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A Plea to Use "Google Custom Search" Bar

2K views 0 replies 1 participant last post by  jime 
#1 ·
Just as the subject says, this is an encouragement and plea to use the "Google Custom Search" Bar in the top left of the forum pages. This would considerably reduce the creation of new threads which is counter productive to having the archive size constrained - a major benefit to all!

Simply enter a search topic of interest in as specific and "tight" phrase as you can compose. If you get too many hits, then try different terms. It's free so there is no cost for multiple tries.

The "Google Custom Search" bar is a google product offered to site owners to allow search confined first to their own site, in this case Insight Central. The search results page will show a few appropriate ad hits first then it will show the IC hits where members have spoken to the subject. On some searches, the search summary will last show hits from the general internet.

A systematic approach might use the term "tire recommendation" first. That returns some ads, the first being tirerack.com. That site provides a good tire locator, which offers the Vredestein Quatrack5 as a first hit, and also offers the OEM Bridgestone RE92. The site provides considerable user feedback on both.

If the member wants to see what IC members have to say about the Vredestein, then putting the brand and model into the google custom search bar will return hits to the comments of several members.

This is a much more productive process than starting a new thread on a tired subject that many will simply ignore, and a few will offer highly personal opinions which are not necessarily objective.

This only an example, it is not an endorsement of Tirerack or of Vredestein.

One problem one incurs is that the archive for IC is huge. There are some defenses to long search results. First, see if you can tighten you terms a bit. Second, scan the results for the most recent threads, since the knowledge base improves with time. A last approach, open some of the promising threads and learn to scan very rapidly. You will see a lot of "trash" comments which offer very little information, but you skip over them in mere seconds.

I realize everyone has a first instinct to start a thread, but it isn't the best way to try to research. If it is an older, very common subject, the real experts may just pass it by or may simply urge you to use the search function anyway. No one has hours/day to answer questions which have been asked many times before.

Give the google custom search a try or two. I think you will like it:)
 
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