Brand New Search Function

by Tyler Bleszinski on May 12, 2008 10:42 PM PDT Comment 79 comments

AN, clockwerks and his team have basically rebuilt the search function from the ground up. He told me that Athletics Nation was one of the driving forces behind this new search. It really lets you dive deep into Athletics Nation and should make it much easier for you to find old stories and even different stories by different authors.

Play with it and let us know what you think. There was a ton of work that went into it and I toyed around with it and thought it was brilliant.

7 recs | Comment 79 comments

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Has this rolled out everywhere or just here at AN?

by mikev on May 12, 2008 11:05 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

I believe it's rolled out everywhere

by Tyler Bleszinski on May 12, 2008 11:35 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

It appears so.

and let me just say, it has completely SAVED minorleagueball.com for me.

I hadn’t even visited the site since they switched it to the new format with the broken search.

by mikev on May 12, 2008 11:37 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

IT'S FIXED! BY GOD IT'S FIXED!

I owe an adult beverage of choice (or a juice box if not drinking age) to Clockwerks and his team.

by mikev on May 12, 2008 11:17 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

It brings a tear to my eye.

Really.

(Not just because we don’t have to hear Poppy complain about it all. the. time. anymore. But that’s a big part of it.)

pam5981: Patience is a virtue that I do not possess.
ohtobe21likehuston: But you're good at drinking and cussing. Two out of three ain't bad.

by pam5981 on May 12, 2008 11:24 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Yea for Clockwerks and Co.

No more posts bitching about the search function! Hooray!

by IM4Oakgal on May 12, 2008 11:37 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Ironically, AN was one of the only sites that

really complained about it. But it was enough to get them plugging away on it.

by Tyler Bleszinski on May 12, 2008 11:40 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

They impress me so much.

They are totally responsive to the needs of the site and it’s such a credit to their work ethic. Clockwerks , Lovitt and Co: you are the best!

by IM4Oakgal on May 12, 2008 11:47 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Oh and it was clockwerks

birthday just yesterday. Just thought I’d share that tidbit ;-)

by Tyler Bleszinski on May 12, 2008 11:55 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

That's not true,

LookoutLanding bitched just as much as we did.

stat-addled alien overlord

by salb918 on May 13, 2008 5:13 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

He did say

one of the only sites

pam5981: Patience is a virtue that I do not possess.
ohtobe21likehuston: But you're good at drinking and cussing. Two out of three ain't bad.

by pam5981 on May 13, 2008 9:55 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

we all owe xbhaskarx our thanks

We're going to knock balls out of the country's park, for the home team, which is America. @('.')@

by monkeyball on May 13, 2008 10:02 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

If only someone had asked for a better search function a long time ago

Oh wait…tons of people asked for that in the old 2.0 days. So many that you’d have hoped it would have been high on the 3.0 to-do list.

There is an A in Whimsy.

by FreeSeatUpgrade on May 13, 2008 9:48 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

we had a very long list

and the first step was to implement a better underlying search technology. next step was a better interface. every day we make more progress.

I'm one of the guys that built the new SB Nation

by Trei Brundrett on May 13, 2008 10:59 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

It's new ! It's improved ! It's awesome !

and in its honour, this favorite link that I was now able to find in picoseconds.

by green star oakland on May 13, 2008 12:39 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

I am glad the Internets were not invented when I was a teenager

There are people alive who may remember what an idiot I was, but there’s no documentation.

The candy and the baseball all night long :)

by Englishmajor on May 13, 2008 8:26 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

You and I are also old enough to remember...

... when 30 to 50 seconds did not qualify as “painfully slow”.

formerly known as mdl

by iglew on May 13, 2008 10:27 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

I think I've grown 1/2 an inch since that thread first came out

There's no crying in baseball!

by gigglingone on May 13, 2008 11:27 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

It works...

Official AN MLB 2008 Prediction Thread

Foolsh, the most insane regular poster on AN since oaktoon left - salb

by FoolshGame22 on May 13, 2008 12:41 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Good call.

Very prescient so far.

