An ode to the Goodreads search engine...

[Mark]

Goodreads' search engine suggestions:

p- Dödssynden

pr- Frankenstein

pri- Hp and Pris of Azkaban Celebr Dumpbin

prin- Prins

princ- Harry Potter a Polovičný princ

prince of - The Little Prince

prince of t - The Prince

prince of th - L'Énéide de Virgile, Prince des Poètes Latins

prince of tho - An Argument, Shewing, That the Prince of Wales, Tho' a Protestant, Has No Just Pretensions to the Crown of England [&C.]

prince of thor - Bá Tước Monte Cristo

prince of thorn - Prince of Thorns

Hoorah!!

[Ciara]

Haha yes. “Wheel of oshei” yields “No Results” until one adds in the final character. Red Sis throws out less popular titles until the t is tacked.

Craig

[Mark]

C.S. wrote: "Haha yes. “Wheel of oshei” yields “No Results” until one adds in the final character. Red Sis throws out less popular titles until the t is tacked.

Craig"

Pretty impressive stuff given how long this site has existed and how many people use it :)

[Daniela]

Corollary: when the search engine retrieves the correct book you are starting to type, but you were too slow to click the suggestion and it changes to a completely and wrong book.

[Mark]

Daniela wrote: "Corollary: when the search engine retrieves the correct book you are starting to type, but you were too slow to click the suggestion and it changes to a completely and wrong book."

That is also pretty special. You have to wonder how this site is managed and what goes on in their discussions about these things.

[Elaine]

I am always a little amazed at the fact that this site, which is owned by Amazon, seems to receive little of their tech interest. The search engine is not very strong, occasionally book reviews become lost in space and the groups provide little information other than a simple count of membership. Thus, I ended up in a book group that gives out virtual badges when you have read a book.

[Matthew]

My favourite is the ISBN search...it always, always, always gives a very random book until the last digit is entered...but can be very frustrating when it says it can't find it!

[Helen]

It’s when you link books that annoys me. I’ll type the exact title and then eventually find the book on say page 4 of the suggestions, having past at least two pages worth of books that have completely different titles.

[Mark]

Helen wrote: "It’s when you link books that annoys me. I’ll type the exact title and then eventually find the book on say page 4 of the suggestions, having past at least two pages worth of books that have comple..."

Yup, even if you put quotes around the title the algorithm assumes you don't mean it and suggests things that share one word with it.

[Carole-Ann]

I learnt a long time ago that you have to be EXACT in your spelling of either an author's name or book title. Upper/lower case matters not at all, but spell (for example) Martin as Martyn and you'll get absolutely nowhere :)

Oh, and Author's initials?? It's simply pot luck: AA or A A or A.A. or A. A. - will get everything or NOTHING :(
(and that little thing VARIES from author to author!!)

And don't get me started on the listings (as Helen mentions above!) I've never seen such a badly organised 'word' search :(

[Joseph]

In many cases, if I want to do an author search I'll just do a title search for one of their books, then look at the author tab on the results window.

[Mark]

It's kind of crazy that on a site with 75 million members ... a site that indexes books ... the search function is still broken after years of complaint and mockery.

[Jacqueline]

I used the scan function on a paperback copy of The Cruel Prince by Holly Black this afternoon and it told me that it was the Audio CD. Yeahhh nah Goodreads. Go home...you’re drunk.

I suppose at least it told me the right book.

The other week I searched for The Grey Bastards and it wouldn’t bring it up at all. Even after I put the whole name in.

[Mark]

Jacqueline wrote: "I used the scan function on a paperback copy of The Cruel Prince by Holly Black this afternoon and it told me that it was the Audio CD. Yeahhh nah Goodreads. Go home...you’re drunk.

I suppose at ..."

Adding the author name helps ... sometimes.

[Jacqueline]

Yeah I usually just resort to the authors name.

[Elaine]

Jacqueline wrote: "I used the scan function on a paperback copy of The Cruel Prince by Holly Black this afternoon and it told me that it was the Audio CD. Yeahhh nah Goodreads. Go home...you’re drunk.

I suppose at ..."

I just started the Grey Bastards based upon a recommendation from this group. It is a wild read.

[Eric]

I searched for “The Gray House.” Number 1 result: Little Women. Please tell me those little gals at least lived in a gray house.

[Elaine]

Eric wrote: "I searched for “The Gray House.” Number 1 result: Little Women. Please tell me those little gals at least lived in a gray house."

very funny! Thanks for the laugh of the day.