#24065 [Csd]: Unintuitive/Confusing Searches

ID: 24065 Updated by: goba@php.net Reported By: brian at massassi dot net Status: Closed Bug Type: Website problem Operating System: N/A PHP Version: 4.3.2 New Comment: If we would not redirect you to google, then we would present you a 'not found' page. As google lists search results for www.php.net you can get back to php.net from the search results there. This gives you more information, than just a 'not found' message, isn't it? I think you also mix things here. We have always had a service to list similar functions, and that still exists. It is the 'function list' search, as it used to be. It still works this way. It is very hard to beleive though that you have experienced this: | After hitting back and changing the 'function | list' to 'online documentation' and hitting search | yet again, I was brought to another php.net page | that gave some suggestions As the 'online documentation' and 'website' searches are now redirecting to google. So you are not able to experience this... About the prefilling of the form, it used the last search data in a bogus way. Now it will prefill the form with what you searched for previously, helping you perform small changes. Our google search method is a temporary method, as we are working on better ways to search on the php.net site internally. We beleive however that presenting nothing is worse then presenting a google results page. Previous Comments: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2003-06-06 15:00:07] brian at massassi dot net Thank you for the information. This would be a useful nugget to post on the php.net main page :) I thought it was meant to be a new 'feature' or something. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2003-06-06 14:35:06] alindeman@php.net It redirects you to google because the load on our servers is too great right now. We're working on fixing that... ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2003-06-06 14:24:24] brian at massassi dot net I came to php.net looking for information in the manual about the 'global' key word. Since I'm used to the URL shortcuts, I typed in www.php.net/global and expected the page referring to globals to show up. Or at least, show the "best matches" page that used to come up when I searched for something that wasn't found. What I did not expect was to be forwarded to another site with absolutely no indication of why I was there or what it was doing. It forwarded me to google with no warning. I then did not have the option to choose among the great options in the php.net dropdown searh box. It used to be, if I searched for a function that didn't exist, it would suggest others that did exist (maybe I misspelled it), but it also let me click a link to 'search the whole site' and yet another option was to search again in the search box, but narrow it to a different section (php.net web site, function list, online documentation, etc.). Also now, visiting php.net prefills the search box with the word 'manual' - I have no idea why I would search for 'manual' in the function list. When I removed it and searched for "global" again, I was taken back to google. After hitting back and changing the 'function list' to 'online documentation' and hitting search yet again, I was brought to another php.net page that gave some suggestions, but the search box was then prefilled with 'quickref.' After giving up on the now worthless search, I navigated the manual for 20 minutes till I found the section on variable scoping. When I got there, the search box was prefilled with 'wholesite' - I really have no idea why it's prefilling these values, but there are really two issues: 1. Searches on php.net should NOT automatically forward someone to a completely different site. It's disorienting and makes it hard to navigate to other parts of php.net where you at least have an inkling of where something will be. Landing on google after a failed function search makes me hit my back button and either search again or find the manual - used to be, it would come up with a list of functions but also I would have the main php navigation links available to me. 2. Search box prefills should either have something useful or simply not exist. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- Edit this bug report at http://bugs.php.net/?id=24065&edit=1