It's Rhodes Scholar Night at the Coliseum tonight.

by Scottbass on May 13, 2008 1:12 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

How about the speed of calling up "replies"?

I know this is a bit unrelated to “search” but as an old mainframe programmer database guy, I know they are in the same functionality:

When a user looks at his profile, there is a list of “recommends” and also “commented”. If someone “replies” to a posted “commented”, the user viewing his profile can click on that “commented” and see the “commented” and replies….

...eventually…
...after 30 seconds…maybe 50 seconds…..

it seems to take a long time to assemble, or find, or…I don’t know…

In the previous iteration of AN, it was very fast. Now, it is painfully slow, and, there is a pause. Sometimes one goes right to the “commented” and the “replies”, other times, you go to the top, first entry, and hang for 30 seconds, ...sometimes never getting to your own “commented”. It just stays at the initial entry.

I don’t know if this is because the code is written to go through the entire SBNation dataset, or specifically the blogs a person is signed for, but I consider the “wait” a step backward.

"I never predict anything, and I never will." Paul Gascoigne, English footballer

by One won lost won on May 13, 2008 10:19 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Also related to replies-

in the game threads on 2.0, you’d be flagged not only when there were new comments but when someone replied to one of your comments. I miss that.

pam5981: Patience is a virtue that I do not possess.
ohtobe21likehuston: But you're good at drinking and cussing. Two out of three ain't bad.

by pam5981 on May 13, 2008 10:30 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

how were you flagged that someone replied to one of your comments?

how was that different than the number of new comments displayed?

I'm one of the guys that built the new SB Nation

by Trei Brundrett on May 13, 2008 10:58 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

It would say

x new replies, y new comments

"God doesn't pay attention to your cute little hypotheticals." -- Jeff from LL

by oblique on May 13, 2008 11:03 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

ok, thanks

I didn’t realize that…

I'm one of the guys that built the new SB Nation

by Trei Brundrett on May 13, 2008 11:05 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

I don't remember that.

"Hasn’t the foggiest inclination toward winning ‘tall. Hates to win. Likes to be buggered."

by Jennifer on May 13, 2008 11:05 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

you were anti-autorefresh.

pam5981: Patience is a virtue that I do not possess.
ohtobe21likehuston: But you're good at drinking and cussing. Two out of three ain't bad.

by pam5981 on May 13, 2008 11:12 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

you were anti-autorefresh

pam5981: Patience is a virtue that I do not possess.
ohtobe21likehuston: But you're good at drinking and cussing. Two out of three ain't bad.

by pam5981 on May 13, 2008 11:13 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

I think she was also anti-repeat-posting

We're going to knock balls out of the country's park, for the home team, which is America. @('.')@

by monkeyball on May 13, 2008 11:20 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

OLD autorefresh.

"Hasn’t the foggiest inclination toward winning ‘tall. Hates to win. Likes to be buggered."

by Jennifer on May 13, 2008 11:29 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

right.

“were”

pam5981: Patience is a virtue that I do not possess.
ohtobe21likehuston: But you're good at drinking and cussing. Two out of three ain't bad.

by pam5981 on May 13, 2008 11:31 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

So...

you’re saying it was on the autorefresh thing?

"Hasn’t the foggiest inclination toward winning ‘tall. Hates to win. Likes to be buggered."

by Jennifer on May 13, 2008 11:34 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

The one the popped up in the corner?

"Hasn’t the foggiest inclination toward winning ‘tall. Hates to win. Likes to be buggered."

by Jennifer on May 13, 2008 11:34 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

yup.

pam5981: Patience is a virtue that I do not possess.
ohtobe21likehuston: But you're good at drinking and cussing. Two out of three ain't bad.

by pam5981 on May 13, 2008 11:48 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

That explaines it.

I shut that off after I decided I didn’t really like it.

"Hasn’t the foggiest inclination toward winning ‘tall. Hates to win. Likes to be buggered."

by Jennifer on May 13, 2008 12:07 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

yeah, that's one of the things we've been brainstorming how to fix

and we already have a few cool ideas on how to make that work for search and everywhere else that you link to individual comments or threads

I'm one of the guys that built the new SB Nation

by Trei Brundrett on May 13, 2008 10:57 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Sounds good, glad you're on it!

