Feature Request

[+T-bone's Team]

How hard could it be to have a keyword search as part of the search tool??? Or PQ's??? Seems like it should be a standard issue item.

[+Stuey]

How hard could it be to have a keyword search as part of the search tool???

Search page: Isn't this what you want?

 

I'm with you on the PQ idea though (although I use GSAK to filter my caches after I get the PQ's).

[+Hemlock]

The advanced search page also has a "by keyword" option.

[+fizzymagic]

The advanced search page also has a "by keyword" option.

Only it is not a keyword search; it is an exact match search, which is different.

 

The misleading label on the search pages has bothered me for a long time.

[+ODragon]

The advanced search page also has a "by keyword" option.

Only it is not a keyword search; it is an exact match search, which is different.

I totally agree with it being an exact match search.

 

Personally, I would like to see a smarter box where I could put in a TB# or a zip code or a waypoint number or a keyword (NOT exact match) and have it figure out what I put in.

[+Prime Suspect]

How hard could it be to have a keyword search as part of the search tool??? Or PQ's??? Seems like it should be a standard issue item.

As others have said, you can use the keyword search, which searches cache names. If you want to search in the cache descripition text, that's better done by using a PQ and a GPX utility that supports description searching, such as Watcher.

[+Marcie/Eric]

I want a feature to get a PQ using JUST a keyword, or a combination.

 

Like if I want to search for night caches within 250 miles of zipcode 95842, then I should be able to; I don't believe there is currently a way to do this via PQ. There should be.

 

Keyword: NIGHT

Zipcode: 95842

Radius: 250

 

..would be the PQ search parms. Every cache within 250 miles of 95842 with names or descriptions containing the word "night" would be wrapped in a PQ and emailed to me. This keyword search should exclude logs.

[+The Leprechauns]

The advanced search page also has a "by keyword" option.

Only it is not a keyword search; it is an exact match search, which is different.

 

The misleading label on the search pages has bothered me for a long time.

I am confused by the terminology. I just ran a test using a word that's common to nearly all of the cache titles that I own -- they all say "Elves" somewhere in the name. Sure enough, entering "Elves" in the keyword search box returns all of my caches, plus many others. To me, that is a keyword search. An exact name search would mean (again, to me, a non-computer programmer type) that such a search would only return a cache whose name was simply "Elves." What am I missing here? The existing search function has been very helpful to me when I remembered just part of a cache's name.

[+fizzymagic]

I am confused by the terminology.  I just ran a test using a word that's common to nearly all of the cache titles that I own -- they all say "Elves" somewhere in the name.  Sure enough, entering "Elves" in the keyword search box returns all of my caches, plus many others.  To me, that is a keyword search.

No, it is not a keyword search. It is a search for an exact match of the string "Elves" in cache names.

 

A keyword search is one that searches for multiple keywords in cache names.

 

For example, if I were to do a keyword search using the search string

 

Elves Nature

 

I would expect a listing of caches that have the words Elves and Nature in the cache name. In particular, I would expect that the search would find a cache named "The Elves Tour the World's Shortest Nature Trail." But the "keyword" search on the site does not work that way; instead, it will only find caches whose names have a substring that is an exact match for "Elves Nature," of which there are exactly zero.

 

In addition, keyword searches are generally expected to not be sensitive to punctuation. For example, searches on

 

world's shortest and

worlds shortest

 

would, in a keyword search, return the same results. An exact match search, on the other hand, only returns exact matches.

 

I hope that makes it more clear!

Edited May 10, 2005 by fizzymagic

[+Hemlock]

I think the confusion stems from the fact the OP wants to search a cache description, whereas the site's keyword searches only search the cache titles.

 

I agree with The Leprechauns' interpretation of what a "exact match" search should be.

 

The suggested solution of using 3rd party tools, such as Watcher, is a good one.

[+Stunod]

The advanced search page also has a "by keyword" option.

Only it is not a keyword search; it is an exact match search, which is different.

 

The misleading label on the search pages has bothered me for a long time.

