How to: Search OTT Forums using Google's search engine

[dhaig]

I have been reading forum postings for nearly two years and have come across a wealth of useful information.  In preparation for delivery of our LEII on 1/18/22, I have often wanted to retrieve information I had previously read, or to conduct a new search on a particular topic.  Searching the forum postings using the native search capabilities has proven to be very frustrating and seldom producing the desired information.

My son reminded me Google's search engine can be used to search within websites.  To search the Oliver Travel Trailer Forums do the following:

• In your preferred browser, open a new tab and enter to the web address search box: google.com
• In the Google search box enter the URL of the forums followed by any number of  search terms: site: https://olivertraveltrailers.com/forums term1 term2 term3
  • Where term1, term2 and term3 are your search terms, separated by spaces.
  • Use search terms just as you would when conducting any Google search.
  • Following the URL of the forums you may include any of the web search refinements available for a Google search.
    • See: https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/2466433?hl=en 
• Examples
  • site: https://olivertraveltrailers.com/forums tongue storage box
  • site: https://olivertraveltrailers.com/forums tongue weight
  • site: https://olivertraveltrailers.com/forums storage ideas -facility
  • site: https://olivertraveltrailers.com/forums lagun table Overland
  • site: https://olivertraveltrailers.com/forums mudflaps OR mud flaps
  • site: https://olivertraveltrailers.com/forums basement heating
  • site: https://olivertraveltrailers.com/forums heat ducts Minnesota Oli
  • site: https://olivertraveltrailers.com/forums TPMS
  • site: https://olivertraveltrailers.com/forums hitch lock OR collar

I expect you will find the Google search results much more useful.

[mossemi]

This is an old topic, it seems that every generation of forum members has complained about the forum search capabilities.  Thank you for bumping it and adding to the discussion.

This link covers the topic as well.  

Mossey

[Overland]

1 hour ago, dhaig said:

site: https://olivertraveltrailers.com/forums lagun table Overland

[Ralph Mawyer]

Started doing that right after I got on here.  Took me a bit to figure out that hitting 'replies' would let me see the latest replies for a topic, vs clicking and scrolling.

So much of this stuff is limited by the website solution software they implemented vs just buying forum specific software.  Few forum software packages seem to have good search tools.

But overall, it's not too bad and easy to read.