Bug 261039

Summary:	The /search/ page is useful, but obscure
Product:	Documentation	Reporter:	Graham Perrin <grahamperrin>
Component:	Website	Assignee:	Wolfram Schneider <wosch>
Status:	Open ---
Severity:	Affects Some People	CC:	pat, pauamma, wosch
Priority:	---
Version:	Latest
Hardware:	Any
OS:	Any
URL:	https://www.freebsd.org/search/
See Also:	https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=261197

Description Graham Perrin freebsd_committer

2022-01-08 17:08:10 UTC

I stumbled across <https://www.freebsd.org/search/> amongst my forgotten open tabs from months ago. 

Captured a few weeks ago: <https://web.archive.org/web/20211101053005/https://www.freebsd.org/search/>

It's a useful page, however I have no idea how I got there; I suspect that it's obscure. 

From its sidebar, with 'About' at the head, I wondered whether it's in the About area, however the word 'search' is nowhere in the body or sidebar of <https://www.freebsd.org/about/>.

Comment 1 Pau Amma 2022-01-09 01:19:05 UTC

(In reply to Graham Perrin from comment #0)
I'd expect to find that page linked from web resources and or support, at least.

Tangentially, a site map would be nice to have as well IMO.

Comment 2 Graham Perrin freebsd_committer

2022-01-09 11:39:25 UTC

(In reply to Graham Perrin from comment #0)

> … I have no idea how I got there; …

Discovery might have been: 

1. <https://www.freebsd.org/community/mailinglists/>

2. You can search or browse the mailing list archives. At the 
   current time, archives prior to May 2021 are in a separate archive.

3. click 'search'

4. <https://www.freebsd.org/search/#mailinglists>

5. manually remove the anchor from the tail of the URL

6. load. 

Years passed before I discovered the /search/ page, probably because I nearly always use Google for tightly focused search results.

Comment 3 Graham Perrin freebsd_committer

2022-01-09 11:55:49 UTC

(In reply to Graham Perrin from comment #0)

> … I have no idea how I got there; …

Ah, probably via <https://www.freebsd.org/projects/newbies/>, the second of the two 'search' links under 'Questions and Support'. 

As a side note, I almost never clicked the 'New to FreeBSD?' button, at the home page, because I used PC-BSD and TrueOS (and so, largely avoided the FreeBSD site) for years before I switched to installing FreeBSD. I never thought of myself as new. 

Back on topic: I reckon, there should be an unmistakable link from the home page, to the search page.

Comment 4 Wolfram Schneider freebsd_committer

2023-01-09 19:55:48 UTC

The page https://www.freebsd.org/search/ should be splitted into two parts, 1) By the FreeBSD.org web site and 2) external search services.

I don't think we need a search form for Manual Page or Ports here, that's confusing. Just a link to the search service.