Help:Searching
| Help:Contents |
There are three (3) useful ways to search Centiare's pages:
- Centiare main search box
- External search engines (see also SEO)
- Special "Search Triple" semantic search
Centiare search box
Getting Started
To search Centiare, just type your keyword(s) in the search box in the lefthand sidebar and click:
- Go - (or Enter on keyboard) will take you automatically to a Main Space article about the keyword(s).
- Search - will return a list of all relevant Directory Space and/or Main Space articles.
Tips & Tricks
Listed below are some good tips and hints for effectively using Centiare's search box:
Avoid short and common words
If your search terms include a common "stop word" (such as "the", "one", "your", "more", "right", "while", "when", "who", "which", "such", "every", "about", etc.) it may give a large number of non-relevant results.
Wildcards
You can use some limited wildcards if you wish. See Boolean fulltext search for details on their use. However, wildcard searches are slower, so go easy on the poor server.
Words with special characters
In a search for a word with a diaeresis, such as Sint Odiliënberg, it depends whether this ë is stored as one character or as "ë". In the first case one can simply search for Odilienberg (or Odiliënberg); in the second case, it can only be found by searching for Odili, euml and/or nberg. This is actually a bug with MediaWiki software that should be fixed -- the entities should be folded into their raw character equivalents so all searches on them are equivalent. See also Centiare:Special characters.
Words in single quotes
If a word appears in an article with single quotes, you can only find it if you search for the word with quotes. Since this is rarely desirable, it is advisable for Centiare contributors to use double quotes in articles, so that this problem does not arise. See the Centiare:Manual of Style for more info.
An apostrophe is identical to a single quote, therefore the name Mu'ammar can be found only by searching for exactly that (and not otherwise). A word with the possessive 's is an exception in that it can be found also by searching for the word without the apostrophe and the s.
Namespaces searched by default
The search box only applies to the namespaces selected in the user's Special:Preferences. To search additional (or fewer) namespaces, check (or uncheck) the tickboxes in the "Search in namespaces" box found at the bottom of a search results page. Depending on the browser, a box may still be checked from a previous search, but without being effective any longer! To make sure, uncheck and recheck it.
Searching the image namespace means searching the image descriptions, i.e. the text in the image description fields.
The source text is searched
The source text (what one sees in the edit box, also called wiki text) is searched. This distinction is relevant for piped links and for special characters (if ê is coded as ê it is found searching for ecirc), etc.
Delay in updating the search index
For reasons of server efficiency and priority, very recent changes are not always immediately taken into account in searches.
External search engines
Various search engines can provide domain-specific searches that let you search Centiare specifically. Searches are based on the text as shown by the browser, so wiki markup is irrelevant. Depending on your browser, you may also be able to use Centiare:Tools that allow you to search Centiare using bookmarklets.
In general, external search engines are faster than a Centiare search. However, because the search engine's cache is based on when the site was last indexed, the search is not likely to return the most recently created pages. Similarly, the search engine's cached version of the page will not be as up-to-date as the link to Centiare itself.
By following the links below, you can use the Google search engine to search Centiare:
If you frequently search via Google, consider installing the Google Toolbar. Using the "search this site" button allows you to quickly search the English version of Centiare.
Yahoo!
By following the link below, you can use the Yahoo! search engine to search Centiare:
If you frequently search via Yahoo!, consider installing the Yahoo! Companion Toolbar. Using the "Search Only the Current Site" button allows you to quickly search Centiare.
Special "Search Triple" semantic search
Centiare has incorporated semantic tagging extensions for all listings. These tags enable users to fine-tune searches based on relations and/or attributes. Utilizing these criteria, users can find and locate specific listings by industry, city/state/country, etc.
To see the blank Search Triple form, just go here: Special:SearchTriple. Perhaps a better way to access the Search Triple form is from a "magnifying glass" link from an existing Directory Space listing that will pre-populate the form with different search criteria. Try the Centiare article itself; scroll to the bottom of the page to the 'factbox' and click on any of the magnifying glass icons.
This will redirect you to the Search Triple form -- just hit the search button and results will be displayed for the chosen selection criteria.
See also
- Help:Preferences for changing your search result settings
