HN readers are expected to know how to use Google to search a single site.
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Ask PG: Why no search box?
11–20 of 40 posts
Re: Ask PG: Why no search box?
#12they have a different site design, to add a searchbox on the top, he'd have to redesign the header
Not a good reason. There is an important functionality already implemented well by others and all the work to do in HN is to add a small form. Why not?
My guess would be the almost Sisyphean feature request list that's still being worked through:
Re: Ask PG: Why no search box?
#13And why no inbox?
He asked about it previously and people said they didn't want it.
Re: Ask PG: Why no search box?
#14And why no inbox?
He asked about it previously and people said they didn't want it. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28085
I think erlanger was talking about an inbox like reddit's where it just shows replies to your comments. A messaging feature is a little different and the messages would be private like email.
Re: Ask PG: Why no search box?
#15There is a lot of data on this site, and a few months ago, PG had to do upgrade the server to handle the traffic. If he added search, is it possible that all those queries would kill site performance?
Just put a form in the header that submits directly to searchYC; that would be good enough and would put no strain on HN.
Without an easily accessible link, it's difficult to search content on the site. I've been a member for a long time, and I didn't know that searchYC existed until reading this post (previously I had been using Google, which isn't so great at indexing HN).
Re: Ask PG: Why no search box?
#16The point is that searchyc is kind of "hidden", a good percent of participants of HN don't even know their existence, maybe a redesign givin more focus to it, or enabling it use in the current design like adding it to the main page would be great. IMHO
Re: Ask PG: Why no search box?
#17they have a different site design, to add a searchbox on the top, he'd have to redesign the header
Well, a cheap hack could be to add it to the footer, I mean where is the immutable law of web design that dictates all search boxes should be at the top of the page?
Personally, it's the current content of HN that interests me first and foremost (the NEW in NEWS). Putting the searchbox in the footer would emphasise this and not break the site design.
Re: Ask PG: Why no search box?
#18He could even just put the search box on the submit page with a label like "Want to check if it's already been submitted? search for it:", as a way to reduce duplicate submissions.
Re: Ask PG: Why no search box?
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
He asked about it previously and people said they didn't want it. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28085
I think erlanger was talking about an inbox like reddit's where it just shows replies to your comments. A messaging feature is a little different and the messages would be private like email.
that and a search would be welcome additions. messaging is kinda pointless, but the little envelope that changes color when you have a reply is a fantastic usability feature. search would also be nice but can be pretty easily done with google...
Re: Ask PG: Why no search box?
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
He asked about it previously and people said they didn't want it. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28085
I think erlanger was talking about an inbox like reddit's where it just shows replies to your comments. A messaging feature is a little different and the messages would be private like email.
Oh yeah. I'd totally like that too! (In fact, I just made a mention about how nice it would be yesterday)