what gives on thread searches

[hillcountryflt]

I routinely get this response when searching:
"Sorry but you cannot use search at this time. Please try again in 39 seconds."
I happens consistently when I go to a subsequent page of a successful search request:
Say I searched for ticking in engines (which I did). The first page would be accessible but clicking on the link to the second page yields that response:
Sorry but you cannot use search at this time. Please try again in 39 seconds.

[wndsofchng06]

I too get this. I assumed it was some sort of robot prevention system.

[jimmy828]

I always thought it could be to much traffic searching the same toplc.

[guhfluh]

It keeps from overloading a server.

What I can't stand is the fact that it simply doesn't work. I can search for a word and it'll come back saying there are no results or only give a very few, then I can go use Google to search the forum and there's all the results I need and was looking for, using the same word or words.

[sargentrs]

I usually don't even bother with the search function. I always log in, open a second window, Google Search adding site:fordification.com at the end of my search string and then click on the Google link. Gives you much more flexibility and targeted searching. You have to be logged in through the other window or you won't be able to see the pics and stuff in your Google search link.

For example:

"mustang tank swap" bobbyford site:fordification.com

will give you posts on fordification.com with the 3 words "mustang tank swap" all in a line and/or the word bobbyford in them.

[wndsofchng06]

Cool tip sargentrs

[1972hiboy]

Yeah I gave up on the search function because every time I went to use it I ended up wanted to hang myself. It used to work and it worked great now I dont even bother.

[Ranchero50]

Yep, from what I understand it's the bots crawling the site that are used to populate search engines so folks can find the info when they Google it.

Makes sense right?

Sarge nailed the best (if not most aggravating) way to search the forum.

[sargentrs]

Some more stuff to make targeted searching more efficient...

Remove words: When you use a dash before a word or site, it excludes results that include that word or site. This is useful for words with multiple meanings, like Jaguar the car brand and jaguar the animal. Examples: jaguar speed -car and pandas -site:wikipedia.org

Connect words: When the dash is in between multiple words, Google will know the words are strongly connected. Example: twelve-year-old dog

Connect two words with an underscore, like quick_sort. Your search results will find this pair of words either linked together (quicksort) or connected by an underscore (quick_sort).

When you put a word or phrase in quotes, the results will only include pages with the same words in the same order as what's inside the quotes.
Note: Only use this if you're looking for an exact word or phrase, otherwise you'll exclude many helpful results by mistake. Example: "imagine all the people"

Add an asterisk within a search as a placeholder for any unknown or wildcard terms. Use with quotation marks to find variations of that exact phrase or to remember words in the middle of a phrase. Example: "a * saved is a * earned"

Separate numbers by two periods without spaces (..) to see results that contain numbers in a given range of things like dates, prices, and measurements. Example: camera $50..$100

Note: When you search using operators, don't add any spaces between the operator and your search terms. A search for site:nytimes.com will work, but site: nytimes.com will not.

site: Get results from certain sites or domains. For example, you can find all mentions of "olympics" on the NBC website, or any .gov websites.
Examples: olympics site:nbc.com and olympics site:.gov

link: Find pages that link to a certain page. For example, you can find all the pages that link to google.com. Example: link:google.com

related: Find sites that are similar to a URL you already know. If you search for related sites to the time.com, you'll find other news publication sites you may be interested in. Example: related:time.com

If you want to search for pages that may have just one of several words, include OR (capitalized) between the words. Without the OR, your results would typically show only pages that match both terms. Example: world cup location 2014 OR 2018

Get information about a URL, including the cached version of the page, similar pages, and pages that link to the site. Example: info:google.com

[Dalton Sexton]

Yes, please lower the sensitivity. I access the site from my phone and if I bump the search twice either by accident or due to slow phone load, I get an error and no search. Then I have to wait for the timer to tick before I can check again. I know it is for stopping bots, but a less sensitive timer will still be effective.