1. Enter search terms or phrases in the Search box on the right side of the main navigation bar at the top of any page
or in the "Enter Search Terms Below" box if you are on the Site Search page.
Search terms must total at least 3 characters in length. Single words and short phrases perform the best.
For example using the search term "cauliflower" returns better results than the search phrase "what are some good recipes using cauliflower."
Note that, in this example, recipes using cauliflower will appear under the "Recipes" tab.
2. Search terms are evaluated as though there was an "AND" between each term. For example, a search for "cauliflower zucchini" will return only items
that have both "cauliflower" AND "zucchini" in the item.
3. Returned Search results can be sorted by item Relevance Rank (the default setting) or by item Creation Date.
Select "Rank" to sort results by Relevance Rank or "Date" to sort by Creation Date from the "Sort By" drop-down list.
The search will be repeated after selecting a new sort order from the Sort By drop-down with the results returned in the new sort order.
4. Click the "Search" button to the right of the Search box or press the "Return" key to begin the search.
5. Search results are categorized and displayed in four groups each under its own tab:
- Web Pages: Articles and other content available on specific web pages.
- Forum Posts: Online discussions in the Inner Circle Forum.
- Videos: Webinars, workshops, interviews and more.
- Recipes: Inner Circle approved recipes.
The number of returned items under each category tab appear enclosed in parenthesis to the right of each
tab title (if no number appears, no search results for that category were found).
6. Returned items sorted by "Rank" are displayed based on their search scores with the highest score displayed at the top of the returned items list.
A search item has its search score boosted the most if the searched for terms appear in either the Forum posts tags (as entered by post author)
or Web Pages, Videos, and Recipes keyword tags (as entered by site administrators).
Scores are also boosted (to a lesser extent) if search terms appear in the item title.
Lastly, items receive increased ranking base on the number of times the search terms appear in the item text.
7. Search terms in each returned item are highlighted in yellow.
8. Click each tab to display returned items for that category.
9. The title of each returned item is a link to page on the Inner Circle website followed by a brief description of what is contained in the item.
Click the title link to display the complete item in a new browser tab. Forum items will also display the post author, date, and, if the post is a topic,
the number of replies the topic received.
10. The top 100 matching Forum posts and top 100 combined matching items from the other three categories are displayed.
The Inner Circle Site Search employs the Amazon CloudSearch service.
New Forum posts are uploaded to CloudSearch every hour and Web Pages, Videos, and Recipes are uploaded every 24 hours.
Go to this Forum Post to report problems, offer suggestions, or any other discussion
regarding this search function. Amazon CloudSearch is a full-featured and robust search tool and we have only begun to research how to improve functionality.
Anyone familiar with CloudSearch technology is welcome to offer assistance in suggesting and implementing improvements.