Search Query Log

[127.0.0.1]

A log in the admin console which shows... 'search query | @ date | by user'. similiar to the error log. or group it differently by most popular search words. then by clicking on a group it expands that, with more detailed info containing username and dates.

That's just a rough idea.

[Owdy]

Sounds very handy, i could use that

[James Woodcock]

Why would that be handy? just curious?

a bit invasive isnt it?

[Owdy]

Bacause i'm curious

[Cccddd]

figuring out what people look for most in your board could help you decide what sub forums to create.

[morph]

But it takes up more SQL space, meh I guess make it optional.

[James Woodcock]

Yeah ok fair enough knowing what people are searching for fine, but not individually identifiable!

[Owdy]

but not individually identifiable!

Yep, no reason for that.

[Cccddd]

Geez you people are paranoid or something. Why not make posting completely anonymous??

anyways besides if people cant be hidden from admins when online then they shouldnt be allowed to hide their searches. just my opinion...

[James Woodcock]

Posting people know is public.  Tracking searches people might not realise.  Its like displaying all passwords for admins is a naff feature.  Luckily SMF hasnt gone down that road.

[David]

James, everything you do on the internet, every click, every where you go, everything you do is logged multiple times.  Your browser logs it, your ISP logs it, some routers log the packets, the end server then logs it.  Nothing is anonymous on th enet.

[James Woodcock]

Well yes I know that David old bean

but that doesnt mean we should log every darn thing

[Cccddd]

its all logged in the server logs dood. just makes it easier to read if SMF has a pretty web frontend

[[Unknown]]

I see no reason to tie it to the searcher, if implemented at all.  I see no use except "spying."  So why bother?

-[Unknown]

[Cccddd]

figuring out what people look for most in your board could help you decide what sub forums to create.

[[Unknown]]

I see no reason the statistics cannot be *anonymous*.

-[Unknown]

[127.0.0.1]

In retrospect I do think this would be intrusive if user names were included.  However, I still think showing search queries alone would be a nice option to include.

Website trackers show search engine query referrers.

[Cccddd]

since all the information is sent and saved in logs anyways, anyone who wants to find this information can do it anyways. its not like you are adding features here, just formatting something so its easier to get to. just cuz you or i cannot think of any reason to use it right this moment, someone else might find it useful to know who is searching for what. especially if you have a malicious user who is running multiple searches to spam the server, or say if someone posts a redundant post, breaking the rules of the forum, and says "But i ran a search". Then you could lookup the searches at see if that person ran a search or not, and if so, what exactly their search was without having to rely on their potentially faulty memory.

[[Unknown]]

That's what apache's logs are for.

-[Unknown]

[PlayGroundFor.us]

I would like to see a search log created, although I don't care who searched for it. I just want to know what the users are searching for. It would help me in generating content that would be useful to my users.