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Problems with searching

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#1

Just a few minor suggestions:

  1. I’ve noticed certain artists that have letters with accents or umlauts are difficult to search for, especially for inexperienced users. For instance, if I try to search for RÜFÜS (http://www.albumoftheyear.org/artist/10510-rufus/), then a search for “rufus” will not work (http://www.albumoftheyear.org/search.php?cx=003089500968401303526%3Abfg0hpar_6y&cof=FORID%3A9&ie=UTF-8&q=rufus).

Edit: I have the same issue with Björk http://www.albumoftheyear.org/artist/670-bjork/
http://www.albumoftheyear.org/search.php?cx=003089500968401303526%3Abfg0hpar_6y&cof=FORID%3A9&ie=UTF-8&q=bjork

  1. It would be useful to have multiple pages of results to scroll through, rather than just one.
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#2

I have a fix in for #2, let me know if you’re getting any strange results.

#3

Number 1 seems to fixed, cheers Rob. I’ll let you know if I have any other issues.

#4

Here are some other flaws with the search I’ve noticed:

  • If the artist name is an acronym (e.g. O.A.R, S.C.U.M, will.i.am [technically not an acronym], N.E.R.D, B.o.B, T.I, D.R.A.M, R.E.M, etc) then you have to use the dot points to successfully find the artist. For example, a search of “big krit” will fail, but “big k.r.i.t” will work (but is more annoying to type).

  • I’ve found some more issues with artists that have diacritical marks (or dollar signs) in their names (e.g. searching “Silento” for the artist Silentó, “sinead o’connor” for Sinéad O’Connor, “Lindstrom” for Lindstrøm, “asap mob” for A$AP Mob, both “the do” and “the dø” for The Dø, “Ultraista” for Ultraísta, “anais mitchell” works for Anaïs Mitchell but not Anaïs Mitchell & Jefferson Hamer, “valgeir sigurdsson” for Valgeir Sigurðsson)

  • Some searches will fail if you use an artist’s full name (e.g. “Pharrell Williams” for Pharrell). Also, “Young Jeezy” does not work as a search for Jeezy.

  • Usually replacing “&” with “and” makes no difference. However, searching for “she and him” doesn’t work.

  • If you search for an artist with a hyphen in their name but use a space instead (e.g. “jay z” for Jay-Z), sometimes it works (e.g. “jay z”, “tune yards”, “ab soul”, “melt banana”) and sometimes it doesn’t (e.g. “el p”, “ne yo”, “Cee Lo”/“CeeLo”, “alt j”). Speaking of Alt-J, it would be slightly humorous to me if searching ∆ (literally alt+J) worked.

  • I would suggest alternative ways to search for bands that have titles without letters (e.g. searching “crosses” for ††† [http://www.albumoftheyear.org/artist/5812-crosses/] [who are a nightmare to search for], searching “Chk Chk Chk” for !!!).

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#5

I’ve noticed some more issues with searching. For example, all of these searches did not work: