https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=21988
Summary: Advanced Search
Product: MediaWiki
Version: unspecified
Platform: All
OS/Version: All
Status: NEW
Severity: enhancement
Priority: Normal
Component: Search
AssignedTo: wikibugs-l@lists.wikimedia.org
ReportedBy: gti...@gmail.com
Every popular search interface has an "Advanced Search" page, where the user
can make use of those search features which are rarely needed but then very
important: title search, expression search, similarity search etc. MediaWiki
supports these features and some more, but offers no help to the user to
actually find them. If he is lucky, the wiki has a help page on searching which
is linked from the search page, and he only has to read three or four pages of
text to find out that which would be obvious on the first blink in a well
designed form. If he is out of luck (such as in the case of trying to search
the English Wikipedia), he will probably find Google (which has an easy to
discover advanced search page, with domain restriction options) more useful,
which is a bit of a shame.
In other words, the current implementation of advanced search (which is just a
namespace selection) sucks horribly. It should have text fields like "search
for pages with this words in the title" and "search for this expression", and
everything that cannot be easily formulated as an additional text field (such
as the * wildcard) should be explained in the search interface in an easily
disoverable and understandable way.
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