Searching this newsgroup

[RJQMAN]

I have used this Newsgroup for years, but recently I have had a tough
time searching on the group. The search engine does not even pick up
my old questions when I go to try to double-check solutions others
have posted. Has something changed? Or am I not using the engine
properly? I do not know.

One more thing - I want to extend thanks to all of you. I have
learned so much from this newsgroup. This morning as I had a couple
of minor problems to solve with Excel, and had some frustrations with
the search engine, I began to think more about how much this group has
helped me grow over the past several years, I wish there was a better
to thank all of your for your efforts to help me and each other. So I
am writing this note because I do not know how else to extend my
presonal gratitude for those that take the time and effort to help us
succeed.

In other words. Thank you.

 

[Patrick Molloy]

thats very kind. I appreciate the positive feedback. thank you.

best regards
Patrick

 

[Patrick Molloy]

.... and as for search engines - mine certainly don't work any more

 

[Just Another Yahoo!]

Agreed, especially for the MVPs and their lightening-fast responses! They
have far more patience than I.

As for the searching, yes, I'm quite less than impressed. Maybe it's
because I'm using Outlook Express? One would think with the rapid pace of
technology that more robust search engines would be employed by application
makers instead of leaving it to the domain of the web-o-sphere.

 

[Dave Peterson]

I'm not sure what you're using to search for old messages, but...

If you're looking for old posts:

You can use google (maybe a few hours behind) to search for stuff you've posted
(and find the replies, too)

http://groups.google.com/advanced_group_search
http://groups.google.com/advanced_group_search?q=group:*Excel*&num=100

Give your search enough info (author/date/keywords???) to limit the results.

Ron de Bruin has an excel addin that you may like:
http://www.rondebruin.nl/Google.htm

 

[Peter T]

Hi Dave,

Does searching google groups really still work for you? Here in the UK it
now only finds messages posted very recently, irrespective of any advanced
search options. Effectively google groups search is no longer exists - it's
a travesty!!!!

Example, advanced search all excel groups for our respective first names in
all posts since Jan 2000 -
"Your search - dave peter site:*excel* - did not match any documents."

http://groups.google.co.uk/groups/s...&as_maxm=1&as_maxy=2009&as_drrb=b&sitesearch=

Do you get better results?

Regards,
Peter T

 

[Dave Peterson]

You're right, google seems to be getting more and more difficult to find
relevant posts, too.

But this returned lots of hits:

http://groups.google.com/groups/sea....*&as_usubject=&as_uauthors=peterson&safe=off

(I used to use the .uk version to get better results, but that doesn't seem to
help anymore.)

And when I search for "Option Explicit" with an author of Peterson (not peter
<vbg>) in the microsoft.public.excel* newsgroups (in 2009), I got better
results, too:

http://groups.google.com/groups/sea...as_usubject=&as_uauthors=peterson&safe=active

 

[Dave Peterson]

ps. Just to make it more clear.

It looks like searching through *excel* newsgroups doesn't work like it used
to. But using microsoft.public.excel* works ok. (for awhile????)

 

[Peter T]

in message

It looks like searching through *excel* newsgroups doesn't work like it
used
to.

Neither does "search this group"

But using microsoft.public.excel* works ok. (for a while????)

Yes it seems to work very considerably better at the moment - a very useful
tip !

Regards,
Peter T

 

[Rick Rothstein]

Does searching google groups really still work for you? Here in the UK it

now only finds messages posted very recently, irrespective of any advanced
search options. Effectively google groups search is no longer exists -
it's a travesty!!!!

Agreed! If I now do a search on my last name (Rothstein) for any and all
groups, I get about 746 hits... I know I have **well over** ten thousand
messages under my name (actually, I believe it is well over 20,000 messages,
but I don't remember for sure)... and Google used to show them in days of
old, but every time they made changes to their search engine, the number of
hits has gone down. These changes were supposed to be improvements???

--
Rick (MVP - Excel)

Does searching google groups really still work for you? Here in the UK it
now only finds messages posted very recently, irrespective of any advanced
search options. Effectively google groups search is no longer exists -
it's a travesty!!!!

Example, advanced search all excel groups for our respective first names
in all posts since Jan 2000 -
"Your search - dave peter site:*excel* - did not match any documents."

http://groups.google.co.uk/groups/s...&as_maxm=1&as_maxy=2009&as_drrb=b&sitesearch=

Do you get better results?

Regards,
Peter T

 

[Peter T]

"Rick Rothstein" wrote in message

If I now do a search on my last name (Rothstein) for any and all groups, I
get about 746 hits... I know I have **well over** ten thousand messages
under my name (actually, I believe it is well over 20,000 messages, but I
don't remember for sure)

Using Dave's tip I got 21,400 hits for you!

http://groups.google.com/groups/sea...t.public.*&as_usubject=&as_uauthors=&safe=off

Regards,
Peter T

 

[Rick Rothstein]

That is more like it. Using just an asterisk in the groups, but specifying
(at least) one word in the "all these words" field and my last name in the
author's field, I found another 7810 postings from me for my other online
activity of anagramming...

http://groups.google.com/groups/sea...=&as_usubject=&as_uauthors=rothstein&safe=off

This makes a total *well over* 20,000 messages for me (as I had thought I
remembered); but why isn't Google searching more straightforward (the way it
used to be)???.

 

[John Keith]

One more thing - I want to extend thanks to all of you. I have
learned so much from this newsgroup. This morning as I had a couple
of minor problems to solve with Excel, and had some frustrations with
the search engine, I began to think more about how much this group has
helped me grow over the past several years, I wish there was a better
to thank all of your for your efforts to help me and each other. So I
am writing this note because I do not know how else to extend my
presonal gratitude for those that take the time and effort to help us
succeed.

In other words. Thank you.

Ditto what he said. I wish I a fraction of the knowledge some of the
people on this group have. I have always been impressed with Excel and
in the last 18 months I finally have dug into macros and my level of
awe has jumped again.



John Keith
(e-mail address removed)

 

[Patrick Molloy]

I get 22900

That is more like it. Using just an asterisk in the groups, but specifying
(at least) one word in the "all these words" field and my last name in the
author's field, I found another 7810 postings from me for my other online
activity of anagramming...

http://groups.google.com/groups/sea...=&as_usubject=&as_uauthors=rothstein&safe=off

This makes a total *well over* 20,000 messages for me (as I had thought I
remembered); but why isn't Google searching more straightforward (the way it
used to be)???.

 

[Peter T]

Yeah but that's 3 days and 1,500 posts later <g>

Peter T

 

[Patrick Molloy]

ha ha

keep up hte good work

Yeah but that's 3 days and 1,500 posts later <g>

Peter T