For the love of Mumsnet can you PLEASE massively improve the search function!

[Graphista]

I love Mumsnet

But this one particular thing drives me nuts!

It's AWFUL. I've just been looking for threads on "private practice" tv show but the in app search function only copes with one word at a time! So I got tons on private schools!

The site will include both words but also returns EVERY post that contains both words there's no way to search WITHIN mn "universe" that searches the exact phrase

In this instance it would seemingly work to search within the appropriate board - telly addicts

But the search results are nonsense!

This is really really basic programming even I know how to do this (if I had access - indeed anyone trained in ms access know how!)

Why has it been left to be so rubbish?! And if/when are you going to fix this ?

This is but one example but applies to finding threads too. I've one particular thread I follow that's a long running one but again the only way I can actually find it is if I hunt by going into that board and scrolling through the thread titles

This is ridiculous!

Agree!

I agree. The search function is pretty crap.

I agree, and on another search note, I can never get the "normal" search to work, it always gives a Cloudflare 502 error, so I have to use advanced search. The irony being, I then tried searching for "search AND cloudflare" since 1st November on "Site Stuff" and that gave an error as well until I removed the "AND", so the search parsing is very outdated.

I get better results looking for particular Mumsnet threads on Google, than I do on Mumsnet’s own search function.

@TooWicked that's what I find too! But still not ideal

It's maddening

I put "private practice" in speech marks and got loads of results!

Agree, OP! It's bugged me for ages so I'm glad someone else has mentioned it

Just use google - it works really well and whilst the search function on here could be better, Google is not really a hardship.

Just put ‘private practice - Mumsnet’ through Google

@JustJustWhy yes but were they the right results? As in for the tv show and not other forms of private practice?

I did use Google in the end - but the point is we shouldn't have to and Google doesn't always produce suitable results either for Mumsnet

This was one example but it's any time I want to search Mumsnet for anything that isn't a fairly unique one word search

If you go to Advanced Search, put "Private" "Practice" look for thread titles only and select Telly Addicts...

Hello! Thanks for this feedback. We'll pass it on to the relevant team.

I find the search function really frustrating!
It's rubbish.

I've given up trying to use the search function through Mumsnet. Like others have said upthread just put what you're looking for into Google and put Mumsnet afterwards and it'll come up

I think it might explain the zombie threads that get resurrected, considering that when you search for something, the hits that come up are in no particular order and the top one could easily be from several years ago.

Not an issue if you are looking for how to get rid of grass stains from cricket whites for instance, but otherwise, it's daft.