I am confused by the terminology. I just ran a test using a word that's common to nearly all of the cache titles that I own -- they all say "Elves" somewhere in the name. Sure enough, entering "Elves" in the keyword search box returns all of my caches, plus many others. To me, that is a keyword search. An exact name search would mean (again, to me, a non-computer programmer type) that such a search would only return a cache whose name was simply "Elves." What am I missing here? The existing search function has been very helpful to me when I remembered just part of a cache's name.

A keyword search would look for 2 or more words ANYWHERE in the searched string, while an exact match requires them to be back to back.

 

Example: search "night reflector"

 

A KEYWORD search will return "Night reflector cache" and "Night cache with reflectors"

 

An EXACT MATCH would only return "Night reflector cache"

 

edit: oops, type too slow

Edited May 10, 2005 by Stunod

[+The Leprechauns]

I want a feature to get a PQ using JUST a keyword, or a combination.

 

Like if I want to search for night caches within 250 miles of zipcode 95842, then I should be able to; I don't believe there is currently a way to do this via PQ. There should be.

 

Keyword: NIGHT

Zipcode: 95842

Radius: 250

 

..would be the PQ search parms. Every cache within 250 miles of 95842 with names or descriptions containing the word "night" would be wrapped in a PQ and emailed to me. This keyword search should exclude logs.

What you're asking for is in the works! Read the pinned thread on cache attributes. I look forward to being able to search for just those caches that have the "Recommended at Night" cache attribute, because I like them just like you do. Or, last weekend my daughter wanted to do caches while riding our bikes, rather than hiking. I had to open Watcher and search through my PQ results for the words "bike" or "bicycle" when it would have been more efficient to order a pocket query for only those caches that had the "bicycles allowed" attribute. Fortunately, in my search I found a bike trail about 30 miles away that had just gotten a new cache, giving us a total of three to find along the trail. That was well worth the gas money, and we had a nice ride.

[+fizzymagic]

I agree with The Leprechauns' interpretation of what a "exact match" search should be.

Maybe a better term for what the site does is a substring search.

 

But it's not a keyword search.

[+The Leprechauns]

I hope that makes it more clear!

Thanks, yes it does! I guess I've been able to get by with searching on just the word or adjacent words that I could remember. What you describe is a lot more powerful than that. Sort of like internal google. For something like that, I might try googling on the terms and limiting the site to geocaching.com. But that is an imperfect workaround.

[+ODragon]

"Recommended at Night"

 

Once more I'd like to mention that "Recommended at Night" does not make it a night cache. I would "Recommended at Night" for all urban micros as that's when they're usually much easier to park at and get w/o so many people around. A nice attribute that is "Night Cache" would be more useful I think.

[+The Leprechauns]

odragon, that sounds like a perfect case for the "Stealth Required" cache attribute. When I see that icon, or a mention of muggles on the cache page, I immediately consider night caching, early Sunday morning, etc., as possible strategies. Or, I may want to test my stealth skills by grabbing it at high noon when the sidewalks are chock full of people. It's not very dark at noon.

 

To me, "recommended at night" means exactly what it says -- do this cache at night, not in the daytime. To make it cover any urban cache with muggle risks is quite a stretch. I see your point, but I think there's a better tool for the job. I can drive a nail with the butt end of a screwdriver but I'd rather use a hammer.

 

Sorry for straying a bit off topic. Perhaps the debate about the wording of attributes ought to stay in the other threads where it's already being discussed.

[+T-bone's Team]

Seems I am not the only one interested in this idea. I should have been more specific however....go figure. What I want is to be able to do a keyword and/or exact match with-in a certain radius of a given point......

 

I want a feature to get a PQ using JUST a keyword, or a combination.

 

Like if I want to search for night caches within 250 miles of zipcode 95842, then I should be able to; I don't believe there is currently a way to do this via PQ. There should be.

 

Keyword: NIGHT

Zipcode: 95842

Radius: 250

 

..would be the PQ search parms. Every cache within 250 miles of 95842 with names or descriptions containing the word "night" would be wrapped in a PQ and emailed to me. This keyword search should exclude logs.

 

Searching the description would awesome! The search tool in place is very limited. I do not care about the word Pisgah in Virginia....only Oregon....and 20 miles from home. I am glad to see this is in the works....thanks for the info....or is it?

Edited May 11, 2005 by T-Bone and Maddawg