New Search Function for Scriptures

I am not sure if it is a bug in the site, but now when I pull up the online scriptures and do a search it returns results for the entire site and not just the scriptures. This makes searching the scriptures online impossible. Am I suddenly doing this wrong or have I stumbled upon a bug? Please tell me this wasn't changed.

How long ago in the past did you observe the previous desired behavior? I believe the search changed a while ago (when the web site switched to Gospel Library). It used to be really good for searching the scriptures and now it is not.

For looking up scriptures you might try Google instead Church search. You can force Google to search just the church site by adding "site:churchofJesusChrist.org" at the end of your query. I did some quick tests and found the Google search results for scriptures to be more accurate than the Church website search feature. I also tried Duck Duck Go and Bing and the results weren't as good as the Google search. I used to teach Sunday School and in preparing for my lessons I found that using that using Google to search the church website for information was far superior to the Church search feature.

More specifically, you can add "site:churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures" to your search query in Google, to only search in the scripture pages.

@ToddMcLauchlin: I am having the exact same problem. I get lots of pages of things I don't care about and want to search the scriptures. This started in June sometime recently. Your first comment was June 2nd. I managed around it thinking it was me.... But now I am trying to make a list of references to pigeons in the Old Testament. The search feature does not let us search only the scriptures or general conference talks anymore. I hope this is a bug and will go back to the old way.

I have used google to search through web pages before. I don't want to use google to do something I have (for the most part) always used the Church website for.

Two notes:
1) I always use the Gospel Library on my cellphone whenever I need to search. While still not everything most would expect, it does provide a level of granularity to filter scriptures or GenConf talks, etc.
2) Searching on the church website has been the same for me for a long time, I haven't noticed any recent changes for me. Meaning, it continues to be really difficult to use, and most times I don't see anything like what I was expecting. Trying to find a reference to a topic and getting a first-page result from a 1991 Ensign Article may be what some people want as their first-page results, but I truly have no idea what kind of sorting algorithm they use to determine how to present results. And you can't filter by date or library or anything. Frustrating.

BrianEdwards wrote: Tue Jun 21, 2022 1:59 pm Two notes:
1) I always use the Gospel Library on my cellphone whenever I need to search. While still not everything most would expect, it does provide a level of granularity to filter scriptures or GenConf talks, etc.
2) Searching on the church website has been the same for me for a long time, I haven't noticed any recent changes for me. Meaning, it continues to be really difficult to use, and most times I don't see anything like what I was expecting. Trying to find a reference to a topic and getting a first-page result from a 1991 Ensign Article may be what some people want as their first-page results, but I truly have no idea what kind of sorting algorithm they use to determine how to present results. And you can't filter by date or library or anything. Frustrating.

I also just discovered the change, the change to the search function makes it completely useless, I mean absolutely useless in any way. Previously, the search returned a similar set that it does now, but you had several ways to 'filter' the results like 'scriptures' 'conference' 'handbook' etc... much like in the mobile tools - I think they just forgot to put the code back in that allows for the filtering, but what is on the website right now makes no sense.

Here's the message from my feedback note:

Hello Brother Shaw,

Thank you for your feedback. There have been some recent changes made to the search function on the Church website. To refine your results you can add your source “Scriptures,” “General Conference,” “Handbook,” etc. to the end of your search phrase such as “I will go and do Book of Mormon.” You can also use the site parameter to return results from only a specific section of the websites such as “site:churchofjesuschrist.org/study/Liahona faith” or “site:churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference President Nelson.” Additional search options such as exact match and exclude terms also now work (and didn’t work in the previous version of search). The full list can be found here. https://support.google.com/websearch/an ... 6433?hl=en

Do these people live on the same planet I do? They want me to reference a GOOGLE help page to see how to write code to get the answers I want? Literally they want me to write scripts to get information. All I ask is that when I drill down to say, oh, I don't know, something like The Book of Mormon, that when I search a term, it returns results from the Book of Mormon. And, I'm going to be fine, I can find stuff, I'm in IT, it's ben my life for a while now, but my 74 year old parents? How do I explain to my mother how to use that search function? Well mom, don't open your gospel library, I know, I know, that's what you used to do, just don't... no, mom, no you don't need to go to the church website, no... hod on, just in blank website, type in this stuff.... site:churchofjesuschrist.org faith - no mom, it should return results... what does it say when you... did you put an http in front of 'site' - no, you don't have to do that... ok where did you want to search, on General Conference... hmm.. hold on, let me go to my browser... ok, here it is... this should work mom.... type in site:churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference - mom, did it work, oh.. no, I don't know why korean looking things came up. Is there, oh ya, ok, ya, click on that for English only results... sure... OK, good list right? finally, ok if you ever want to filter that even more just add more stuff at the end, like site:churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference Eyring 2012, ya mom it's like super secret stuff, I don't know why the church changed it, ya, I agree it used to be easier, it's wasn't great but it was easier. Ya, it's almost like they don't want anyone to find anything anymore, I think they want you to go to the main page and only use the stuff they dictate be on our 'for you' page or something like that... ya, like your dashboard. Well, it's curated pretty good for my church service, but not great for my personal study. Why did they do it... I have no idea, it doesn't make sense to me.

