I wish Giant Bomb's search was more robust.

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l3illyl3ob

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#1  Edited By l3illyl3ob

I love the Giant Bomb wiki, it's easily one of my favorite features of the site.  However, I can't help but feel like the incredible database is going to waste right now. I just wish I could search it more easily!  As it is right now, you can only really search for one item using one argument.  What I'd REALLY like to do is be able to filter and search for games, filtering by concepts, genres, themes, objects, characters, etc.  Like all games that are first person and take place in the Civil War.  Or all sci-fi action RPGs with co-op that have branching dialog trees. Right now, I could go to the dialog tree concept page and look at all the games that have that, but not filter down those results any more.  
 
I really appreciate all the work Dave and the crew put into GB, but if its vast database of games, concepts, etc, became more easily searchable, it could easily surpass other sites like Moby Games.  IMO, this is the one thing that's really holding it back from doing so.  People are putting a lot of work into populating game pages with info on concepts, objects, locations, and characters, but it feels like there's little reason to it since you can't easily search through that stuff.
 
If you CAN do this stuff and I somehow missed it, it's not exactly readily apparent how.

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TheDudeOfGaming

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#2  Edited By TheDudeOfGaming

Saying Giant Bomb is inadequate or sucking in any way is blasphemy and a crime punishable by death!
A moderator shall be here shortly to administer your death (perma ban) have a nice life!
XD just kidding.
Yeah it would be nice if the search engine was more powerful, still an amazing site though.

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face15

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#3  Edited By face15

You're right, there's a fucking tonne of information in the wiki but accessing some of it isn't exactly easy to access.
I think the search function is brilliant for what it is, but an advanced search option with a number of filters and 'sort by' options would be really nice.

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ch3burashka

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#4  Edited By ch3burashka

Well, there are filters. I'm not sure what exactly else you want. 
 
However, I wish hitting enter would allow you to see a search engine-esque page with hits, instead of taking you to the first available option. If, for some reason, your game/concept/character isn't in the top 10 according to the search, you're pretty boned, because navigating the search list is brutal.

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Red12b

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#5  Edited By Red12b

Trust me when I say this, the search function is VASTLY improved from the last one, but yeah, it could always be improved, good points to consider too. 

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meteora

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#6  Edited By meteora

As the library of data continues to expand in Giantbomb, it is only necessary to support that with a better and smarter search function.

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Azteck

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#7  Edited By Azteck
@CH3BURASHKA said:
" Well, there are filters. I'm not sure what exactly else you want.  However, I wish hitting enter would allow you to see a search engine-esque page with hits, instead of taking you to the first available option. If, for some reason, your game/concept/character isn't in the top 10 according to the search, you're pretty boned, because navigating the search list is brutal. "
That's what I came into this thread to say. I rarely search for things on the site because the search just doesn't do what I want unless I know exactly what I want.
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l3illyl3ob

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#8  Edited By l3illyl3ob

Yeah, right now you use search to quickly access a page you want to view.  If you want to search for games you don't know the name of, or just find new games you're unaware of, it becomes a lot more tricky. For CH3BURASHKA and other people who may be confused about what I'm talking about, I'll link MobyGames, they do something similar to what I'm talking about, if GB did something similar, it could be far better than that.  Maybe saying that I want search to be improved was putting it the wrong way, I'd like to see a more powerful game browser.

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Claude

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#9  Edited By Claude

I would like to have my user forum tab stats back. That would be cool.

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Ignor

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#10  Edited By Ignor
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Echo

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#11  Edited By Echo

Yeah an advanced search feature would be awesome. I don't know how taxing something like that would be on the website, though. I want to see every game for the Super Nintendo with ninjas and robots in it!

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vilhelmnielsen

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#12  Edited By vilhelmnielsen

Sometimes you can search for the exact name, but it still says "No exact match" or whatever.

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HereAllDay

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#14  Edited By HereAllDay

Yes, advanced search ftw!

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Video_Game_King

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#15  Edited By Video_Game_King

I just want them to fix the "new pages don't show up in searches" bug.

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BigLemon

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#16  Edited By BigLemon

I almost made a new page for Shadow Man because I searched the wiki with "Shadowman" and nothing came up. 

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ShaneDev

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#17  Edited By ShaneDev

 I rarely use the search here on the site because it is so slow and inaccurate in fact it would probably be quicker for me to open a new Google tab, search the name of the game followed by giant bomb and the first link is normally the right one. That or I just go to Wikipedia to find the game.  Its disappointing because the Giant Bomb page will normally be well filled out compared to a Wikipedia page.

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harrisonave

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#18  Edited By harrisonave

I understand what you're asking, but I'm not sure why it's really necessary.  If you already know what you're looking for, Giant Bomb's search engine usually takes you right to it.

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AuthenticM

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#19  Edited By AuthenticM

Indeed