Wikipedia talk:Wikipedia Signpost/2008-11-10/Search engine

Better search example
The example search in the Signpost entry is not ideal:


 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Search?search=prefix%3AWikipedia%3AVillage+Pump+&go=Go

because it uses the  option. This causes the search to look for a page with a page title of the empty string, eliciting a spurious message: "No page with that title exists" above the actual search results (which are themselves degenerate, as there was no real search text).

A somewhat better method is to use the  option, which at least eliminates the "No page with that title exists" message above the search results:


 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Search?search=prefix%3AWikipedia%3AVillage+Pump+&fulltext=Search

It would be nicer still if the  option could tag along as a separate URL parameter rather than a   modifier, to keep it out of the search field. The user has to know to type his or her search keywords to the left of the  option in the resulting search field, because the new search feature doesn't seem to have any way to delimit the end of the   option text to distinguish it from actual search terms to the right.

In general, the behavior of Google custom is still ergonomically superior, especially when one wants to create a link to an initially blank search form. Google does not insist on running an initially degenerate search, and the search field is empty of distracting search modifiers. However, Google can get thrown off by irregularities in Wikipedia's page naming schemes (see the examples in Template:Google custom). --Teratornis (talk) 19:34, 27 April 2009 (UTC)