Frustrated with FineWoodworking Web Site Search
I love having access to all the years of articles available in the FineWoodworking web site, but my ability to access information on the site is troublesome at best.
Case in point, I’m looking to buy a pin nailer, so I figure I’ll look up reviews of the latest tools on the FineWoodworking site. What I get back are articles from years ago, some going back to 2002. If I’m persistent I can find one or two articles that have been written in the last few years.
There may be tricks to using the search engine that I’m not aware of, but it’s almost not worth the trouble to find anything from the rudimentary search engine attached to the site.
I could probably sift through my archive of magazines in my office, but it seems like a lot of effort when all the information should be easily accessible from the web site.
Given the current capability of search engines, including AI, I don’t understand why someone hasn’t found a way to make this site more user friendly. The information from the magazine is great, but making it easier to find information would be greatly appreciated.
Replies
Did you try “pin nailer” in quotes? You’ll get much better results.
Yes, the FWW search engine isn't great. I usually use a standard search engine and specify the terms, site, and optionally date range. For your case, using a browser, try using duckduckgo.com (or google.com) and type in the query
"pin nailer" site:finewoodworking.com
The search engine will limit results from the https://www.finewoodworking.com domain which contains an exact match of "pin nailer".
You can optionally specify a date range by clicking on 'anytime' (duckduckgo) or 'tools' (google) from the results page to specify a begin and end date.
Here are some links for more advanced operations
duckduckgo.com: https://duckduckgo.com/duckduckgo-help-pages/results/syntax/
google: https://www.google.com/advanced_search
Other browsers are similar. This all works better than the built-in FWW search engine, IMO.
Yes, the search engine sucks.
I've been frustrated with FWW for a long time. They've had had problems with their website and interface and nobody seems interested in addressing it. I've quit even bothering with it.
Back when I was a subscriber I constantly received emails asking me to subscribe. Huh????
Ben or anybody else listening????
This forum format sucks, too. If they would get with it and use a more user friendly platform, there would be a lot more participation. Back, back, back, back. Anybody else sick of it????
The content is another issue. For example, a $2500 solar kiln? Who's gonna build that? Someone kiln drying their own lumber are buying from the sawmill to save money!! A quick search identifies kilns that can be built for a few hundred bucks.
DRB,
I think FFW magazine & forum are great resources of many and it's search engine is par for the course. Junk in = Junk out
So you are using it for free. Good On Fine Woodworking FWW and all that make it possible.
One of our best small local sawer has been drying for years with solar & gas back up kilns.
When the local kiln become cost effective he will use their commercial gas fired operation.
How well will a $200.00 kiln work? I like my lumber dried just right. The slot should be a saw blade width form start to finish on the table saw when you are finished pushing lumber through.
DRB…
Please start your own Woodworking Website and Forum. Your knowledge, foresight, and charisma will attract millions of followers. I will definitely sign up and pay a premium to gain in sight to your ultimate knowledge and skill.
We don't need another ww'ing forum. There are others out there free BTW & if you check them out I'm sure you'll agree with me that this one is in the dark ages.
I'm sorry if that came off the wrong way, but I'll stick with my position on who's gonna build a $2500 solar kiln. It's ridiculous. There are plenty of plans out there for a fraction of the cost.
I only come here to learn something or help someone with my feeble bit of knowledge.
I’ve never seen a forum where someone posts something and you have to reread the entire thread to find it. 🤷♂️
I am often frustrated as well especially when I'm trying to find something I know is somewhere on the site. I complained as well and received this reply from Ben Strano. While it has helped me to some extent, I still find it strange that I have to try to remember which of three ways to search depending on what it is I'm looking for.
If I am looking for something that was in the magazine, I ALWAYS use the online index (https://www.finewoodworking.com/magazine-index).
Website search:
The website search is the box on every page of the site. There are filtering options for results and that really does help get to the results you want. If you're looking for a video or a blog, the website search is the only way to do it.
Archive search:
In the main menu, go to "Digital Libraries". That will bring to to the online archive.
There is a "spy glass" at the top of the online archive page where you can search the archive. Clicking advance should give return any mentions of the specific phrase. That said, if I were going to search for the archive, I would likely start at the magazine index as well. I just find it to be the most effective search we have.
BobE
Jimbo: Thanks for your suggestion regarding the use of other search engines outside of the Fine Woodworking site. I was able to refine the search and get less than 1134 results, which is what I received inside the FW search. Didn't see how I could refine the search in Google Advanced Search within a range of years, other than within the last year.
bndsley: Thanks for the recommendation on the index. Not sure it pulled all the results within the FW archive, but it does provided a whittled down set of articles that may be applicable.
It's interesting that FW continues to advertise the opportunity to access their vast archives, which is true, but it's not obvious that accessing the archive is not really user friendly. Takes some of the polish off the opportunity to access the treasure trove of information available.
The magazine has probably weighed the cost of providing a better user interface and found it to be prohibitive.
If they know. Computers were supposed to make things easy. It just made companies greedier.
I'm brand new here, and I can definitely say I'm finding it very cumbersome to locate the information I'm looking for in general.