!retro bang for DuckDuckGo search engine

thelostsoul

Hello guys. If you are familiar with DuckDuckGo, an alternative search engine for the web, you probably know the "!Bang"-feature. Month ago I registered my own bang and got the confirmation just a couple minutes ago. The search bang is:

!retro SEARCHTERM

and searches this forum with the search function of the forum itself. This works in every environment where you use the search engine DuckDuckGo, in example in the address bar of Firefox. The URL-template is this:

https://retropie.org.uk/forum/search?term=SEARCHTERM&in=titlesposts&matchWords=all&sortBy=relevance&sortDirection=desc&showAs=posts

If you have any suggestion, I can update the bang. Do anyone use DuckDuckGo.com?

Edit:
A new bang is registered. I don't create a new thread for it, as it is for a different site.

!hack SEARCHTERM

This one will start a search in the https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/ website. It will sort the romhacks by date, so you see the newest entries first.

mitu

Nice effort !
As a suggestion, try limiting the search to the last year posts, the forum search is - hopelessly - prioritising older posts over newer ones. I sometimes search for old topics where I replied and found a new solution and I always have to use the time filter to narrow down the search to find something relevant.

thelostsoul

@mitu I remember wanting to do this, but this would be my personal preference and I thought the default is the best option. I think I should have discussed it with you here before registering. So the next priority is to update the template.
If the search limited to last and current year, then older postings wouldn't be found and that's not a good solution. There are many older postings, like list of games or older solution to problems will have in the future too. Edit: typo corrected

mitu

@thelostsoul said in I have registered !retro bang for DuckDuckGo search engine:

There are many older postings, like list of games or older solution to problems will have in the future too.

You're right, for anything outside the help & support category, limiting the results to only 1 year is not helpful. Limiting by time is not a good idea, just leave it as it is.

thelostsoul

@mitu How well does the sort function work? The default is sort by relevance and maybe thats why some older postings are prioratized. They have just more content matching the search terms maybe. The results seem to be a mix as new and old content are shown. Maybe you are right and I just leave it as it is.

hiulit

Thanks! That's a great feature!
I've been using DuckDuckGo for a while now and I really like it. Didn't know about bangs and they are great.

Just a little thing, wouldn't it be more suitable if this bang would be called !retropie? I mean, retro is a really wide term, right? Anything can be retro :P

Anyways, thanks for making this happen. Really appreciate it ;)

thelostsoul

@hiulit well there are two reason for it. One is, it is shorter and faster to type. I even wish it would be just !r or !rp. Less prone to errors, was it pi or pie in example. And also registering !retro as first is like "who gets it first, earns it". Well, we could also register !retropie. Lol I just tested and !pie is free too.

hiulit

@thelostsoul hahah ;) First come first served ! I think !rp would be also a good one, and is even shorter

thelostsoul

@hiulit yeah :D Unfortunately my top choice !rp is already taken by raspberrypi.org. They was faster than me.

hiulit

@thelostsoul Well, good for them ;) We'll stick with !retro.

thelostsoul

A new bang is registered. I don't start a new thread for this, as it is for an external site and not about Retropie itself (and to be honest, its not that important).

!hack SEARCHTERM

This one will start a search in the https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/ website. It will sort the romhacks by date, so you see the newest entries first.