Too often, a lack of speed in certain functions gets relegated to the “It’s a feature!” thinking! 8^)).

It’s truly amazing how far “search” has come. In 1997, I built a db for all the physical items (desks, chairs, office equipment) owned by the Bank of America Corp. Well over a million items. To search those million items took 30 to 90 seconds.

"I never predict anything, and I never will." Paul Gascoigne, English footballer

by One won lost won on May 13, 2008 12:02 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

I just checked it briefly

but it does seem to be working much better—thanks!

by OaklandSi on May 13, 2008 10:29 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

The search feature is awesome.

Thank you SB Nation team!!

"God doesn't pay attention to your cute little hypotheticals." -- Jeff from LL

by oblique on May 13, 2008 11:03 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

great

now I have nothing I need to search for

"The Athletics at Fremont" is noxious

by ArakSOT on May 13, 2008 11:22 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

MAAAAHvelous Search Function!

And Happy belated Birthday, clockwerks! I’m now going to heap praise on you and your crew every day until my thanks outweigh my bitching about the missing search function! I’m going to make people bitch about how freakin’ delighted I am! :-D

XOXOXO

AN 3.0's Search Function is *hawt*!

by Poppy on May 13, 2008 11:36 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

thanks Poppy!

and I like the new sig…

I'm one of the guys that built the new SB Nation

by Trei Brundrett on May 13, 2008 11:42 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

It's really nice when someone

heaps praise just as much as complaining. That’s rare in the Internet age ;-)

by Tyler Bleszinski on May 13, 2008 10:07 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

All the searching in the world couldn't help me understand the Snowzilla thing

I’ve always wondered why Snowzilla pissed people off. I always assumed that I came late to the party, but I actually beat Snowzilla to AN by a few weeks.

But still, great job with the search function.

Now I know that my first post was this:

Chiba Lotte lost simultaneously in the fighter plane of the Japanese ham.

by JediLeroy on May 13, 2008 12:17 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

AN 3.0 search helps me find a new sig

I generally bemoan the profusion of Mr Sabermetric Sporks in the Scrabble ranks who don't know the meaning or usage of 50% of the words they use. -monkeyball.

by JediLeroy on May 13, 2008 12:19 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

AN 3.0 search function: reminding the world that I am a pretentious git

We're going to knock balls out of the country's park, for the home team, which is America. @('.')@

by monkeyball on May 13, 2008 1:46 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

so when will we be able to embed videos in comments again?

A's v Giants "is kind of like the difference between going to see the Ramones and going to see the Bee Gees. A's fans will go see the Ramones." -BB 07/27/05

by xbhaskarx on May 13, 2008 1:44 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

And don't miss profile search!

Since neither Blez nor clockwerks mentioned it – we’ve also added a search function directly into each profile page to search through that user’s activity. I’m already using it to chase down my old comments.

I'm one of four guys who built SB Nation 2.0. We are like the Borg, but friendly and with better features.

by sixfoot6 on May 13, 2008 1:49 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Awesome!

monkeyball has made 17 comments about binturongs!

AN 3.0's Search Function is *hawt*!

by Poppy on May 13, 2008 2:04 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

and you

have made 54 comments about monkeyball!

I'm one of four guys who built SB Nation 2.0. We are like the Borg, but friendly and with better features.

by sixfoot6 on May 13, 2008 2:14 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

LOL! Is that all?

AN 3.0's Search Function is *hawt*!

by Poppy on May 13, 2008 2:25 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

now we can go back and find our worst predictions

swish isn’t going anywhere
by xbhaskarx on Dec 14, 2007

A's v Giants "is kind of like the difference between going to see the Ramones and going to see the Bee Gees. A's fans will go see the Ramones." -BB 07/27/05

by xbhaskarx on May 13, 2008 2:25 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Yeah, I recall some fairly vehement statements to that end

by myself as well…

Then I learned the lesson that pre-arbitration contracts are, rhetoric aside, not signed for the purpose of keeping a player around a given organization.

