Sad news: Google removed its Discussion Search
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free skin care · Fri Jan 24, 2014 11:12 am

I used to use this feature all the time to get the scoop on products, books, places, etc. It was a pretty cool feature. I discussed it in a thread several months ago (see this link): http://www.essentialdayspa.com/forum/viewthread.php?p=6514255

I can still access it, but I have to go through some hoops to do that.

I hope that it comes back soon because a little part of me is mourning.

free skin care · Fri Jan 24, 2014 1:02 pm

It is annoying how Google is trying to run our lives. I doubt it will come back. I expect things to get even worse....

This is the URL for the discussion search (in this case the search was for MAKEUP TIPS)

https://www.google.com/search?q=MAKEUP+TIPS&tbm=dsc

...so replace MAKEUP TIPS with whatever topic you need to find a discussion on, separating the words with a +. (You can bookmark the link for easy retrieval, and actually you don't have to type your search phrase in the URL each time, just change the search phrase on the page the link opens to whatever you want.)

If you want just forums, then you need to click on "More" at the end of the search filters to see the menu where "Discussions" used to be and select "Search Tools" at the bottom. That will add a menu at the top right under where "Web" "Images" etc search filter options appear and one of the choices will be "Discussions" with a dropdown menu that has the options "Forums" or "Q&A".

Google's meddling is also why the Inbox on Youtube is so hidden you have to jump several hoops to find it. Brick wall

free skin care · Fri Jan 24, 2014 1:48 pm

Nonie,

I didn't know that you used Google's discussion search feature?

I thought that I was the only one here

On another note, I found EDS through that feature.

free skin care · Fri Jan 24, 2014 3:05 pm

VeronicaM wrote:

Nonie,

I didn't know that you used Google's discussion search feature?

I thought that I was the only one here

On another note, I found EDS through that feature.

Hi VeronicaM

I have never used that feature. I didn't even know it existed until you mentioned it in this thread and then I read about it on another blog and someone provided that link in the comments so I saved it and thought I'd pass it on. As much as I use Google, and have even used the More drop-down menu, I never noticed "Discussions" was one of the choices. Embarassed

On a forum I used to frequent, when the search feature didn't work well, I learned you could use regular Google to search within the forum by typing a string like the one below in the search window:

forum:essentialdayspa.com face+exercises/Nonie aka AD

...and it would show you threads on face exercises in which Nonie had posted in on the EDS forum.

So that is all I knew to use as far as specifically looking for discussions was concerned.

I found EDS by doing a search for "face exercises" which happens to be my all-time favorite topic.

free skin care · Mon Jan 27, 2014 7:31 am

I miss it, used to use it lots. Thanks for the tips everyone, I will start searching that way.

Thu Jan 30, 2014 11:31 am

This suggestion seems to work well:

Quote:

You can preset many search tools/filters by appending parameters to the Search URL.
Searching from https://www.google.com/webhp?tbm=dsc will filter results to Discussions as default.
So it looks like the functionality is still supported.

Edit: Opening Search tools on the ensuing results page allows the Discussions to be further filtered.

so make a shortcut to https://www.google.com/webhp?tbm=dsc

type in your search parameters

and then click on "search tools" to filter by "any time", "sorted by relevance" and "all discussions". Under the latter you can further filter the results by "forums" and "Q&As".

free skin care · Thu Jan 30, 2014 2:06 pm

Thanks havana. Smile

Let's hope that Google doesn't eventually phase out this feature.

For, it can be an amazing tool when researching beauty products.

free skin care · Sat Feb 08, 2014 11:06 am

If Google ever does entirely remove this feature, though, here's a potential substitute:

http://boardreader.com/

Boardreader.com isn't as good as Google's Discussion Search---but it's something.

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