I hate the search function here!

I dearly love this site, but the search function is #$@%!
Why on earth, when I use advance search, put in the search(for eg) "carry on daypack", words to be found in the body, I then get 200 hits, none of which actually says anything at all about "carry on daypacks"?
I'm not saying I'm the brightest light bulb in the computer tech world, but I use search functions all the time everywhere else, with great satisfaction. Aargh!!!

Have you read the instructions in the sticky post at the top of the General Discussion section? Otherwise, you're searching only one week of time.

You can always use google search, specifying this site.

I searched, for the past three year period, on "carry on daypack" and got nothing at all. Zero. I searched on "carry on backpack" and got several. I searched on "carry-on backpack" and got one.

Granted, the technology is over ten years old, but it also helps to properly structure the search string.

Which is why I inevitably have problems with any kind of search engine. I search on "wool" and get pages and pages of yarn. I search on "wool fabric" and still get pages of yarn, plus readymade wool garments. I search on "wool fabric by the yard" (google suggestion) and finally get yardage, but I also get a lot of stuff where the search focussed on "by" and "the" and "yard."

Search function seems to be ignoring the search parameters.

No matter what I search for, it gives me all posts in order - most recent on back. The keywords were most often not in those posts.

Unfortunately useless - can't search to see if a question has already been answered.

With most sites, not just this one, it's far better to use Google search and specify the site. How to search a specific site with google.

As pointed out above, using the correct terms is a horse of another color. As Packlite points out, it's a good idea to use several different options. If nobody used the exact keywords you think are key, no results (happens to me all the time).