Strange result in Search

KlondikeGeoff · 08-17-2007, 06:07 PM

I know I'll go "duh" when I get an answer, but tell me what I'm doing wrong, please.

I wanted to see if anybody has uploaded "A Tale of Two Cities" (by you know whom). No matter how many or how few words I entered, I got the following message:

"The search term you specified (of) is under the minimum word length (3) and therefore will not be found. Please make this term longer."

I certain ly did not enter under three words (they should have written "less than (3) words, eh?), so what does this mean?

Also, as long as I'm posting, anybody know if that book has been uploaded here, and how I can find it without a search? I did get all of Dicken's listings and it does not seem to be there, but what the heck, I may easily have missed it.

Thanks.

Nate the great · 08-17-2007, 06:16 PM

The search usually doesn't work (at least for me).

RWood · 08-17-2007, 06:40 PM

Translation: No words are considered search terms that are under three (3) letters long. Therefore the search criteria should have been "tale two cities" Hope that this helps.

monkeywrench · 08-17-2007, 06:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KlondikeGeoff

I know I'll go "duh" when I get an answer, but tell me what I'm doing wrong, please.

I wanted to see if anybody has uploaded "A Tale of Two Cities" (by you know whom). No matter how many or how few words I entered, I got the following message:

"The search term you specified (of) is under the minimum word length (3) and therefore will not be found. Please make this term longer."

I certain ly did not enter under three words (they should have written "less than (3) words, eh?), so what does this mean?

Also, as long as I'm posting, anybody know if that book has been uploaded here, and how I can find it without a search? I did get all of Dicken's listings and it does not seem to be there, but what the heck, I may easily have missed it.

Thanks.

Hey KlondikeGeoff,

When you search the application is actually searching for each term that you have entered individually. It is giving you that error because "of" is one of the words that you searched for. If you want to search for the entire string, in this case the title of a book you can put your search in quotes. I was unable to find The Tale of Two Cities but you can try this search instead just to see that it works:

"The House on the Borderland"

The thing to remember with this is that it is going to look for the exact string that you have put in the quotes. If you use the example above but say you can't remember if its "on the" or "by the" you can do something like this:

"The House" + Borderland

This will cause it to search for anything that has the string "The House" plus the word Borderland.

There are some things that are common to most search engines. Click this link to see what Google has to say about search basics.

Hope this helps.

~Marty

NatCh · 08-17-2007, 06:58 PM

I don't think the search here recognizes quote marks as indicating a literal string, but rather just boolean ands each term, so '"The House" Borderland' would get searched for as "The AND House" AND Borderland. I could easily be wrong on that, though.

In this case, it's probably easiest to go to the e-books section and look at the D's for Dickens.

Bleak House and David Copperfield are the only ones that show up that way.

monkeywrench · 08-17-2007, 07:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NatCh

I don't think the search here recognizes quote marks as indicating a literal string, but rather just boolean ands each term, so '"The House" Borderland' would get searched for as "The AND House" AND Borderland. I could easily be wrong on that, though.

I did some testing on this and I don't think the search does a boolean and within quotes. If it were doing a boolean and would there be a point in using quotes at all? My understanding is if you just type in the the words, in this case 'the house borderland' it would do a boolean and with the three words 'the AND house AND Borderland' giving you no reason to use quotes. One of my tests was on Master Humphrey's Clock I tried

"Master Clock"

This did not return any results.

but if I try

"Master Humphrey's"

I do get a result

This test leads me to believe that the search is not just a boolean and but is in fact a literal string.

I looked on the vbulletin site but their documentation does not get into search in this much detail.

Is there a site admin that would care to jump in?

P.S. Reading back through my post before posting I thought that it may come across as argumentative. I don't mean this to be the case at all. I am not positive I am correct and may not be. So if it comes across as argumentative please forgive me as I don't intend it to be so.

KlondikeGeoff · 08-17-2007, 07:50 PM

OK, guys, thanks. I had tried it with and with quotes (I'm a long-time Google searcher) and had no luck. I see now it is a mystery.

In any case, I guess the next step is to go to PG and get it there (I hope). Haven't read it for many years, and in the mood for a good cry.

monkeywrench · 08-17-2007, 09:45 PM

Hey Geoff,

Might want to try manybooks.net. You can choose to download a Sony formatted version that might be a bit better than a straight PG version. That is unless you want to format it really nice and contribute your formatted version at mobileread.

Here's the direct link to the book at manybooks.net.

RWood · 08-17-2007, 10:14 PM

ManyBooks.net is one of the reasons I started formatting my own books for the Sony Reader. Their mechanical conversions do leave a bit to be desired.

JSWolf · 08-17-2007, 10:47 PM

I typed in... tale two cities and got this thread as one of the results. Meaning it works fine.

HarryT · 08-18-2007, 04:19 AM

I'm (slowly) doing the complete works of Dickens, but haven't yet reached "A Tale of Two Cities". I'll try and do it shortly.

NatCh · 08-18-2007, 10:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by monkeywrench

This test leads me to believe that the search is not just a boolean and but is in fact a literal string.

Well, that's good to know. I think the only one who could give us a definite answer is probably Alexander, since he's the one who gets his arms into the site's guts up to the elbows.

