Searching Yahoo Archives

Although the Yahoo search function is not very functional or helpful, it isn't completely useless. Here are a few things to keep in mind.

  • The search function is a keyword search. This means that you shouldn't type in a question but only relevant keywords that are likely to turn up in the kind of post you want to find.

  • The search function does not search for strings. If you type in "Magic Dishwasher", it will search for that, quotation marks included. Better leave off the word "magic" altogether and just search for "dishwasher," which is not likely to produce every other post.

  • Remember to click Next. The search function will first search through 200 or so most recent posts. (This is what makes it a very clumsy tool.) Clicking on Next will search through the previous 200 posts, and so on. Theoretically, Previous is supposed to work like the reverse of Next, but there are problems with it sometimes, so we suggest using the Back button in your browser to return to the previous page.

  • Header info is also scanned in the search, so you can search for a poster's Yahoo! ID or e-mail address.

  • Here's the most useful part. It's long. Let's say we're searching for a particular post about butterbeer (to pick a rather rare topic). We know that it was made sometime before post 50,000, so we're not interested in searching posts 120,000 through 50,000. There's a way to avoid having to do this.
    • A) Type your keyword (butterbeer) into the search bar and click Search Archive.

    • B) Click Next

    • C) In your browser's Address bar you will see a URL that looks like this:


      in Microsoft Explorer


      in Netscape

    • This means that the search function looked for the word "butterbeer" in posts starting with 109515 and going back to post 109274 (241 posts). Notice that in each screenshot (taken within minutes of each other, Netscape first) a different number of posts was searched after Next was clicked. We don't know why Yahoomort does that. Don't expect us to fathom the way a Snake!Engine's mind works.

    • D) Replace 109515 with 50000 or any other message number that you're sure was posted later than the post you're looking for.

    • E) Hit Next as before, until you find what you need.