Wikivoyage talk:Search help

Question: How does Wikivoyage link articles in different languages? Example problem: If I search for "Champagnole" from the french-based home page "Acceuil", I get 1 article, but if I search for "Champagnole" on the english-based home page I get none. If I search for "Los Angeles" from either language search pages, I get articles, with the possibility to move between languages....which is useful since opinions and 'facts' about a destination vary widely from culture to culture. Shouldn't all articles be searchable from the same page regardless of the contributor's choice of tongue? If I'm missing something or if this is the wrong place to post, please let me know, this is all very new.

--(WT-en) Adleonis 13:32, 9 February 2007 (EST)


 * How about Google's site search? Incidentally, I made bookmarklet for IE6/Win and FF2/Win to use the site search easily; see Search assistant tool for Wikivoyage. -- (WT-en) Tatata 23:51, 15 October 2007 (EDT)

Which search engine do you use?
This seems like a different search engine from Wikipedia. Which search engine do you use, and is it available for other wikis? (WT-en) Russ Abbott 22:42, 15 October 2007 (EDT)


 * Wikivoyage English version seems to use LuceneSearch, though I don't know it's the same which is used on Wikipedia... -- (WT-en) Tatata 23:51, 15 October 2007 (EDT)

Search issue
When I do a full search not just wikivoyage pages with the text are shown but also images on Commons, including ones not used in this project. Is the works as designed or a bug? Also if you untick Files just keeping Main, sometimes but not always, you get not results even though there should be some hits. --Traveler100 (talk) 09:33, 26 December 2012 (UTC)
 * Go to Special:Preferences and click on the "Search" tab. Then uncheck the file namespace and click on "Save". Also, the default setting for unregistered users should probably also be not to search for files. I'm not aware of any way to search for local files without searching for Commons files at the same time. --Stefan2 (talk) 10:31, 26 December 2012 (UTC)
 * I haven't changed it before and (main), File and Category namespaces are checked. Shouldn't the default settings be changed? ···V ani s che nu「m/Talk」 11:34, 26 December 2012 (UTC)
 * Yes, that's what I wrote: default settings should probably be changed. By default, I think that you should only search through the article namespace. --Stefan2 (talk) 11:50, 26 December 2012 (UTC)
 * I have added a bug report. --Peter Talk 18:56, 27 December 2012 (UTC)

Search defaults
Swept from the pub:

Our current search default includes the main, file, and category namespaces. I'd say 99.99% of searches performed on our site would not be looking for files or categories—this is a travel guide site, so searches will presumably be for travel guides. The few types of users interested in searching outside the main space can just click the options they want on the search page. I filed a bugzilla request to use main namespace only in default searches, but the powers that be would like to see a discussion. Thoughts? --Peter Talk 02:30, 3 February 2013 (UTC)


 * Support - I absolutely agree with you Peter. I think the categories and files just confuse the issue for new users and hence it takes them longer to find the information they want. As this is a travel guide people will come here in search of articles about certain destinations - they will not come here for photos, videos or anything else really. --Nicholasjf21 (talk) 02:37, 3 February 2013 (UTC)
 * Support - Categories, as they stand, are merely organisational objects and are not aimed at everyday viewers. And the millions of files from WM Commons just clog up search results and confuse users by sending them off-site. JamesA  >talk 02:41, 3 February 2013 (UTC)
 * Can I also encourage anyone with a Bugzilla account to vote up the bug? It already took them months just to say "You need consensus", so I'd hate to think how long it could take to actually implement. The more votes it has, the faster it'll be done. JamesA  >talk 10:06, 3 February 2013 (UTC)
 * Support - I often encounter this bug myself, when searching for a city/town in the Guide. Gamweb (talk) 16:46, 3 February 2013 (UTC)

It's done. This, that and the other (talk) 01:37, 4 February 2013 (UTC)
 * Support Totally common sense. Out categories here aren't reader-facing, and searching files from the main search box is pointless. This, that and the other (talk) 02:43, 3 February 2013 (UTC)
 * Support Categories and local images are deliberately underutilised here (our categories are for maintenance purposes, our local files just whatever couldn't be placed on commons:) so nothing of value is added in searching them. K7L (talk) 04:54, 3 February 2013 (UTC)
 * Support per Peter -- A l i c e ✉ 07:33, 3 February 2013 (UTC)
 * Support totally. Jjtk (talk) 12:30, 3 February 2013 (UTC)
 * Support – sumone10154 ( talk ) 20:49, 3 February 2013 (UTC)
 * Support The default search parameters should be for the traveller. --Inas (talk) 21:35, 3 February 2013 (UTC)

