WordPress Plugin search greatly improved (not)

Posted by on Dec 18, 2010 in Wordpress and tagged , ,
5 Comments

About a week ago I complained about the search functionality in the WordPress plugin directory. Today, Ozh Richard @ozh tweeted:

2011 wish list: a search on wp.org/extend/plugins that doesn't suck donkeys asses.

And Otto @otto42 replied:

actually, I improved the plugin search a while back by enabling some sphinx features. However, it got broken today..


Within a few minutes the plugin search was back up, better than ever. I have repeated the searches that got me frustrated before, and now the plugins I was looking for appeared on top of the results as expected. Thanks a lot Otto ( and Ozh ).

Oops, :-( :shock: :-? I have to take that back. Searching for WP-Polls still yields the same 67 pages of crappy results, but WP Polls (notice the space) puts WP-Polls on top. According to Otto:,

well, the search engine ain't perfect. The input data needs some adjustment. For now, avoid punctuation.

That is something I can live with. Although, if that's what would bring so much improvement to the search results, why not just strip the punctuation from the user input?

5 Comments

  1. Otto
    19 December 2010

    BTW, your particular search of “WP-Polls” is equivalent to a search for “WP” really. Why? Because Sphinx treats the – as a search operator. You’re searching for things that contain “WP” but don’t contain “Polls”.

    http://sphinxsearch.com/docs/1.10/extended-syntax.html

    • Marcel
      19 December 2010

      Yeah, but do you think visitors of the plugin directory would consult the Sphinx manual, or even know about Sphinx powering the search?
      I do want to beleive Sphinx is a great search engine, but I would expect the search bar to behave ‘like Google’ ;-) .

  2. Otto
    19 December 2010

    Working on it! :)

    • Marcel
      19 December 2010

      Thanks!

  3. Tweets die vermelden Avoid punctuation in WordPress plugin search | Brimosoft -- Topsy.com
    19 December 2010

    [...] Dit blogartikel was vermeld op Twitter door Scott Frangos. Scott Frangos heeft gezegd: WordPress Plugins: WordPress Plugin search greatly improved | Brimosoft http://ow.ly/1aw4IM [...]