Forum:Cross-site search

The new cross-site search here on central is certainly an improvement, but it also means you can no longer access certain wikis or pages on central by directly by typing their name in the search box (e.g. try typing "w:c:fallout" or "Forum:Index") as you could before. Could this be improved? :) -- Porter21 (talk) 10:18, December 12, 2009 (UTC)
 * I agree with this. Even if you type a existing pagename, it still searches is wiki-wide. Mark (Talk) • (Contribs) 11:08, December 12, 2009 (UTC)
 * Yes, this is annoying, can the "Go" button please make it "go" if it exists (especially as the pages that "go" goes to are often portal pages)? Random Time  15:59, December 12, 2009 (UTC)
 * It is a bother to access special pages by URL bar or Special:SpecialPages.--AB 02:29, December 15, 2009 (UTC)


 * Are you aware that Special:Search provides a checkbox to limit the scope to "Search Wikia Central Only"? -- najevi 12:14, December 15, 2009 (UTC)


 * Yes, I am. It's still inconvenient (and unintuitive when coming from other Wikia sites) having to use a special page (or first searching, scrolling past the search results, checking the respective box and searching again) instead of simply being able to type the page name in the search box. Plus the interwiki links don't work with "limit to Central" either. -- Porter21 (talk) 12:54, December 15, 2009 (UTC)


 * Ooh! They broke interwiki links toward Central ?
 * This is bad. The system should check for a local page first maybe.
 * Then that show why descriptions pages should go away. — TulipVorlax 06:00, December 16, 2009 (UTC)


 * No, interwiki links towards Central are not broken. Sorry for being unclear in my last post, by "interwiki links" I meant typing interwiki-link-style syntax (e.g. "w:c:fallout") into the search box here at Central. -- Porter21 (talk) 13:08, December 16, 2009 (UTC)


 * Oh, never knew it was possible to do that in the first place. — TulipVorlax 07:47, December 18, 2009 (UTC)


 * Yeah, I realize it's a bit of a fringe feature. Personally I find it very handy to navigate between wikias :) -- Porter21 (talk) 09:32, December 18, 2009 (UTC)

I've found it a little annoying that special pages cannot be accessed via search. What the feature has effectively done is sacrifice usability for Central in favour of better usability for users trying to find wikis. Wjxhuang, the 888th Avatar  {Talk} 11:34, December 18, 2009 (UTC)


 * Two easy remedies:
 * Add a Special:Search link to your personal Monaco-Toolbox definition - that page allows search based on Central only (as well as by namespace)
 * Define a custom WikiPage widget that includes a search input box. If you define it correctly you can have both "Try exact match" and "Search full text" buttons and you can even specify a narrower scope of name spaces for this custom search tool (e.g. forum, user_blog, user_talk, help .. or whatever you think you need most often.) viz.
 * With your customization this may even become more convenient than the default search box. enjoy! -- najevi 13:30, December 18, 2009 (UTC)
 * Won't do. Special:Search is what got a revamp, the box on the left always used Special:Search/yourInput.--AB 16:48, December 18, 2009 (UTC)

Maybe certain prefixes ("w:c:", "Project:", "Special:", ":" as for main space) could get the old  treatment?--AB 16:48, December 18, 2009 (UTC)