Search plugin

 * Swept in from the Pub

As it seems nobody else had done so yet, I have created a search plugin for this wiki. It uses https:// and &go and it can be found on mycroft. It should work fine on Firefox, Chrome and recent versions of Internet Explorer. Let me know if there are any issues :) Snowolf How can I help? 23:48, 15 January 2013 (UTC)
 * Good work! —Tom Morris (talk) 15:42, 16 January 2013 (UTC)
 * Thanks! Now I have a way to search Wikipedia using https.  =)  LtPowers (talk) 19:27, 16 January 2013 (UTC)
 * HTTPS Everywhere works for Wikimedia projects too. Reedy submitted a patch to add Wikivoyage back in November. The next release should support Wikivoyage. I'd encourage all editors on all Wikimedia projects to use it especially if they are admins or bureaucrats (etc.) or use public wifi hotspots. It may be an idea for people to read the guidance pages on Wikipedia for User account security and Personal security practices. We may also want to have committed identities on Wikivoyage. —Tom Morris (talk) 16:28, 17 January 2013 (UTC)

Putting a Wikitravel: namespace in the search box takes you to WT
I don´t know if this has already been addressed somewhere, but.. I accidentally typed "Wikitravel:Plunge forward" instead of "Wikivoyage:Plunge forward", and to my surprise, it actually took me to the page on Wikitravel. Then I discovered that not only does it work for other WT namespace article, but if you preface anything with "Wikitravel:", it takes you to the page on WT. (Try searching "Wikitravel:France" for example) What gives? Surely this is not the way it's supposed to be. I don´t want to search for policy pages and accidentally end up over there due to overly active muscle memory...Texugo (talk) 15:13, 24 January 2013 (UTC)
 * Incidentally, it appears to be global too. It does the same on pt: Texugo (talk) 15:14, 24 January 2013 (UTC)
 * In fact, it does that even from Wikipedia.Texugo (talk) 15:15, 24 January 2013 (UTC)
 * Er, yes, that's because it's an interwiki prefix. It was quite valuable to us when we were there.  See m:Talk:Interwiki map.  LtPowers (talk) 15:19, 24 January 2013 (UTC)
 * Some of us are trying to get this fixed, but to do so requires being able to claim that the wikitravel: prefix is not in active use on other Wikimedia projects. On en.WP any WT-related templates have been voted for deletion and replaced by 'bots in late 2012, the templates are also gone from fr: nl: and simple:, but there are many smaller-language Wikipedias (places like Finland or Indonesia come to mind) where the WT links still need to be removed before a new request can be made on m:talk:interwiki map to get rid of the prefix. This is an important step as MediaWiki handles interwiki links differently from true external links, allowing their use to be a means to circumvent a rel="nofollow" tag that normally tells search engines to ignore (potentially spam) external links on Wikipedia articles. See . I realise other tasks (such as missing images on pages, bug reporting and special:newpages patrol) were being given priority but we do need editors to take a look at all those Wikipedia languages, create the wikivoyage templates if they're missing and replace WT templates or links with WV templates. Only once that is done can the request to remove the wikitravel: prefix (which now is spam, as it points to an abandoned fork of this project with multiple ads on every page). K7L (talk) 20:01, 24 January 2013 (UTC)
 * Yeah, I was going to work on this and got sidetracked. Could we set up the list in a sandbox so that it's easier to edit? --Rschen7754 20:28, 24 January 2013 (UTC)

(undent) Per the interwiki link list for w:fi:Template:Wikitravel, the following languages still have it: af, bg, ca, ceb, ka, ko, hr, ml, pl, pt, ro, sv, ur, zh. (And fi, but I've gotten the ball rolling on nuking it.) Jpatokal (talk) 01:54, 25 January 2013 (UTC)
 * Actually, there are more - id: and fa: are among those which need the template replaced on every page. K7L (talk) 18:31, 25 January 2013 (UTC)
 * I've set up a page at User:Rschen7754/wikitravel as a checklist. --Rschen7754 06:19, 26 January 2013 (UTC)
 * The wikitravel: interwiki is now red... such a pretty colo(u)r. There's still plenty of WT spam to clean up on foreign Wikipedia languages, though. K7L (talk) 01:10, 24 February 2013 (UTC)