I'm interested in reading comments on the Roku 4. According to the RC search page, if you want to search for something that is more than one word, it works like this:

So, no "philips" and no "pronto" unless they occur as "philips pronto."

Unfortunately, this is not how it works.
A search for "roku" (including the quotes) in any forum during the last year, as posts, arranged by date, yields 249 results. A search for "roku 4" with identical details yields 249 results. I perused two different threads, and neither one happened to have Roku 4 in it.

How does one search for a two-word phrase where all are found and no other responses are given?

Use Google to search this site

[Link: google.com]"roku+4"&oq=site%3Aremotecentral.com+"roku+4"&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i58.38958j0j7&client=tablet-android-samsung&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8

Edit - correct, better link - swear I posted this one
[Link: google.com]

[Link: remotecentral.com]

The numeral may cause issues because it is not a "word".

"roku-4"
"roku 4"

are more interesting search terms

The one and only complaint I have on this site is having to do with the search functions. The two parameters that are defaults, all text, and relevance, are the two settings I change with every single solitary search I do. I change it to “title” only, and recent post date. I would bet I am not the only one that would love to see the defaults changed.

Most search functions, such as on eBay, allow you to put a phrase in quotes so you won’t get returns for only one of the two words in a phrase. I don’t think that works here either.

Those are changes I would make if I were king of the world. Oh well…

Well, that works real well, but how did you construct that as a search? Surely you didn't pick, say, the

part out of the air!

Click this to learn how to use google to search a website

[Link: bfy.tw]

Thank you.

Do you happen to know if that search will distinguish between "Roku 4" and "Roku4"? (I don't want it to -- I'd even want it to give results for "Roku-4" so I can be sure that all renditions of those letters get got.

Tried it myself. A search for Roku 4 yields 50 results. A search for Roku4 yields 29 results. So I can't tell if there are 50 results or as many as 79.

Results are not totally predictable. The method looks usable, though.

I always just go to google and type "remotecentral ____________". Fill in blank with topic you are looking for. Most of the time google can find posts after a few minutes of them being posted.

Example: Your post is #2 in the list!

Very few websites contain the word remotecentral - no need to type "site:remotecentral.com". But for other websites, very useful tool.

You need to stop thinking with your brain when you use a search engine- you understand it your way and it doesn't necessarily match the way the programs were written.

Be as specific and literal as possible- more search criteria makes the search faster and more accurate, but only for your purposes- the program doesn't care. If omitting the space in your example doesn't work, it requires a few seconds to add it- what are you searching for, aside from the name 'Roku 4'?

You could have just said, "I don't know," referring to you.


Good observation and the basis of the question.


But do more search criteria include more responses or exclude more responses? Does searching for "Roku- 4" give or not give "Roku-4" as a response?

BTW, this is totally academic now.


What does that mean?

If omitting the space in your example doesn't work, it requires a few seconds to add it- what are you searching for, aside from the name 'Roku 4'?
If I don't KNOW that omitting the space doesn't work, how do I tell if the search is telling me that no response without a space exists, as opposed to one existing but omitted by the way the search engine works?

It's been four years, so I don't remember the details. However, the reason this question even came up is that I was searching for, say, a designation of "Roku 4" in a manual... and I search for exactly that, being "as specific and literal as possible..." only to find no response since I had seen "Roku 4" in a piece of literature on the device but the manual has, instead, "Roku-4" and gives no response to a search for Roku-4.