Your 2008 Athletics: It's Nothing Personal.

by PaulThomas on May 13, 2008 7:48 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Ooh, look at this

marvelously prescient comment.

(For best results, read the subject line and the date, but not the rest of the comment….)

formerly known as mdl

by iglew on May 13, 2008 10:40 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

can we get a link to the search area in the top yellow bar?

right now is there any way to access the advanced search other than by first doing a basic search?

A's v Giants "is kind of like the difference between going to see the Ramones and going to see the Bee Gees. A's fans will go see the Ramones." -BB 07/27/05

by xbhaskarx on May 13, 2008 2:27 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

the search field is at the top of the right sidebar on every page, just under the yellow bar

there is no other way to use the power search other than doing a simple search first

I'm one of the guys that built the new SB Nation

by Trei Brundrett on May 13, 2008 5:04 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

there is no other way to use the power search other than doing a simple search first

that seems like a bizarre design decision. so i have to do a failed search first, every time i want to search for something?

A's v Giants "is kind of like the difference between going to see the Ramones and going to see the Bee Gees. A's fans will go see the Ramones." -BB 07/27/05

by xbhaskarx on May 13, 2008 7:02 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

how often do you do power searches?

or put another way, how often are you finding that a straight simple search doesn’t give you your result on the first page?

what do you have to do in power search to find what you’re looking for?

I'm one of the guys that built the new SB Nation

by Trei Brundrett on May 13, 2008 8:13 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

btw, I'm not saying we won't put a link to power search

I’m just curious how people are using the search and how well it works in it’s default mode

I have a google search box built into my firefox browser and I never think about it as “I have to do a failed search first”. it’s usually smart enough to find what I’m looking for w/o needing any sort of advanced filtering.

I wonder if we can’t tune our simple search to work better

I'm one of the guys that built the new SB Nation

by Trei Brundrett on May 13, 2008 8:16 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

power searches 100% of the time

i usually have a pretty good idea of what i’m looking for (who wrote it, what time period, whether it was a diary or comment) so it’s a lot more efficient to go straight to a power search.
right now i’m searching for nothing, just pressing the “go” button, and then doing a power search.

and it works great, by the way, no complaints at all on that front.

A's v Giants "is kind of like the difference between going to see the Ramones and going to see the Bee Gees. A's fans will go see the Ramones." -BB 07/27/05

by xbhaskarx on May 13, 2008 10:55 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

clarification: the power search works great, not being forced to do a failed simple search first...

A's v Giants "is kind of like the difference between going to see the Ramones and going to see the Bee Gees. A's fans will go see the Ramones." -BB 07/27/05

by xbhaskarx on May 13, 2008 10:57 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Boy do I feel dumb

It never occurred to me to just hit the “go” button without typing anything in the box. That’ll save me one step.

Now if only the “go” button would give a pop-up menu when I right-click on it, I’d be completely happy.

(I’m on Safari, by the way.)

formerly known as mdl

by iglew on May 13, 2008 11:00 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

This is also what I do

The A's colors are green and gold.

by mikeA on May 14, 2008 10:16 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Most of the time

If I’m searching, it’s almost always for a specific author and/or a date range. I’m more likely to remember who said something and when than the exact words. Like maybe I’m thinking “oh, what was that comment Poppy made about cats last week?” If I just search “cat” I’m going to get a zillion hits. The real essence of the search is the author and the date range.

I’m not actually complaining. I’m a patient person, so if I have to do a couple of extra keystrokes and wait a few seconds I don’t really mind. But I really do use “power search” more than “simple search” so far.

Also, when I do search, I almost always want to open a new tab for the search and leave the current tab open. My instinct is to right-click on the button that links to the search page, but since there’s no such link I can’t do that. So instead I have to right-click on something else to get a fresh AN tab, and then do my dud search from there, and then do my real search from the “power search” page.

My standard procedure for search as of now is:
- home key (to get to top of page)
- right-click on “home” in the yellow bar at the top, and choose “open in new tab”
- click on the new tab
- type some gibberish text in the search box and hit return (to get to the simple search page)
- click on “power search”
- then do my actual search.