Quote:

Originally Posted by monkeywrench

P.S. Reading back through my post before posting I thought that it may come across as argumentative. I don't mean this to be the case at all. I am not positive I am correct and may not be. So if it comes across as argumentative please forgive me as I don't intend it to be so.

I didn't take it that way at all, but I admire your concern for courtesy.

We've tried to create a community here that's respectful of all the members (an anomaly in the cyberword, I know), so anything that supports or encourages that is a good thing.

coleman · 08-18-2007, 03:40 PM

you could also try it from google doing something like this as the search:
"tale of two cities" site:www.mobileread.com/forums

chenjian1227 · 08-18-2007, 11:12 PM

I am enthusiastic to provide a search service for this forum. I see people got frustrated about search function from time to time. I hope to help in this regard.

An example is www.coolposting.com, it is currently only for hot deals, but, could be expanded to other discussion forums.

HarryT · 08-19-2007, 02:59 AM

The forum search engine works just fine for me!

08-17-2007, 06:07 PM	#1
KlondikeGeoff Wombat Aficionado Posts: 481 Karma: 733 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Arizona Device: Fire, Kindle1, Sony PRS-500 Reader, Rocket 1100 eBook	Strange result in Search I know I'll go "duh" when I get an answer, but tell me what I'm doing wrong, please. I wanted to see if anybody has uploaded "A Tale of Two Cities" (by you know whom). No matter how many or how few words I entered, I got the following message: "The search term you specified (of) is under the minimum word length (3) and therefore will not be found. Please make this term longer." I certain ly did not enter under three words (they should have written "less than (3) words, eh?), so what does this mean? Also, as long as I'm posting, anybody know if that book has been uploaded here, and how I can find it without a search? I did get all of Dicken's listings and it does not seem to be there, but what the heck, I may easily have missed it. Thanks.

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08-17-2007, 06:16 PM	#2
Nate the great Sir Penguin of Edinburgh Posts: 12,375 Karma: 23555235 Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: DC Metro area Device: Shake a stick plus 1	The search usually doesn't work (at least for me).

08-17-2007, 06:40 PM	#3
RWood Technogeezer Posts: 7,233 Karma: 1601464 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Virginia, USA Device: Sony PRS-500	Translation: No words are considered search terms that are under three (3) letters long. Therefore the search criteria should have been "tale two cities" Hope that this helps.

08-17-2007, 06:58 PM	#5
NatCh Gizmologist Posts: 11,615 Karma: 929550 Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Republic of Texas Embassy at Jackson, TN Device: Pocketbook Touch HD3	I don't think the search here recognizes quote marks as indicating a literal string, but rather just boolean ands each term, so '"The House" Borderland' would get searched for as "The AND House" AND Borderland. I could easily be wrong on that, though. In this case, it's probably easiest to go to the e-books section and look at the D's for Dickens. Bleak House and David Copperfield are the only ones that show up that way.

08-17-2007, 07:50 PM	#7
KlondikeGeoff Wombat Aficionado Posts: 481 Karma: 733 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Arizona Device: Fire, Kindle1, Sony PRS-500 Reader, Rocket 1100 eBook	OK, guys, thanks. I had tried it with and with quotes (I'm a long-time Google searcher) and had no luck. I see now it is a mystery. In any case, I guess the next step is to go to PG and get it there (I hope). Haven't read it for many years, and in the mood for a good cry.

08-17-2007, 09:45 PM	#8
monkeywrench Connoisseur Posts: 71 Karma: 42 Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: San Antonio, TX Device: Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4, Kindle Keyboard	Hey Geoff, Might want to try manybooks.net. You can choose to download a Sony formatted version that might be a bit better than a straight PG version. That is unless you want to format it really nice and contribute your formatted version at mobileread. Here's the direct link to the book at manybooks.net.

08-17-2007, 10:14 PM	#9
RWood Technogeezer Posts: 7,233 Karma: 1601464 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Virginia, USA Device: Sony PRS-500	ManyBooks.net is one of the reasons I started formatting my own books for the Sony Reader. Their mechanical conversions do leave a bit to be desired.

08-17-2007, 10:47 PM	#10
JSWolf Resident Curmudgeon Posts: 74,015 Karma: 129333114 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3	I typed in... tale two cities and got this thread as one of the results. Meaning it works fine.

08-18-2007, 04:19 AM	#11
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,544 Karma: 93383043 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	I'm (slowly) doing the complete works of Dickens, but haven't yet reached "A Tale of Two Cities". I'll try and do it shortly.

08-18-2007, 03:40 PM	#13
coleman Connoisseur Posts: 95 Karma: 38 Join Date: Jul 2007 Device: Android tablets and phones, Windows tablet, Kobo Aura One	you could also try it from google doing something like this as the search: "tale of two cities" site:www.mobileread.com/forums

08-18-2007, 11:12 PM	#14
chenjian1227 Junior Member Posts: 2 Karma: 10 Join Date: Aug 2007 Device: Nokia	I am enthusiastic to provide a search service for this forum. I see people got frustrated about search function from time to time. I hope to help in this regard. An example is www.coolposting.com, it is currently only for hot deals, but, could be expanded to other discussion forums.

Advert

Advert

08-19-2007, 02:59 AM	#15
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,544 Karma: 93383043 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	The forum search engine works just fine for me!