[Michael0ij2]

PCWorld.com has the absolute worst search engine I've encountered online. I can never find specific articles by using the PCWorld.com search function. Today, I wanted to find a recent story I'd read previously online about email spoofing/hacking; I wanted to share a link to the article with others, potentially bringing more people to PCWorld.com.

I wasted a ridiculous amount of time using PCWorld's search (changing search criteria, rearranging keywords, etc) before giving up and using Google to find the article on PCWorld.com (by appending site:PCWorld.com to the search terms I'd used originally). Google immediately found the article I wanted. How pathetic is that?

The poor quality of the search function has been the subject of forum comments for years and years, and yet it's never gotten better. I have been a print subscriber or PCWorld for many years, and I don't think I've ever been able to locate specific articles using the search function.

IMHO: print subscribers ought to be able to find the contents of magazine articles without having to resort to using Google.
You should have accurate online tables of contents of the print version.
All users should be able to find relevant articles (whether from the print version or not) without having to resort to Google.
You should have a functional search engine or you should just ditch the "Search" feature completely and hire Google.

The historical failure to provide a functional search makes me just want to go elsewhere (and let my subscription lapse).

[smax013]

Michael0ij2, on 17 April 2012 - 07:53 PM, said:

PCWorld.com has the absolute worst search engine I've encountered online. I can never find specific articles by using the PCWorld.com search function. Today, I wanted to find a recent story I'd read previously online about email spoofing/hacking; I wanted to share a link to the article with others, potentially bringing more people to PCWorld.com.

I wasted a ridiculous amount of time using PCWorld's search (changing search criteria, rearranging keywords, etc) before giving up and using Google to find the article on PCWorld.com (by appending site:PCWorld.com to the search terms I'd used originally). Google immediately found the article I wanted. How pathetic is that?

The poor quality of the search function has been the subject of forum comments for years and years, and yet it's never gotten better. I have been a print subscriber or PCWorld for many years, and I don't think I've ever been able to locate specific articles using the search function.

IMHO: print subscribers ought to be able to find the contents of magazine articles without having to resort to using Google.
You should have accurate online tables of contents of the print version.
All users should be able to find relevant articles (whether from the print version or not) without having to resort to Google.
You should have a functional search engine or you should just ditch the "Search" feature completely and hire Google.

The historical failure to provide a functional search makes me just want to go elsewhere (and let my subscription lapse).

I have always just used Google with the "site" option. While it would be nice for PCWorld to have a decent search engine, I have learned that we don't always get what we want.