Gospel Library today for me had a huge update, much of which includes enhancements to the Search functionality. Much of what I felt was missing now seems to be addressed, we'll have to see how it works in practice.

Faith
Definition: Hope for something not seen which is true
Usage: " I'm keeping the faith that the online Search experience via the Church's website might also get these same types of enhancements!"

Question: if I'm using the search function and I search for "we beseech you, brethren, by the"... I would expect to get 2 Thes 2:1 in the search results. But here is the odd behavior:
1. If I type quotes around the phrase (exact match) it returns nothing... even when I spell it completely and correctly and include all punctuation
2. If I type the phrase with NO QUOTES, then I get back many matches... but 2 Thes 2:1 (even though it contains all of the words and is the most relevant) is the 4th result

Is there a way to improve the search function (some kind of Google tuning)? I have written a search engine in JavaScript that returns better results (for the scriptures only) by removing all punctuation from the SOURCE copy of the scriptures and then removing all punctuation and whitespace (except spaces only) from the SEARCH REQUEST and I get back consistent and correct results every time. I'm happy to give you my code if that'll help in any way.

Also, why doesn't the "Preview" button in the editor for Tech Forums work? I'm hitting the Preview button (after adding BOLD for the important parts of my question), but it doesn't show the preview.

rhusted wrote: Mon Nov 27, 2023 7:22 am Also, why doesn't the "Preview" button in the editor for Tech Forums work? I'm hitting the Preview button (after adding BOLD for the important parts of my question), but it doesn't show the preview.

It works fine for me.

rhusted wrote: Mon Nov 27, 2023 7:22 am Question: if I'm using the search function and I search for "we beseech you, brethren, by the"... I would expect to get 2 Thes 2:1 in the search results. But here is the odd behavior:
1. If I type quotes around the phrase (exact match) it returns nothing... even when I spell it completely and correctly and include all punctuation
2. If I type the phrase with NO QUOTES, then I get back many matches... but 2 Thes 2:1 (even though it contains all of the words and is the most relevant) is the 4th result

I'm seeing the same, using ChurchofJesusChrist.org search. It might be worth sending feedback using the Feedback option at the bottom of the page, while viewing search results. My guess is that it's something related to the footnote letter "a" on the word "by".

I always want to search for the Exact Phrase and I want to know how many times that exact phrase is mentioned.

Is there any way I can get in touch with an engineer? There is a way to do Scripture searches that will yield MUCH better results. Is there someone I can talk to or work with? I'd even fly out to Utah for a week if someone could commit a few days.

I had similar search problems but figured out how to resolve it (it's based on the database you use for Scripture searches). A simple fix would make your searches a TON better! But I would need to describe it to someone or walk them through it... or come onsite and give you a demo of my solution.

I'll do whatever is required, because the current Scripture search is AWFUL!! (I'm very sorry, I don't mean to be critical, but honestly guys, the church Scripture search is nearly unusable and remarkably unreliable. There is an easy fix - I just need to get a hold of someone who will listen AND is in a position to make a change.

rhusted wrote: Sun Jul 14, 2024 12:13 am Is there any way I can get in touch with an engineer? There is a way to do Scripture searches that will yield MUCH better results. Is there someone I can talk to or work with? I'd even fly out to Utah for a week if someone could commit a few days.

I had similar search problems but figured out how to resolve it (it's based on the database you use for Scripture searches). A simple fix would make your searches a TON better! But I would need to describe it to someone or walk them through it... or come onsite and give you a demo of my solution.

I'll do whatever is required, because the current Scripture search is AWFUL!! (I'm very sorry, I don't mean to be critical, but honestly guys, the church Scripture search is nearly unusable and remarkably unreliable. There is an easy fix - I just need to get a hold of someone who will listen AND is in a position to make a change.

I think there is much more to what they are doing than just the search function. The complications with implementing these tools within the church and the various departments would only frustrate your plans.

rhusted wrote: Sun Jul 14, 2024 12:13 am Is there any way I can get in touch with an engineer? There is a way to do Scripture searches that will yield MUCH better results. Is there someone I can talk to or work with? I'd even fly out to Utah for a week if someone could commit a few days.

I had similar search problems but figured out how to resolve it (it's based on the database you use for Scripture searches). A simple fix would make your searches a TON better! But I would need to describe it to someone or walk them through it... or come onsite and give you a demo of my solution.

I'll do whatever is required, because the current Scripture search is AWFUL!! (I'm very sorry, I don't mean to be critical, but honestly guys, the church Scripture search is nearly unusable and remarkably unreliable. There is an easy fix - I just need to get a hold of someone who will listen AND is in a position to make a change.

Are you using the Church website search (powered by Google) or the custom search in the Gospel Library app?
Your best bet would be to send feedback using the link at the bottom of ChurchofJesusChrist.org, or in the Help section of the Gospel Library app.