I can do all that pretty quickly, so it’s pretty smooth, but I think xbhaskarx is right: it does seem rather roundabout.

(And no, I don’t even attempt a simple search first. I’ve learned that if I type in a real world it takes longer to get to the search page because it’s actually looking, whereas if I type real gibberish, like “hjkhjkl” then it’s quicker to where I want to go.)

formerly known as mdl

by iglew on May 13, 2008 10:57 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

+1

Also, when I do search, I almost always want to open a new tab for the search and leave the current tab open. My instinct is to right-click on the button that links to the search page, but since there’s no such link I can’t do that. So instead I have to right-click on something else to get a fresh AN tab, and then do my dud search from there, and then do my real search from the "power search" page.

same here.
aside from the “dud search” problem, a link in the yellow bar at the top would also be nice because it could be opened in a new tab.

A's v Giants "is kind of like the difference between going to see the Ramones and going to see the Bee Gees. A's fans will go see the Ramones." -BB 07/27/05

by xbhaskarx on May 13, 2008 11:00 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

I've found everything I've looked for using the default search...

If I’m specific, it shows up as the only thing I searched for. If I’m more general, it shows up on the first page.

I don’t search that much, but that’s the way it’s worked for me since the search function has been available.

Foolsh, the most insane regular poster on AN since oaktoon left - salb

by FoolshGame22 on May 14, 2008 12:21 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

it found all 346 mentions of "Byrnes" by me...

and, all 240 mentions of “Kotsay.” That’s only in comments. That doesn’t count the four score mention of “Byrnes” in ~~diaries~~ fAnPoSts.

Foolsh, the most insane regular poster on AN since oaktoon left - salb

by FoolshGame22 on May 14, 2008 12:25 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

there is no other way to use the power search other than doing a simple search first

that seems like a bizarre design decision. so i have to do a failed search first, every time i want to search for something?

A's v Giants "is kind of like the difference between going to see the Ramones and going to see the Bee Gees. A's fans will go see the Ramones." -BB 07/27/05

by xbhaskarx on May 13, 2008 7:02 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

i’m not sure what just happened…

A's v Giants "is kind of like the difference between going to see the Ramones and going to see the Bee Gees. A's fans will go see the Ramones." -BB 07/27/05

by xbhaskarx on May 13, 2008 7:03 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

oh, great

Now I’ll have all these multiple xbx posts clogging up my search results.

We're going to knock balls out of the country's park, for the home team, which is America. @('.')@

by monkeyball on May 13, 2008 8:16 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Two things.

One: I f—-ing called it.

Two: A certain somebody has claimed his account.

stat-addled alien overlord

by salb918 on May 14, 2008 8:32 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Last login: February 12, 2008

AN 3.0's Search Function is *hawt*!

by Poppy on May 14, 2008 11:07 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

I play pretty close attention to AN in the spring/summer months

And I remember Oaktoon (a bit abrasive, but aren’t we all)... but was there some huge blowup and he decided to become a Yankee fan?

by As Fan in the Bronx on May 14, 2008 2:26 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

He tried to defend reason and sanity, but we couldn't handle it

http://www.athleticsnation.com/2006/8/7/165512/2106#comments

The A's colors are green and gold.

by mikeA on May 14, 2008 2:35 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Damn.

1.) I wish I hadn’t asked
2.) It’s going to be hard to wake up, now.

by As Fan in the Bronx on May 14, 2008 2:46 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Ha ha

AND IF THAT IS TRUE THEN IT IS UNASSAILABLY LOGICAL TO ASSUME THAT WHEN A PLAYER HAS AN ABERRANT BEGINNING TO A SEASON—LASTING TWO MONTHS OR MORE—THAT THAT SAME PLAYER WILL IN FACT BE MORE LIKELY TO HIT “BETTER” OR “WORSE” THAN HIS “TRUE LEVEL” OF PERFORMANCE IN THE NEXT STRETCH OF GAMES THAN HE IS TO CONTINUE TO HIT IN THE ABERRANT DIRECTION.

He shoulda read my primer on regression.

stat-addled alien overlord

by salb918 on May 14, 2008 3:30 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs