This article provides a detailed overview of Bahaipedia's search feature, and instructions on using external search engines, such as Google, to find information.
Bahaipedia search[edit]
Enter your keywords in the search box.
- Go - (or Enter on keyboard) takes you to the article.
- Search - returns a list of articles and additional search options.
Tips for effective searches[edit]
Go is case sensitive
The "go" function uses an algorithm to decide what page you're likely to be interested in, and this usually masks its case sensitivity - but not always.
Avoid short and common words
If your search terms include a common "stop word" (such as "the", "your", "more", "right", "while", "when", "who", "which", "such", "every", "about"), you may see many irrelevant results. Historically, these words could not be searched at all, but currently, Bahaipedia does not use "stop words", so any word can be successfully used in search queries.
Wildcards
Be careful about limited wildcards, as they take a toll on the server. See Boolean fulltext search for details on their use.
Words with special characters
In a search for a word with a diaeresis, such as Sint Odiliënberg, it depends whether this ë is stored as one character or as "ë". In the first case one can simply search for Odilienberg (or Odiliënberg); in the second case it can only be found by searching for Odili, euml and/or nberg. This is actually a bug that should be fixed -- the entities should be folded into their raw character equivalents so all searches on them are equivalent. See also Bahaipedia:Special characters.
Words in single quotes
If a word appears in an article with single quotes, you can only find it if you search for the word with quotes. Since this is rarely desirable, it is better to use double quotes in articles for which this problem does not arise. See the manual of style for more info.
An apostrophe is identical to a single quote, therefore the name Mu'ammar can be found only by searching for exactly that (and not otherwise). A word with 's is an exception in that it can be found also by searching for the word without the apostrophe and the s.
Phrases in double quotes -- exact match only
A phrase can easily be found by enclosing it in double quotes. For example, "holly dolly" returns six matches; holly dolly (two standalone words) returns 197.
Namespaces searched by default
The search only applies to the namespaces selected in the user's preferences. To search the other namespaces check or uncheck the tickboxes in "Search in namespaces" box found at the bottom of a search results page. Depending on the browser, a box may still be checked from a previous search, but without being effective any longer! To make sure, uncheck and recheck it.
Searching the image namespace means searching the image descriptions, i.e. the first parts of the image description pages.
The source text is searched
The source text (what one sees in the edit box, also called wiki text) is searched. This distinction is relevant for piped links, for interlanguage links (to find links to Chinese articles, search for zh, not for Zhongwen), special characters (if ê is coded as ê it is found searching for ecirc), etc.
Delay in updating the search index
For reasons of efficiency and priority, very recent changes are not always immediately taken into account in searches.
Multi-lingual Bahaipedia search[edit]
- You can do a multi-lingual Bahaipedia search using Google Advanced Search or entering site:Bahaipedia.org in the Google search box.
Searching for external links[edit]
Special:Linksearch is a tool for searching for links from Bahaipedia articles to sites outside Bahaipedia. For example, all Bahaipedia pages linking to Bahai.org.
External search engines[edit]
Various search engines can provide domain-specific searches, which let you search Bahaipedia specifically. Searches are based on the text as shown by the browser, so wiki markup is irrelevant. Depending on your browser, you may also be able to use tools that allow you to search Bahaipedia using bookmarklets.
In general, external search engines are faster than a Bahaipedia search. However, because the search engine's cache is based on when the site was indexed, the search may not return newly created pages. Similarly, the search engine's cached version of the page will not be as up-to-date as the link to Bahaipedia itself.
These issues may be less of a problem when using certain search engines that process Bahaipedia differently. Google, Bing, Yahoo and other search engines that use their datafeeds tend to include Bahaipedia as part of their normal search, and it comes up fairly accurately.
Google[edit]
By following the links below, you can use the Google search engine to search Bahaipedia - either all languages, or English-only. Google indexes all namespaces.
If you frequently search via Google, consider installing the Google Toolbar. Using the "search this site" button allows you to quickly search the English version of Bahaipedia. The official Google Toolbar is available in versions for Firefox and Internet Explorer.
How to provide a link to a specific Google Search
Bahaipedia markup allows you to insert links to Google searches by including google: as the prefix for the link. This can sometimes be useful on talk pages. It is done like this:
- [[google:Tipster]].
Which looks like this:
Note: It is important not to use spaces in the search. To add more parameters to the search, separate them by a plus sign, +. For a phrase search, use a hyphen (minus sign), -, between each word. E.g. to search for "Tip of the day", use Tip-of-the-day.
To provide a link to a Bahaipedia-specific search, include in the google-link +site:en.Bahaipedia.org (no spaces before or after), like this:
- [[google:Tip-of-the-day+site:en.Bahaipedia.org]].
Which looks like this:
To clean up the link so that only the part you want to show is presented, use the pipe, like this:
- [[google:Tipster+site:en.Bahaipedia.org|"Tip of the day"]]
Which makes it look like this:
Yahoo![edit]
By following the links below, you can use the Yahoo! search engine to search Bahaipedia - either all languages or English-only.
If you frequently search via Yahoo!, consider installing the Yahoo! Companion Toolbar. Using the "Search Only the Current Site" button allows you to quickly search the English version of Bahaipedia. The official Yahoo! Companion Toolbar is only for Windows with Internet Explorer and Mozilla.
Other[edit]
Here are more Bahaipedia:Tools which make searching more convenient.
Browser specific help[edit]
Please help improve this article or section by expanding it. |
If you cannot find an appropriate page on Bahaipedia[edit]
If there is no appropriate page on Bahaipedia, consider creating a page, since you can edit Bahaipedia right now. Or consider adding what you were looking for to the Requested articles page. Or if you have a question, then see Where to ask questions, which is a list of departments where our volunteers answer questions, any question you can possibly imagine.
