how their name is spelled.
So, if @Janb doesn’t work, i put jan in the box and i find @janbb.
For previous, similar, questions i also use the search box, but only rarely.

I also use the search function before asking a question all the time, or if I’m too lazy to ask. I don’t put a lot of faith in it though.

I use the search to demonstrate to people how search shouldn’t work. I find it completely worthless. For some reason using google with site:fluther.com works much better.

And when I do search it is mostly for older stuff and I know lots of keywords that should put it on the top of the list.

I only use it to find similar questions or answers, or to find what Fluther has to say about a subject I am interested in. It doesn’t really work very well for anything.

My #1 search is for other members (which it does quite well). I also use it to find old questions (not so well), and I try to use it to look for old answers (which almost never works).

I use the search to search questions before I ask them

I search for other users that I might know, searching their real name. It’s hard knowing whos-who on Fluther when you go by the name Carly.. I mean, wait.. my name is Carly. >_<

you know what I mean.