One way to improve Fediverse search feature: Combine search for "posts" and "comments"

u_u@lemmy.dbzer0.com to Fediverse@lemmy.world – 53 points –

First, I'm sorry if this is not the right place to discuss this.

I've been using both desktop browser (Firefox) and Voyager to lurk around Lemmy and try to reduce my Reddit use. Though most of the time, I went back to Reddit to search simple things such as:

  • "Best FOSS productivity Android app 2024"
  • "Linux distro NVIDIA"
  • "Recommended e-book reader beginner"
  • "Good quality air fryer"
  • etc

The point is, I like to check someone personal opinion and list of recommendations first when I want to make a decision to use/buy certain things.

I know for tech related questions, there are lemmy posts somewhere talking about them, but it's hard to find these posts because the search feature separate searching for posts and comments content when I believe both are equally important in subject/topic/discussion-oriented platform.

With Reddit, I can use the google trick ("site:reddit.com bla bla") to help me find what I need, but it's not that straight forward with Lemmy, considering there are many instances.

For example, someone might make a post asking for "affordable SSD", the comments might write "affordable" as "cheap", "bang for bucks", or "inexpensive". Search feature for both posts and comments will improve the chance of people finding relevant information.

Is there any way to do this? So then I can rely less on Reddit to find recommendations?

8

The standard web frontend does this. If your app doesn't, then make a feature request or do it yourself and send a pull request.

Thanks, I stand corrected. I can search for "all" in Voyager but I missed it. Either I missed it or the feature has been improved. It has been awhile since the last time I use the search feature. I'm a happy camper now.

The need of a search engine for the fediverse?

What about the regular search on lemmy? Set to all instead of just comments or posts.

I thought reddit was famous for having a really shitty search feature. Also as someone else pointed out, the web UI works like you're requesting and also this is a thing https://fedi-search.com/

Yeah, reddit's search feature is worse than Lemmy but using Google Search operators really help finding random discussions which is much better.

Thanks!